Storyboarding your five-shot film

So you’ve thought very carefully about a film you’d like to create and now you’ll begin planning your film through the development of a storyboard.

A storyboard is a visual representation of a film. It allows filmmakers to plan and envisage how the finished film will look on screen. It is a series of drawings which shows what the camera will see and highlights how the shots will be framed.

By planning your shots in advance you can help minimise mistakes. You can identify any shots that might not work and take them out before you pick up the camera. A storyboard not only illustrates the director’s vision for his/her film, it is also a useful tool for the camera operator and editor. It helps them understand exactly how shots should be framed and their correct order.

During this course you have developed a knowledge of camera shots, angles and movements and now you can use that knowledge in the creation of a storyboard.

Have a go at completing the 5,4,3,2,1 storyboard template attached in the Downloads section below. Ensure that each frame details the camera’s view and that you consider shot types, camera movement (if used) and camera angles. The more detail you put in here the simpler and easier it will be to create your film.

Throughout the rest of this course we’ll be inviting you to share your work on our Padlet walls. Padlet is a very simple way to share documents; you simply go to the URL provided and double click on the page or drop a document onto the page. You can find out more information about Padlet and how to use it by going to the FutureLearn Padlet page.

Once you have created your storyboard it’s time to share it on our Padlet wall.

You may wish to develop pupils’ understanding further, so we’ve added a Storyboard toolkit in the Downloads section.

We have also attached our Screenwriter’s script template if you wish to add dialogue to your film.

Any storyboarding or scriptwriting activity can easily be adapted for home learning without the need for printing, if students simply draw a storyboard grid on a blank sheet of paper or write their script on lined paper.