If you have ever wondered what the storyboard is and what it is for in this post, we will clear all your doubts. It’s time to do different things, set new goals, and run towards them using audiovisual marketing.
85% of consumers already prefer to watch a video to learn about a particular service or merchandise. There are no more reasons to underestimate the power that a video has in the Digital Marketing strategy.
Want to understand better how this tool works and how it can make your video strategy much more effective?
Table of Contents
What is a Storyboard, and What are its Functions?
It can be said that it is a kind of outline of what is expected of audiovisual content. Thus, with its creation, the goal is to offer a preview of the entire video before its production. In the storyboard, are indicated, for example, camera movements, the composition of scenes, framing, among other aspects.
Initially, the tool was designed to be used to produce movies, animations, series, and games. However, the storyboard has also gained space in advertising and marketing projects.
In practice, it is produced right after the script and before recording or animating a video in motion format. It is important to note that this tool is essential for both capture videos and motions.
#CURIOSIDADE: This tool – which is similar to a comic book – was created in the mid-1930s, when Walt Disney gave life to mickey mouse. In addition to his pioneering role in the entertainment industry, Disney was also responsible for the first hand-drawn feature film in history and the first storyboard.
How Many Types of Storyboards are There?
If you look at the naturalization of a storyboard and how it is done, you can break down several types. For example, you can find storyboards in color and others in black and white. Some are entirely drawn and explained, while others are simple lines.
1. Storyboards to use
The traditional handmade storyboard. It may be better or worse drawn, but its essence remains the same.
2. Thumbnails
It is a concept quite similar to the previous one, although as its name suggests, in miniature. It represents everything in a much smaller size, usually on a single folio.
3. Animated storyboards
These can be animated as standard by actors or performances or even made digitally with specialized programs.
How Do I Use a Storyboard in your Marketing Strategy?
Usually, the storyboard production is carried out by the creative team, but, as it must convey all the details of the strategy, a marketing team can make other contributions.
Focus Storyboard Narrative on the Persona
It is necessary to consider which sequence of actions, perspectives, frameworks, compositions, and other elements of the scene will contribute to the persona’s engagement and experience.
Draw Manually or Use Authoring Tools
His scheme will follow the sequence of the script of the video that has already been prepared. Thus, the next step is to reflect on the entire plot and messages that must be communicated.
After this reflection, it’s time to draw the scenes, determine the writings and lines in each of them. This step can be done in manual sketching or with authoring tools.
What are the Benefits of Using Videos in your Marketing Strategy?
Adding a storyboard to your marketing videos can increase the time for it to complete but decreases the number of content adjustments by determining what needs to be included in each scene.
That is, it is a preventive step that brings benefits to the increase of efficiency in the project’s execution. Consequently, in its alignment with the video marketing strategy, after all, the detailed description can convey some information that until then were not explicit.
How to Create Storyboard: Step By Step Guide
Part 1: Mapping history
The four steps below are closely related, and it is from the reflection of each that the entrepreneur will have the notion of the storyboard and then start assembling it
Set Your Goal And Establish A Timeline
The first thing to do is decide what you will display and your video’s purpose. The answer will set the course of your storyboard and the way you will assemble it.
You can, for example, choose a person to present the product or service. Another idea is to make a storyboard in a commercial style, creating a story that tells from the beginning of the purchase to its delivery to the customer’s home.
Early on, set the chronological order of events, define how many scenes you will have and the number of products you would like to focus on.
If you sell appliances and want to make a demo video of a refrigerator, for example, some possible takes would be: closed refrigerator (scene 1), with the door open in half (scene 2), then it’s interior (scene 3) and then it with a variety of food (scene 4).
Format Of The Video And Environment That Will Be Filmed
Typically, movie or commercial storyboards take place in one, two, or more places. A simple and inexpensive option is to shoot on the company’s premises. It can be in the meeting room, on the company’s façade (where you can see the logo) or in front of the computer.
Think about the possibility of shooting in more than one place. However, for a quick and short video, only one environment can already be engaging.
If you have chosen someone to present what your company offers, think about where it will be filmed.
It can be on a white background or chroma-key (the green one), allowing the insertion of animations. However, all this generates a cost, and you will probably need specialized people who know how to create animations and insert them into the video.
In the case of video products, you need to decide the format in which you want to display them: whether you will mount a flash animation or if you will have images of products passing on the screen. You can merge ideas; for example, someone presents the product, and the photos appear next to it
Editing Tools
Production requires some video editing programs from the most professional, such as Adobe Premiere and Final CUT, to the simplest and most homemade, such as Movie Maker (for Windows) and iMovie (for Mac). Everything will depend on your degree of intimacy with the tools or the money available to hire professionals
Budget
When defining the number of scenes, timeline, and video format, we must consider the budget we have to invest in production and the tools required.
If the budget is short, the best option may be to choose a company representative (owner or commercial manager) and film it counting the product’s differential in a passionate speech.
The production will depend a lot on the interlocutor, who will need to have dynamics and fluidity to speak in front of the camera.
Communication
This part is essential and essential; it is with her that you capture your audience’s interest. Some productions have no lines, only some sound in the background, and use calls and texts in the video itself. This format is set to promo or promotional and usually displays the product’s value next to the image. In productions that have a presenter, it is necessary to analyze the type of language.
Part 2: Designing the Storyboard
Defining The Storyboard Template
Now that you have an idea of what it takes to assemble a storyboard, stay tuned for how you will draw or produce yours.
Cardboard divided in pencil into empty frames, the same size, is already a beginning. The important thing is to pass on the main idea in a way that is understood by everyone.
