The Importance Of Creating A Storyboard Before Shooting A Video
Once you have decided to invest in a video, whether that be a business trailer, animation or interviews, you can’t just jump into filming. There are several stages of preparation that need to be completed first. Perhaps the most important step is creating a storyboard.
For a video to be successful, it needs to have a purpose and tell a story, but how will you know what the story is unless you sit and think about it?
Storyboarding will give you time to structure your video so that it can effectively tell your story. But there are practical elements to storyboarding, as you will gain an idea of what shots you will need to get and who you might want to include in the video.
All this preparation will work towards a smooth, stress-free shoot when it comes to it.
With over 25 years in the creative industry, Studio Global understands the importance of a storyboard and will work with you to truly understand your narrative so that we can produce a video that speaks to people’s emotions and tells your story honestly.
In this blog, we share the importance of creating a storyboard before shooting a video.
Highlights a structure
No matter what you are trying to achieve with the video, job applications, customers or donations, the point of your video will be to tell a story.
But how will you tell it?
You know that every story has a beginning, middle and end, so you need to fit your narrative into that structure. However, the likelihood is that your story is slightly more complicated than this.
Creating a storyboard will help you string your narrative together, making sure it flows and makes sense.
This will then underpin everything else.
Suggests a shot list
Once you have an idea of the story you want to tell, you will find that you start to get an idea of the shots you want to include in the video.
As you piece together the story and how you are going to visualise it, you will be able to determine which shots will be key to the video. Which ones will be essential to your narrative, and which ones will just help fill the gaps?
A storyboard can be quite visual, especially for such an early planning stage, but this can help you form a strong narrative and ensure the video will flow seamlessly from one point to the next.
Gives Clarity and Direction
Storyboards are a great way to communicate with everyone involved in the project.
As we just said, they can be visual, meaning that everyone can see the vision of what they are trying to create.
You can use it to discuss the type of shots you want with the videography team, or you could use it to demonstrate the scene to those involved in each element of the story.
Working from a storyboard ensures that everyone is on the same page, with unified goals and visions throughout the project, ensuring you keep the video in line with your brand.
Smooth Shooting
A storyboard doesn’t just help the planning process. It will help you have a smooth shoot when you come to it.
Throughout creating a storyboard, you will likely identify several locations you want to include in the video. In doing this, your videography team can take time to go and scout out the locations, planning where they can film within each space. This will save precious time when it comes to film as they will have an idea of where to place the cameras and will also have considered any additional lighting that might be needed.
Storyboarding will often bring to light any potential problems for shooting. Again, this means that you and the team have time to find solutions to each obstacle prior to filming, saving time, energy and money.
The final reason why storyboarding can be so important is because it can help those working on it gain an idea of how much it might cost to complete. A storyboard will allow any videographers to understand more thoroughly what you are looking for so they can give you an idea of timelines for shooting and prices.
