What is Storyboard?
A storyboard is a sequence of drawn or rendered frames that maps a video shot by shot before production begins, each panel showing framing, action and the line of script or narration that plays underneath. Approving a storyboard settles what the finished piece will contain while changes still cost minutes rather than a reshoot.
- Category
- Creative & Video Production
- Also called
- Storyboarding, Boards, Shot board
- In our work
- AI video production
Storyboards exist because moving pictures are expensive to change and drawings are not. Panel by panel, the board fixes what is in frame, what moves, and where each cut lands, so a disagreement about whether the founder appears before or after the product happens at the sketch stage. Panels usually carry the shot number, the accompanying script line, and a note about camera movement, which lets a reader run the whole video in their head at a desk.
Fidelity varies with what the board is for. A rough board of stick figures is enough to test the order of events in an edit. A board shown to a client approving a budget generally needs to look like the finished thing, which is where photoreal boards took over from illustration. Either way the value is in the approval it produces: an approved board is the reference an editor, an animator or a generation prompt works against, and it settles the argument that would otherwise be settled after the money is spent.
Common questions.
Is a storyboard still needed if the video is AI-generated?
Usually more, not less. Generated shots are produced one at a time, so something has to hold the order, framing and continuity across them. The board is that document, and it is what separates a set of attractive clips from a film that reads as one piece.
Related terms.
Photoreal Board
Creative & Video ProductionA photoreal board is a storyboard frame rendered at finished quality rather than sketched, showing the lighting, casting, wardrobe and product detail the final shot will carry.
Shot List
Creative & Video ProductionA shot list is the numbered inventory of every shot a video needs, recording for each one the subject, framing, camera movement, location and approximate duration.
AVP (Audio-Visual Presentation)
Creative & Video ProductionAn AVP, or audio-visual presentation, is a short branded video that explains an organisation, product or programme to an audience in one sitting.
Wireframe
Product & DeliveryA wireframe is a low-fidelity layout of a screen showing structure, hierarchy and content placement without colour, typography or imagery.
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