The board above is Scene 39 from SALT FLATS, the fight between the two brothers on the salt flats, shot on Day 11 of 12. It's the one scene in the film the director, DP, and stunt coordinator decided had to be boarded panel by panel. Every other scene on the production has a shot list and no storyboard.
Deciding what to board
On a 12-day indie there isn't time or money to board every scene, and most dialogue scenes don't benefit. A storyboard earns its place when people outside the camera department need to see the frames to prepare.
Scene 39 qualifies for three reasons. There are doubles in some shots and principals in others, and the stunt coordinator needs to know exactly which. The punch in 39-4 is a cheated angle with no contact, and it only works if the lens and camera height are right. And the scene's last panel is an extreme wide from 85mm, which puts camera and crew a long way from the actors on open ground with nowhere to hide gear.
Other scenes that usually get boarded: anything with a stunt, vehicle work, special or visual effects, and scenes where the geography is hard to follow from words alone.
What each field is for
Panel is the scene number plus a running count (39-1, 39-2). Shot ties the panel to the shot list, so 39A on the board is 39A on the list and on the slate. One shot can have more than one panel when the frame changes during the shot. The wide master 39A covers panels 39-1 and 39-2.
Frame is where the drawing goes. Sketch on a printout, or drop a scanned drawing or scout photo into the cell in the spreadsheet. The typed description stays, because a rough sketch doesn't say "tow truck small, frame right".
Action is what happens in the panel, written in present tense. Dialogue and sound covers the lines and any sound that matters for the shot, like salt dust on the fall or a punch added from a wild track.
Camera gives the lens, angle, and movement. In frame says who's actually on camera, principal or double. Sec. is rough screen time, used to check the panels add up to something like the scene's length.
How to fill in the board
- Start from the scene's breakdown sheet, so every element (doubles, crash mats, the tow truck) is known before you draw.
- Walk the location with the director and DP, or look at scout photos, and agree on the key frames.
- Rough out panels in story order as thumbnails, one per distinct frame.
- Assign shot numbers that match the draft shot list. Merge panels that are the same setup.
- Fill action and dialogue from the script. Keep the lines exact; the script supervisor will check against the board.
- Fill camera notes with the DP: lens, height or angle, movement.
- Review with the stunt coordinator for any panel with physical action, and mark each one as principal or double. On Scene 39 that review moved the body fall in 39-6 to the double and added the no-contact note on 39-4.
- Add screen time estimates and total them. The eight panels here come to 30 seconds, about right for 1 6/8 pages of mostly action.
- Put the version and date in the header and send the board to the DP, 1st AD, script supervisor, stunt coordinator, and the departments in the scene.
- After rehearsal, update anything that changed and reissue with a new version number.
Where boards and sets disagree
The board and the shot list have to agree. If the board has a panel the list doesn't, someone on set will assume it's being shot, so keep the numbers matched and revise both at the same time.
Frames drawn without a lens in mind cause trouble on location. A wide drawn from a spot where the camera would sink into soft salt doesn't help anyone. Put the focal length on every panel and check the position on the scout.
On a stunt scene, the In frame column is a safety field. "Dell" and "Dell's double" mean different people on the call sheet, different makeup, and a different conversation with the stunt coordinator, who should sign off on every panel with action.
Panels read in story order, but the shot list sets the shooting order. 39G, the extreme wide, may well be shot first while the light is right. And rehearsal on Day 10 will change some of this, so plan to issue a v3 after it.
How the board connects
The storyboard sits between the breakdown and the shot list. Its shot numbers match the list, and its "in frame" notes feed the day out of days grid for stunt doubles and the Day 11 call sheet. Boards for stunt scenes are often walked through at the safety meeting before the first take. A storyboard artist on a bigger show handles this full time. On an indie it may be the director with a pencil.
In Storiara
Storiara doesn't generate storyboards. Its Shotlist module organizes shots by scene, each with a name, category, description, and optional image, so you can build the shot list there, upload a board frame to each shot, and keep the board's shot numbers matched to it.