Other options are Adobe Illustrator, storyboardthat.com, Microsoft PowerPoint, Amazon’s Storyteller, or InDesign to create a storyboard template in a vertical or horizontal format.
Sketching The Script
Bring the scenes to life by drawing some sketches. Start by making a draft, and at the same time you create, see if you can establish a chronological order so that the main idea is being transmitted.
As you sketch each scene by erasing and drawing (as many times as necessary), pay attention to the following details:
Camera Angle: high or low varies and will depend on whether the caller is standing or sitting.
Type Of Outlet: wide, close-ups, under shoulders, moving. Video for social networks can be made with the person holding the camera and walking around the company.
Lighting: Test and see if the environment is not too dark or light. Enclosed places are probably going to need some artificial light. Don’t film against the sun, because your video will be dark.
Adding Descriptions: In each scene, always enter a description of what is happening. Enter the duration of each step. Number the scenes, so it’s easy to understand when discussing the storyboard with others.
Ending: Time To Review: When it is over, you should share it with others (it’s always essential over a look) and review each step. Other people’s opinions and understanding will guide you and help you perceive your story, so you can observe if it has a meaning and if it passes on the message you want.
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Animation, Film Storyboard Templates
The storyboard for a film or animation translates the script into a visual language where the director and crew can discuss, edit and develop the story. The animation/movie storyboard can be done simply with sketches, or it can be elaborately done. Captions are used to explain what is occurring in the frame. Arrows are used to describe camera movements. These storyboards save the studio time and money in that by careful storyboarding one can eliminate costly mistakes ahead of time.
Blank Animation, Film Storyboard Templates
Whereas the standard animation/film storyboard template will have areas to make notations for camera movement, date, or transitions, the blank storyboard will have only frames, without special areas for making notation. These are useful when first starting your storyboard and organizing your ideas. After you have a good idea regarding your board, you can then download a standard animation/film storyboard template for that finished, polished professional look.
Digital Photo Storyboard Templates
Digital storyboards are used to create digital stories. Digital storytelling combines the ancient art of telling a tale and makes it digital. The digital aspects include images, graphics, music all created via graphic and/or audio editing software. Digital storyboards are great when it comes to organizing your personal life history events, such as weddings, birthdays, showers and anniversaries. Simply collect all of your visuals, and any audio. Next, use the storyboard template to arrange all of your imagery and audio.
Storyboard Templates
Old school video production is expensive and time-consuming, whereas storyboard is both an inexpensive and quick method to produce engaging content for your marketing strategy. To further assist you, we offer a free template that you can use to kickstart your campaign.
Storyboard Templates for Kids
Kids love to create stories and makeup adventures. Storyboards for kids are fun and visually stimulating. Kids can learn about making movies, television shows, comic books, or plays using storyboards, and will have hours of fun doing it. Storyboard templates for kids are inviting, colorful, and can have many fun and exciting themes.
Storyboard Templates for Education
Storyboards have a special place in the classroom. They teach the children how to organize ideas in order to create a constant stream of events, and turn that into a story. Using storyboards, instructors will be able to easily illustrate how to put a story together using these storyboards, and the kids will enjoy learning about the process. Storyboards used in the classroom are useful in teaching kids how to write stories as well as having fun creating small film projects.
Dialog Storyboard Templates
Some storyboards are not aimed at depicting action or camera movements. Instead, their main purpose is to see how dialogue will look in the scene. In such cases, these storyboards come with ‘bubbles’. These ‘bubbles’ are the exact same thing as you see in comic books. The bubbles can be in various shapes, but they all depict either the characters spoken word, or inner thoughts. By using the dialog storyboard an artist, writer or director can envision if the dialog fits into a scene, or to cut it completely.
Business Presentation Storyboard Templates
It is an absolute must to storyboard your business presentations. A business presentation can make or break a deal, or a promotion. With such high stakes at risk, you cannot afford to have a lazily written presentation with poor direction. Whether this is a presentation for yourself or representation for a client, the Storyboard makes sure your ideas are organized and flow well, in a sensible and easy to understand manner.
Tips For Storyboarding
- First, it is necessary to know the anatomy of animals and humans (of all ages) and how each one moves; it is also essential to study nature’s forms.
- Know the scenario building and perspective.
- Know how to draw necessary objects.
- Know technical terms of cinema such as close, against plongée, American plan, among others.
- Before you start illustrating, determine the main events that will be part of the storyboard.
- There are several tools for making storyboards, the traditional one that is paper and pen, use of software suitable for creating material, image editing programs or others allow to create frames with images.
- Start with sketches, as it will be a draft no need to worry about making them perfect. Depending on the time frame for creating a storyboard and the number of frames, the sketch can be less used.
- When drawing, pay attention to the following items, camera angle, framing, camera movement, actors (character), props, special effects, composition (color palette, lighting.).
- Write down near each frame what happens in the scene and the time of each take.
- Number each frame.
- Adding color is an option, but it can help highlight the idea you want.
- Review the storyboard and see if each scene passes the script’s idea; if not, make the necessary change.
FAQ’s On Storyboarding
The storyboard frames should be 16:9.
The fastest way to make a storyboard is by using a template.
The script is a part of the storyboard according to which the whole process unfolds, while the storyboard is the actual video.
Almost all major industries use storyboards in their marketing strategy.
Conclusion
Video content has a special place in digital marketing, and with its increasing popularity, it is time to think about the best production strategies. Audiovisual production is a time-consuming and thorough process. Therefore, any tool capable of optimizing it is critical. The storyboard does that by allowing you to plan and produce the video more efficiently, ensuring clarity when presenting the proposed idea.
