Drawing a Storyboard on a Screenplay Page

It's probably best to keep your drawings very simple, unless you are a talented artist. Remember, your script is there to describe the scene -- the drawings only need to show:

1. How close the framing is.
2. What angle the camera is shooting from.
3. How many shots there are.

Arrows are useful to show movement within the frame, and arrows outside the frame can show camera movement. You can use more than one drawing for a complicated shot, but there should be only one number for that shot.

This sample storyboard page (courtesy Heather Glumac) numbers the shots correctly using the scene number followed by a letter. It makes good use of close shots to show details and build suspense.

But it may not have enough shots to convey what is happening in the script, and the cutting pace will be quite slow. More shots could be fit on the page if the drawings were the correct 16:9 aspect ratio rather than square. The drawings could also be smaller, with less unnecessary detail.

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