How to Plan a Scene Drawing

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Creating storyboards is a nifty way to map out your film and create a clear vision for each scene, and information technology's really like shooting fish in a barrel to get started! We've put together a guide to walk you through everything you need to know about drawing your ain storyboards like a professional. Check out the steps beneath to learn how to create a storyboard template, come upwards with interesting shots, and fill your storyboards in with drawings, dialogue, and whatsoever important notes you lot accept.

1. 1

   Complete your script before getting started on the storyboards. If the script is a template for how a motion picture will sound, a storyboard is the template for how they look. Storyboards are how you visualize how actors, props, backgrounds & camera angles will fit together in any particular scene or sequence of shots. It is your take chances to visually map out the film before expensive cameras, actors, and crews are waiting around on set.^[1]

   • That said, one of the jobs of a storyboarder is to take the script and improve on it past adding visuals. You must know the full arc of the story before you become started.

2. 2

   Draw squares for each scene, leaving room for dialogue underneath. Once yous've written your script and have an idea of what will happen in your picture show, get yourself some paper or poster lath to get together your storyboard on. Like a comic strip, each square represents a shot or scene and the space underneath is where yous fill in the dialogue, notes, or action.

   • While you can draw your own boards, there are many free templates online that you lot can print out to start sketching immediately.

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3. 3

   Establish the location, and any important objects, in your showtime box of the scene. The near of import function of the storyboard is to prove how the shot is going to wait. For your showtime board, you lot'll desire all the essential details so that people reading information technology know where they are. When wondering what to include, e'er ask the question: "is this essential to understanding the scene?"

   • Anytime yous change locations you need to describe in a new the background. Retrieve, 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 alter between shots, y'all tin go out it bare and focus on the activeness.

4. 4

   Use arrows and notes to show any move or changes. For example, if you want one character to punch some other , you don't demand to draw v frames of his fist moving slowly towards a face. Instead, draw one frame of the fist with an pointer indicating the move.

   • You can also use arrows to indicate camera movements, such as pans or tilts.

5. v

   Fill in the scene's dialogue and sounds underneath the drawing. Call back, you're basically making a comic volume version of the movie, so you should add essential sound effects as well. Don't worry if information technology doesn't all fit -- y'all're only giving markers to the director and coiffure about where the sound is matched up, so ellipses ("...") can assistance.

6. half dozen

   Make a new frame for each meaning activity or camera motion. Whenever something happens, it needs information technology'south own box. If yous're drawing out a chat, you'll want to switch from i character to some other as they talk, as well as some shots of both of them at the same time. You demand to depict each one of these shifts individually.

   • You cannot but draw 1-2 boxes and say "alternating shots" for a chat. Imagine a scene where a mother is mad at her son for breaking a lamp. Showing the whole affair from the distressing or scared son is a very different scene from showing the furious mom the whole time, cut back and forth, or showing the broken lamp.

7. 7

   Fill up in essential notes about movement, sounds, or special effects. If a scene requires a little fake blood, then make a note of information technology either using a red pen or jotting it down. If the shot requires a long, continuous take, use arrows to indicate how it all flows together. While at that place are proper terms for all of this, the about important thing is visually telling the story however y'all can. If it makes sense as a guide to filming, put it in.

   • If the camera isn't cutting, simply lots of things are happening, you tin utilise multiple boxes for ane "cut." Whenever something happens, you need a new box, even if the camera doesn't motility.

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1. ane

   Find ways to express the script's themes visually. Don't let the script "speak for itself;" The best movies are thematically related on all levels: writing, storyboarding, sound effects, interim, etc. It is your job to take a good script and turn it into great visuals. Each scene, ask yourself what the goal of the scene is, what'southward the mood or tone, and what the most important props, characters, or moments are. How tin can you draw attending to these things?

   • Find the most crucial element of the scene, and find a way to draw the audience'south attending to it in each shot, making it bigger, centering it, zooming into it, etc.^[ii]
   • Cistron Wilder wasn't a storyboarder, simply he thought similar a visual comedian. In Willy Wonka, the famous intro where he "accidentally" trips, falls, and rolls to raucous applause was drawn upward by him as a fashion to portray Wonka as fun, strange, and hiding backside a comic facade.^[3]

2. two

   Avoid flat, 2-dimensional compositions by always angling the camera. What y'all don't want is a completely apartment floor, where the camera is at a right angle to the basis. Tilting the shot slightly gives your storyboard three dimensions, even if it's only a slight shift. Straight on shots are nigh never as exciting as dynamic, 3D compositions.

