Storyboard worksheet: facts and purpose first
This is a simplified editorial worksheet. Replace placeholders with accepted content. The native skill uses individual shot blocks; this table is not its production format.
| Shot | Record |
|---|---|
| SHOT-001 | Source: Real scene ID and necessary short quote. Purpose: What viewers understand. Picture: Framing, horizontal angle, height, axis side, camera start/end and reason. Start: Relevant position, orientation, possession, and space. Action/end: Continuous action leading to its result. Sound: Exact lines, speaker, visible/offscreen/VO channel, and event order. Timing: Recording interval or labeled text estimate, with separate reaction time where needed. |
| SHOT-002 | Use the same record while inheriting SHOT-001’s actual facts. Declare omission, reordering, or deliberate replay. A camera change does not return a key to its previous owner. |
Check real sources, coverage, readable purpose, action order, possession, and full sound. One primary action can be a continuous chain; a verb count should not remove the scene. Deliberate replay refers to its primary shot, and the event changes state only once.
The native short-drama-storyboard writes purpose, source, start, action, end, sound, duration, and frozen keyframe content under individual shot headings, then fills visual and picture references from the actual frame. A prompt entry is not an existing image; an image’s content and role still need inspection.
How to fill in each column of a shot list
- Shot number. SHOT-001, SHOT-002 in order; on revision, untouched shots keep their numbers.
- Source. Scene ID plus a short quote, so a script change shows which shots to recheck.
- Purpose. One sentence on who does what and why the shot exists: show evidence, hold information back, shift power, catch a reaction. "Opening" gives a reviewer nothing to check.
- Framing and camera. Choose size by where the information lives: a consequence in the gap between two people wants a medium shot; evidence on a knuckle earns an extreme close-up. Write angle and camera height separately, plus the axis side.
- Camera movement. Lock the camera for watching and tension; push in or pull out to change closeness or pressure, pan or tilt to shift attention, and follow only when the movement itself matters. Don't mix locked and moving in one stretch.
- Start, action, end. Start lists positions, facing, hands and props. The action is one visible chain to the end state; for a hand-off, say who touches what and where it lands. The next shot inherits those actual facts while its view can change; declare omissions or replays.
- Dialogue and sound. Exact line, speaker, on or off screen.
- Time estimate. Use the real speaking interval if you have audio; otherwise estimate a range from the text, pace, emotion and breathing, and label it a text estimate, with its basis.
Five decisions from script to shots
- Map the script first. Assign action, dialogue, sound, and required text to shots, or state why something is omitted. Several paragraphs may share a shot, and one paragraph may span several shots.
- Purpose before framing. Define action, audience understanding, experiential position, and readable boundaries before choosing the camera. Space, waiting, and aftermath can have a purpose without a new secret.
- Cut at useful change. Information, attention, relationship, space, or rhythm motivates a cut. Question identical framing and angles, but judge deliberate jump cuts or style by function. Do not cross the axis merely to create variation.
- Change state once. Placing a key, opening a door, or handing something over has a primary shot. Details and reactions do not execute it again. A peak replay can repeat deliberately with the same before/after states rather than adding another occurrence.
- Schedule full sound. Add sequential speech, share time with actions that genuinely overlap, and reserve separate time for dependent actions. Adjust duration, cut pictures under continuous sound, or seek a chosen script revision; do not silently remove words.
Framing progression can move from geography to a working distance and change for detail or consequence. Every cut need not move one scale, and every scene need not start wide and tighten.
A frozen start frame contains only the visible start state: a key picked up during the shot still begins where it was. An optional end frame describes the result without proving the middle action correct. Apply accepted native durations or pacing profiles when present; otherwise plan the scene without guessing universal vendor seconds.
Storyboard script example: one scene in four shots
This preserves the same four-shot rehearsal-room plan. Durations are text estimates for these lines and actions, without recorded timing or an official model duration selected. Check accepted generation durations later; SHOT-004 can split at the clear state after the key returns to her hand.
SC01. INT. REHEARSAL ROOM DOORWAY - NIGHT
A narrow table between them. CEN XIA stands on its left, a brass key on a green loop in her right hand. ZHOU YU sits on the right. An empty chair behind her.
As she speaks, Cen Xia sets the key in the middle of the table and draws her hand back.
CEN XIA: I'm going. You keep the key.
Zhou Yu watches her. He doesn't reach for it.
ZHOU YU: (restrained) I can lock up for you. Telling them the band broke up today is on you.
She reaches for the key, stops just above it, and looks at him.
CEN XIA: Then I'll wait for them.
