Production Planning
Part of Business video scripts and storyboards
Planning a storyboard before booking a shoot
Use a rough storyboard to expose missing footage, unclear claims and visual access needs before committing to a business video shoot.
Before booking a shoot, make a storyboard that shows the essential action, result and spoken point in each scene. Use it to find footage you cannot obtain, claims you cannot illustrate and information the viewer would miss.
Resolve those gaps, or give each one an owner and a workable plan, before committing to the shoot.
Make rough panels
Begin with the approved viewer question and a rough script or interview outline. Number the panels in viewing order. Sketches, reference frames or plain descriptions are sufficient if another person can tell what must appear.
Put the matching dialogue or sound beside each panel, and note text the viewer must read.
Do not polish a frame whose underlying claim remains unapproved. If the script says a customer can complete a task, the panels should show the starting state, necessary action and actual result. An attractive product shot alone may leave the answer missing.
Check what each panel requires
Question / If the answer is uncertain
- Can the subject, location or screen be captured as shown?
- Identify an available alternative or revise the scene.
- Is the action safe and repeatable for this shoot?
- Check it with the responsible production and product people.
- Will a critical label or result be readable?
- Plan a closer frame or a separate graphic.
- Does the image support the spoken claim?
- Narrow the claim, change the image or seek evidence.
- Can a listener understand essential visual information?
- Revise the spoken line or plan description.
An unanswered question is a planning gap. It need not cancel the video, but it should not become an assumption in the booking brief.
Mark what must be captured
Turn each visual requirement into a capture request. Distinguish an indispensable shot from optional coverage.
If a presenter must name a physical control while operating it, specify both the readable control and the hand action. Note when a person, product state or location must match across panels.
Identify material outside the shoot: existing footage, screen captures, documents, graphics and interview statements. Confirm that each asset is available and usable before building a scene around it.
Where an interview response is unknown, describe the information the story needs without scripting words for the interviewee. Plan an alternative if that answer does not emerge.
The storyboard establishes visual needs. A detailed shot list and filming order can follow once those needs are settled. The storyboard does not replace a location check, schedule or budget.
Read it as the viewer will
Move through the panels at a realistic speaking pace. Can the viewer tell what they are looking at, see the action when it is named and understand the result? Does an on-screen condition appear with the claim it limits?
If a panel depends on fixing something in the edit, identify the footage or graphic the edit would require.
Hand the numbered panels, script version and unresolved decisions to the person preparing the shoot. Agree who can approve factual changes. Booking can then use defined capture needs, while location and scheduling work determines how the team will obtain them.
