Producing a video involves essentially the same processes as producing a feature film. Although video projects tend to be of much smaller scale, the overall process is the same.
The Stages of Video Production
Producing video involves three stages: pre-production (the planning stage), production (shooting) and post-production (editing of the footage).
Storyboarding is a part of the pre-production, or planning, stage. Storyboarding is a process of breaking down the script into shots, and sketching what each shot would look like. It gives an indication of how the final video will look, and becomes a reference to plan how to execute each shot and also helps inform the editing stage.
The Importance of Storyboarding
Although not all projects require a storyboard, storyboarding is a great process to go through because it helps inform how the production and post-production phases will be undertaken. It helps you to “measure twice, cut once”. Making decisions during this stage is a lot cheaper than making decisions after the footage has been shot and edited. Storyboarding is akin to prototyping: it involves putting ideas on paper in a relatively quick way, that allows you to see what the final product will look like.
A storyboard doesn’t have to be elaborate or detailed, however it does depend on the project. For example, if planning a highly technical animation the storyboard will need to be specific and detailed, because creating animations frame-by-frame takes a lot of time and you want to be sure that animation time is spent in the most efficient way possible. By having a comprehensive storyboard developed and approved, this helps the director and animators plan each frame of the animation before undertaking the work itself. Plus, making changes to a storyboard is a heck of a lot quicker than making changes further down the line.
Here’s an example of a storyboard we developed for a video we produced which was a mix of hand-drawn animation and live action video.
For more information about the stages of production, here’s our animation that covers the process.
Free download: storyboard template
If you’d like to create a storyboard for your project, you can download our free Storyboard Template. It’s a PDF document so can be edited in Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop, or you can simply print it out and draw your storyboard in.
