What Is a Storyboard in Film?
A storyboard is a sequence of drawn or photographed frames showing what each shot will look like. It answers what is in the frame. A shot list answers how you get it.
Also called: storyboards · boards · shot boards
What is worth boarding
Boarding a whole feature is rare outside animation and large-scale action. Most productions board the parts where a misunderstanding gets expensive: stunts, visual effects, anything on a crane or involving a car, and any sequence where the audience has to keep track of geography.
Two people talking at a table generally does not need a board. A shot list covers it in ten minutes rather than two days.
Boards and shot lists do different jobs
A frame tells the crew what the composition is. A shot list tells them size, lens, movement and running order. Most productions want both, and only want boards for the shots where composition is the hard part.
You do not have to draw
Plenty of directors board with scout photographs, frame grabs from other films, or figures blocked out in a 3D app. A scout photo with two stick figures and an arrow communicates a dolly move perfectly well. The frame is the point, not the draftsmanship.