   • Use the foreground and background to your reward as well -- don't put every character or affair on the same depth line.
   • Don't forget nearly the far, far background either -- it is a skilful place to create depth.
   • Of grade, in that location are plenty of reasons to break this rule, such as creating a perfectly symmetrical shot. But know why you're breaking the rule before y'all practice it.^[4]

3. three

   Provide motivation to cut the photographic camera instead of but irresolute the shot. Unremarkably this is obvious -- if some other character is speaking, you need to cut to show them. If someone hears a racket behind them, you cutting to the location the dissonance came from. All good cuts must have have a reason to occur-- whether it is the plot, characters, shifting attention, or a purely artistic choice.

   • 1 of the most famous cuts always is in 2001: A Infinite Odyssey, where director Stanley Kubrick cuts from a flight weapon to a satellite in space. In ane cut, he bridges the gap between archaic man and future man while implying that little has inverse only the setting.

4. four

   Use the angle of a photographic camera to indicate graphic symbol relationships and feelings. The angle of your shot tells the audience how to feel about the characters or scenes. You can use this fact in endless ways and should ever ask yourself how your camera bending helps or hinders the bespeak of the shot. For example:

   • Looking down on a character makes them seem weak, fearful, or powerless. Looking up makes someone seem powerful, confident, and ascendant.
   • Extreme angles like very high, very low, or titled shots testify defoliation, fright, or and off-the-wall experience like a drug trip.

5. 5

   Try writing the scene out as prose if you're struggling to get started. Sitting downward and starting the scene, making difficult choices similar camera angle and composition, is hard if you're non sure what management you want to take things still. A adept intermediate step is to write out the scene like a brusk story. What parts pop out every bit important, what details stick out every bit you're writing, and what are the key actions in each shot? You can then edit this mini-script as a do run before cartoon.^[5]

   • Stick to just 1-two descriptions for each shot or scene. Y'all're not writing a novel, you're writing a guide.

6. 6

   Study cinematography. Storyboards are, in essence, practice shots of a flick. Every bit such, they goal is to use the boards to set up actual lights, cameras, and sets to mimic the shot your drew upward. Diving deeply into shot types, color composition, camera angles, and more will greatly increment your toolkit equally a story board creator.

   • Cartoon a storyboard is cheap, merely shooting is not. If working on a larger film, you need to know the rough difficulty of shots to know if they're feasible. Way loftier-up shots may look amazing and fit the motion-picture show, just helicopter filming is very expensive!

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1. one

   Larn the terminology of common photographic camera angles. Don't but rely on drawing to get your point across -- the motion-picture show world is total of vocabulary that makes your task easier and your storyboards more than precise. Writing down camera angles helps camera crews apace run into what shots they must prepare for, and lets you run across if you're getting accidentally repetitive with your shot choice.

   • Establishing Shots: Quick shots that illustrate the set, location, or start position of the characters.
   • Full, Medium, Close, Extreme Shut: If you're showing a character, how much are you showing? Full (FS) shows the whole body, Medium (MS) shows waist upwardly, Close (CU) shows shoulders and head, and Extreme Close Upwards (ECU) shoes only confront.
   • Upwardly Shot / Down Shot: Up Shots look up at a character, while Down Shots look down from above. "Worm's Center" and "Bird'south Eye" are the extreme versions of each.
   • Over the Shoulder (OTS): One of your near important terms, these shots have one person or thing on the side of the frame, back turned, while looking at some other. Very common in conversations between ii people.
   • Two-shot: When both characters, normally speaking to each other, are both in the frame at once. When drawing dialogue, 2-shots often alternate with OTS shots.
   • POV Shots Are only when the photographic camera mimics the point of view of a graphic symbol.^[6]

2. 2

   Familiarize yourself with photographic camera motions to illustrate moving or changing shots. The post-obit listing is by no means exhaustive, but it is a skilful primer on writing coherent storyboards. Whenever you desire to add one, write the actual camera motion on the storyboard.

   • Tracking is when the camera follows the action without cutting, like following someone as they walk downwardly the street. Apply arrows to point motion, and multiple frames if needed.
   • Pans are when the camera just rotates in one direction, oft post-obit a character every bit they motion or exposing something about them. Depict an arrow illustrating the camera's management.
   • Trucks are when the photographic 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 iv lines, pointing from the center of the screen out to the corners, to testify trucking.
   • Rack Focus is when you have a blurry object in the groundwork and a clear ane in the foreground, and then the focus shifts from one to the other (it can go in contrary, too). Describe a line indicating where the focus starts and where it moves to.^[7]

3. 3

   Make advisable notes of transitions betwixt shots. The following cuts are some of the nearly common in film, and must be noted in your storyboard. Each i requires a small drawing aslope the words, visually representing the transition. Start with a small rectangle, representing the screen, correct before the dialogue, so fill up this rectangle in with your transition:

   • Fade In/Fade Out: This is simply when the epitome 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.
   • Cantankerous Dissolve: When one prototype is slowly faded into the side by side one. To describe information technology, brand two intersecting triangles in the box, starting from all four corners. It is the fade out and fade in drawings superimposed on one some other.
   • Wipe: When one paradigm physically moves across the screen, revealing the next shot underneath it. Simply describe a vertical line in the center of the rectangle, and an arrow running through information technology to point which way the beginning image is moving.^[viii]

4. iv

   Remember basic blocking instructions to help fix the scene and actors. The following terms refer to an object's place in the shot. It can likewise help directing move, such as if a graphic symbol walks from the dorsum of the shot to the forepart, which could be expressed as "BG → FG."

