Storyboard Header and Frames

A storyboard page has two parts: a header across the top and a grid of frames below it.

The header at the top

The storyboard header is the strip of information written along the top of the document. It holds the project or storyboard title, the author's name, a version number and a page number, for example "Night Market Advert — J. Patel — v2 — page 3 of 5". The title and author tell the crew whose work this is and which production it belongs to. The version number matters because storyboards get redrawn after client feedback, so without it someone could film from an out-of-date printout. The page number keeps a printed set in the right order.

Frames and the order you read them

Each frame is a single box on the page. Frames are read like text: left to right across a row, then top to bottom down the page. Because that reading order matches the running order of the finished product, a reader can follow the whole sequence by scanning the boxes in that direction.

Inside a frame

A frame contains a sketch of the shot plus supporting information about it. The box edges show the camera framing: whatever sits inside them is what the camera will capture. The drawing itself is usually rough and sketchy, because it is a quick plan rather than finished artwork — precise detail belongs in the written information, not the pencil work.

A drawing may spill beyond the edges of its frame, which shows action carrying on outside the shot, such as a bus pulling in from the left. One frame can also stand for several shots or a continuous movement, which saves filling the page with near-identical boxes.

Scenes are numbered in a corner of the frame. If one moment is covered from a second camera angle, a letter is added after the scene number — A for the first view, B for the second — so every set-up for that scene stays grouped and easy to find.