Storyboards from sound

If you’d like to extend the use of the visual image, storyboards are an excellent tool for organising ideas about a film or written text, and provide a useful narrative planning template.

Having listened to the sound clip in Step 2.6 and translated this into a drawing, you can now draw what you ‘saw’ sequentially, using the storyboard sheet below.

To structure the storyboard you may like to vary your shot types – for example, you could illustrate the full scene in shot 1 by using a long shot, or, if we hear footsteps, you may select a close up on the character’s feet or the character’s ear as they listen.

It’s not necessary to ensure that storyboards are pieces of fine art; stick figures and simple sketches are fine. If you prefer not to draw, you can use actors and take photos instead. These can be inserted into a Word document or Comic Life strip. By adding speech bubbles, storyboards become a great way of working on direct speech or dialogue.

Why do you think children might be enthusiastic about this type of literacy work and respond well to building on it with pieces of extended writing?

Add to the comments below.

Please download our 6 frame storyboard template below, for use in class.