   • Foreground (FG): The expanse close up to the photographic camera.
   • Midground (MG): The middle of the frame
   • Groundwork (BG): The are furthest from the camera.
   • Off-screen (O/S): Helpful if there is a noise, dialogue, etc. that the viewers tin't come across, or if a grapheme enters or exits the frame completely.
   • Overlay (OL): When ane object or image is superimposed on another just both are visible.

5. 5

   Characterization your shots correctly and so the residual of the coiffure tin read them. In general, a "scene" on a storyboard actually refers to an unbroken photographic camera motility, non a full event. These scenes are added together to form a "sequence," which is the whole action, conversation, that you're portraying (what you usually call a "scene").

   • Whenever the photographic camera cuts, you must change the scene number to betoken a new shot.
   • If a single scene requires multiple actions, all without changing the camera, they are labeled equally panels. If one shot requires three storyboards, you would label each console as 1/three, ii/three, and 3/3.^[ix]

6. half-dozen

   Aim for clarity, not perfect symbols or vocab, if yous are confused. The ultimate goal of a storyboard is to visually tell the movie, not to laissez passer a vocabulary test. While you should always strive to larn the terminology, you lot want the storyboards to be hands read by directors, cinematographers, and the rest of the coiffure. If yous take an idea but don't know how to express it, use your cartoon skills to convey the point every bit merely as possible. Arrows, notes, and multiple panels should all be used to share your creative ideas when words don't suffice.

   • Imagine a long, singular shot, like the offset of Raging Bull. While there is no cut, you could never contain that shot in only one panel. You'd need to cord many panels together with arrows, notes, and dialogue to programme the shot out.
   • The vocab lists above are far from complete -- there are hundreds of words, shots, and cues a pro storyboarder uses. To exist a professional person, you should keep researching professional terms.

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Add New Question

• Question

  When should I put the storyboard together if I'm making a motion-picture show?

  

  Travis Folio is the Caput of Product at Cinebody. Cinebody is a user-directed video content software company headquartered in Denver, Colorado that empowers brands to create instant, authentic, and engaging video content with anyone on world. He holds a BS in Finance from the University of Colorado, Denver.

  

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  It's important to beginning with your idea first. You can't craft a bully storyboard if you don't know where the story is going. Beginning with the idea and really lock that in earlier y'all do annihilation else. Y'all should accept a sense for what the script will exist, so you tin can consummate that entirely if y'all'd similar. So, get to work on your storyboard. It's really not going to be helpful if you don't empathise the idea and story first, though.

• Question

  How do I communicate "or" in a storyboard?

  

  Create 2 sub-storyboards branching off of the near recent frame. That way, you can play out each upshot then decide which i you similar better WITHOUT having to start all over.

• Question

  Practise storyboards accept to become into particular?

  

  No, they demand not. The goal of a storyboard is mainly to divide the big story line into little scenes in guild to go a clear vision of the whole construction, and aspects such as transitions betwixt scenes, the placement of actors, etc. You tin of form include details if you want to, but during the further development many details will usually be changed anyway.

• Question

  Could I use a storyboard for a music video?

  

  Yes. As a music video is either animation or live action, information technology can and should employ a storyboard.

• Question

  Can I use themes or sounds in my video, over different visuals than the original source?

  

  Generally, you lot tin as long as you have obtained permission from the artists and put the artists' names in the credits. If yous don't obtain this permission, you may want to create an original soundtrack or find public domain sounds to employ.

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• If it helps, you can fold a slice of newspaper into six squares, to frame your scenes hands or download a free storyboard template from the internet.

• Storyboarding software often has a database to help keep track of script info, props, locations, photographic camera directions, etc.

• Keep your audience in mind while you're storyboarding. Think about they want to encounter, not what you want to describe.^[10]

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About This Article

Commodity Summary X

If you want to depict a storyboard to help lay out a scene, describe squares for each scene, leaving room for dialogue underneath. Think of it similar a comic strip, where each foursquare represents a shot or scene. In the first box of the scene, establish the location and any important objects. Try to imagine telling the story visually. As you describe out the action in the scene, brand a new frame for each significant action or camera move, and use arrows and notes to show whatever character move or other changes. Read on for tips on how to use camera angles to help tell the story!

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