She takes the key back in her right hand, pulls the chair closer with her left, and sits.
| Shot | Notes |
|---|---|
| SHOT-001 | Source: SC01 "You keep the key"; Purpose: She is leaving; he won't take the key; Picture: Medium two-shot, eye level, locked (one side of the table; she is screen left); Start: Key in her right hand; table center empty; Action/end: She sets the key down and withdraws; key stays, untaken; Sound: Cen Xia (on screen): "I'm going. You keep the key." Over the put-down; Estimate: 6 s: line about 2 s, then the put-down and his stillness |
| SHOT-002 | Source: SC01 "lock up for you"; Purpose: He refuses to announce the break-up; Picture: Medium close-up on Zhou Yu, eye level, locked (same side; eyeline left); Start: Key at table center; Action/end: He finishes the line without touching the key; she hasn't reached again; Sound: Zhou Yu (on screen, restrained as written): "I can lock up for you. Telling them the band broke up today is on you."; Estimate: 10 s: line 6–8 s with pauses, about 2 s after |
| SHOT-003 | Source: SC01 "stops just above it"; Purpose: Leaving becomes an unfinished gesture; Picture: Medium close-up on Cen Xia, eye level, locked (same side; eyeline right; hand and key low in frame); Start: Her hand withdrawn; key at table center; Action/end: She reaches, stops short, looks up at him; hand hovering; Sound: None; hold the pause; Estimate: 6 s: reach about 2 s, hover and look about 4 s |
| SHOT-004 | Source: SC01 "wait for them" and the sit-down; Purpose: She decides to stay; Picture: Medium two-shot, eye level, locked (same side; chair in frame); Start: Hand hovering; left hand empty; Action/end: Line, then key, chair, sits; seated, key in her right hand, nobody else has arrived; Sound: Cen Xia (on screen): "Then I'll wait for them."; Estimate: 10 s: line 2–3 s, key and chair 4–5 s, a beat seated |
- Framing follows what must be read. The opening medium shot gives table, key and distance at once, with no empty establishing wide. SHOT-002 tightens on his refusal, SHOT-003 reverses to her hovering hand in a medium close-up, and SHOT-004 opens back to the two-shot for the chair.
- The axis stays put. All four set-ups stay on one side of the table. Two-shots place Cen Xia left and Zhou Yu right; single-person coverage preserves their rightward and leftward eyelines. An offscreen person has no required place within that picture.
- The key moves twice. Put-down in SHOT-001, pick-up in SHOT-004; in between it sits untouched at table center.
Under the current estimates, the sequential content of the last three shots does not fit eight seconds. Actual delivery still needs recording or rehearsal. Do not cut his line to "tell them yourself" or make her reach before the specified response time. Adjust cuts, preserve continuous sound over pictures, or let the creator revise pauses and story action; these are not the only two possible repairs.
Common storyboard problems and repairs
| Problem | Repair |
|---|---|
| A table merely rewrites the script | Define the viewing position and required understanding; combine redundant coverage without rejecting atmosphere or waiting |
| A cut adds no readable function | Inspect attention, relationship, space, and rhythm; judge chosen style without arbitrary axis changes |
| An action executes again | Record its primary shot and before/after states; mark deliberate replay without cumulative possession changes |
| An object relocates at a cut | Compare geography and possession; offscreen does not mean absent. Supply an action or declared omission |
| Speech is present but its effect unreadable | Use listener reaction, staging, sound, or an object. Add no reaction shot when the effect is already clear |
| A keyframe treated as a whole-shot guarantee | A start frame anchors an image; an end frame does not prove the middle. Inspect generated footage |
| Universal seconds squeeze full dialogue | Schedule sound and action, then apply accepted project choices and generation form |
The two-column records are planning worksheets. Give the native skill the current script and visual facts to write shot blocks rather than treating the article table as its file format.
FAQ
How long should one storyboard shot be?
There is no universal duration. Schedule complete speech, key sound, action, and necessary response. Use recorded speaking intervals when available or label text estimates. Accepted project pacing and model durations guide allocation. Extend, cut pictures under continuous sound, or revise the script when needed. A start image has no universal five-to-eight-second guarantee.
What is the difference between a script and a storyboard?
The script decides who does what, what is said and what the ending means. The storyboard inherits those facts and decides the distance, angle and moment the audience sees and hears them. To change lines, action order or the ending, revise the script, then re-storyboard. Starting from a novel? See novel to short drama.
Can you storyboard without drawing?
Yes. A text shot list covers each shot's start, action, end and sound, and a frozen keyframe prompt describes the first frame for an image tool to render. Drama Skills' storyboard skill outputs only text; images and video come later.
Do it with the skill
In Claude Code, say "use /short-drama-storyboard to write EP001's storyboard and a frozen keyframe for every shot" (in Codex, $short-drama-storyboard). It reads the current 剧集/EP001/剧本.md and visual settings, writes 剧集/EP001/分镜.md, and delivers text only; video prompts, production and review start only when you ask.