Whew! You might be tired already in reading those previous lessons. Well, just take a deep breath first. Anyway if you however came directly to this lesson then welcome. Let’s learn then the principles on how to storyboard.

from digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu

So how to storyboard?

In video production, the first step is writing a video script or screenwriting for movies. After that, you need to make a storyboard.

Before learning how to storyboard, let us first know what a storyboard is. And if you tried reading comics before, it will then be easy for me to explain to you what a storyboard is. A storyboard is a series of illustrations of the shots that will be taken in a video story. As I said, it looks like those drawings in your old fashioned comics.

So now that we already know what a storyboard is, let us then learn how to storyboard:

(By the way before you can make a storyboard, you must first learn the types of shot that is also applied in photography.)

How to Storyboard Step 1 – List down the Shots

Before drawing those comics like scenes, you have to list down first those shots that will be taken in sequence. This will be your basis for the storyboard that you will make.

How to Storyboard Step 2 – Draw the Video Shots into Frames

You can now draw those video shots into frames. You don’t really have to be too detailed here. Just draw the main subjects like the person sitting in a table for example. It can just be a cartoon drawing. The important thins is you can show the general set up of everything. Don’t consume all the time making the drawing so realistic. Remember that this is just the guide for the cameramen and it is not the final output.

How to Storyboard Step 3 – Label the Drawings

After drawing those scenes into boxes, label them. Just put the information which are the type of shot (long shot, medium shot, or close up shot) and the timeframe. Timeframe refers to how long the video clip will be. It can be 10 seconds or so and put that into a format like this: 00:00:10:00. The first set of zeros, denotes hours, then minutes, seconds, and frames respectively.

These steps can be enough for ways on how to storyboard. But for more professional ones, they also include the camera movements in those frames. Well, it’s up to you if you need to do so. In most cases however, leave that as an art for the Director of Photography.

Well, it will never be clear unless you’ll see a real storyboard example so here it is:

from theclayman.com

What I have shown you on how to storyboard here is just the standard steps. Nowadays, there are also other ways on how to do it. Some techniques are drawing those shots into sticky papers and post them in a wall while others draw in cards. In this way, in case you wanted to change the sequence it will be easier to do so. There are also storyboard softwares out there that you can use to make your work easier.

Okay, I hope you know now how to storyboard. Just learn those standard steps and you’ll soon make your own way on how to storyboard. As you can see, the steps on how to storyboard is easy! You’re now on your way to be a storyboard artist.

Okay, this is it! I wanna congratulate you for finishing the lessons about pre-production in video making. I think you’re really ready now to proceed to video shooting.