That said, one of the jobs of a storyboarder is to take the script and improve on it by adding visuals. You must know the full arc of the story before you get started.
While you can draw your own boards, there are many free templates online that you can print out to start sketching immediately.
Anytime you change locations you need to draw in a new the background. Remember, you’re telling the story visually. Try to imagine what you would need to see if this were a movie. If the background doesn’t change between shots, you can leave it blank and focus on the action.
You can also use arrows to indicate camera movements, such as pans or tilts.
You cannot just draw 1-2 boxes and say “alternate shots” for a conversation. Imagine a scene where a mother is mad at her son for breaking a lamp. Showing the whole thing from the sad or scared son is a very different scene from showing the furious mom the whole time, cutting back and forth, or showing the broken lamp.
If the camera isn’t cutting, but lots of things are happening, you can use multiple boxes for one “cut. " Whenever something happens, you need a new box, even if the camera doesn’t move.
Find the most crucial element of the scene, and find a way to draw the audience’s attention to it in each shot, making it bigger, centering it, zooming into it, etc. [2] X Expert Source Travis PageBrand & Product Specialist Expert Interview. 27 June 2019. Gene Wilder wasn’t a storyboarder, but he thought like a visual comedian. In Willy Wonka, the famous intro where he “accidentally” trips, falls, and rolls to raucous applause was drawn up by him as a way to portray Wonka as fun, strange, and hiding behind a comic facade. [3] X Research source
Use the foreground and background to your advantage as well – don’t put every character or thing on the same depth line. Don’t forget about the far, far background either – it is a good place to create depth. Of course, there are plenty of reasons to break this rule, such as creating a perfectly symmetrical shot. Just know why you’re breaking the rule before you do it. [4] X Research source
One of the most famous cuts ever is in 2001: A Space Odyssey, where director Stanley Kubrick cuts from a flying weapon to a satellite in space. In one cut, he bridges the gap between primitive man and future man while implying that little has changed but the setting.
Looking down on a character makes them seem weak, fearful, or powerless. Looking up makes someone seem powerful, confident, and dominant. Extreme angles like very high, very low, or titled shots show confusion, fear, or and off-the-wall experience like a drug trip.
Stick to just 1-2 descriptions for each shot or scene. You’re not writing a novel, you’re writing a guide.
Establishing Shots: Quick shots that illustrate the set, location, or start position of the characters. Full, Medium, Close, Extreme Close: If you’re showing a character, how much are you showing? Full (FS) shows the whole body, Medium (MS) shows waist up, Close (CU) shows shoulders and head, and Extreme Close Up (ECU) shoes only face. Up Shot / Down Shot: Up Shots look up at a character, while Down Shots look down from above. “Worm’s Eye” and “Bird’s Eye” are the extreme versions of each. Over the Shoulder (OTS): One of your most important terms, these shots have one person or thing on the side of the frame, back turned, while looking at another. Very common in conversations between two people. Two-shot: When both characters, usually speaking to each other, are both in the frame at once. When drawing dialogue, two-shots often alternate with OTS shots. POV Shots Are simply when the camera mimics the point of view of a character. [6] X Research source
Tracking is when the camera follows the action without cutting, like following someone as they walk down the street. Use arrows to indicate motion, and multiple frames if needed. Pans are when the camera simply rotates in one direction, often following a character as they move or exposing something near them. Draw an arrow illustrating the camera’s direction. Trucks are when the camera physically moves in or out. Imagine a shot of a TV, then the camera slowly “trucking” back to reveal a family watching the TV in the living room. Use 4 lines, pointing from the center of the screen out to the corners, to show trucking. Rack Focus is when you have a blurry object in the background and a clear one in the foreground, then the focus shifts from one to the other (it can go in reverse, too). Draw a line indicating where the focus starts and where it moves to. [7] X Research source
Fade In/Fade Out: This is simply when the image appears or disappears slowly from a blank screen. For a fade in, draw a triangle pointing left. For a fade out, draw a triangle pointing right. Cross Dissolve: When one image is slowly faded into the next one. To draw it, make two intersecting triangles in the box, starting from all four corners. It is the fade out and fade in drawings superimposed on one another. Wipe: When one image physically moves across the screen, revealing the next shot underneath it. Simply draw a vertical line in the center of the rectangle, and an arrow running through it to indicate which way the first image is moving. [8] X Research source
Foreground (FG): The area close up to the camera. Midground (MG): The center of the frame Background (BG): The are furthest from the camera. Off-screen (O/S): Helpful if there is a noise, dialogue, etc. that the viewers can’t see, or if a character enters or exits the frame completely. Overlay (OL): When one object or image is superimposed on another but both are visible.
Whenever the camera cuts, you must change the scene number to indicate a new shot. If a single scene requires multiple actions, all without changing the camera, they are labeled as panels. If one shot requires three storyboards, you would label each panel as 1/3, 2/3, and 3/3. [9] X Research source
Imagine a long, singular shot, like the beginning of Raging Bull. While there is no cut, you could never contain that shot in just one panel. You’d need to string many panels together with arrows, notes, and dialogue to plan the shot out. The vocab lists above are far from complete – there are hundreds of words, shots, and cues a pro storyboarder uses. To be a professional, you should keep researching professional terms.
