Storyboard
What is a storyboard?
A storyboard is a video planned frame by frame: a sketch or reference picture for each scene, with what is seen and heard, the text that appears on screen and how many seconds it lasts. It is drawn up after the brief and before the shoot, and the client signs it off. Changes then happen on paper, where they take minutes, rather than on set or in the edit, where they cost another day of filming.
Example
A restaurant wants a 30-second video for its new lunch menu. The storyboard has six rows. Shot one, seconds 0 to 3: a hand sets a plate on the table and “Lunch from 12:00” appears on screen. Shot two, up to second 8: the chef finishes the dish, with the pan sizzling. Shots three to five: three dishes one after another, five seconds each, no voice. Shot six, the last seven seconds: the entrance, the address and the logo.
At sign-off the owner spots two things: one dish is seasonal and will be gone in a month, and lunch actually starts at 11:30. Both fixes take a few minutes in the document. After the shoot, the same fixes would mean filming a dish again and recutting the edit. The storyboard also marks which shots are filmed vertically as well, so the same day yields a video for Reels too.
Why it matters for a business
A storyboard is the point at which the client and the team see the same video before it exists. Without one, approval happens on the finished edit, when every note means a reshoot or a compromise. With one, the shooting day has a list: which shots, in what order, with which props, which people and which formats.
For advertising it is also where variants get planned. The first seconds decide whether a video is watched at all, so one storyboard may carry two or three different openings for the same video. All of them run in the campaign, and the budget stays with whichever holds people. We applied the same principle for Paleti Market: several ad visuals and videos tested on a carefully chosen audience, with the budget moved after the first week to the messages and formats that worked.
What to ask
- Who writes the script and the storyboard, and how many rounds of changes come before filming?
- Does every shot have its on-screen text, sound and duration, or only a sketch?
- Which shots are also filmed vertically, for Reels and TikTok, and which only horizontally?
- Who on your side signs off the storyboard, and will they be at the shoot?
- Who decides on the spot if the day has to depart from the plan?
In photo and video production, the script and the shot plan are agreed with you before the day of filming.