Let’s quickly get the obvious part out of the way: the main purpose of a storyboard is to help tell the story and at the same time become a planning tool for all crafts involved – from writing, directing, acting, producing, post production to budget concerns and of course client demands. It’s often the first moment when a spoken idea or a text turns into something visual. And unlike mood boards (wich are important) it gives a representation of timing, rhythm and flow. When I started doing this as a job, I largely underestimated how many people and departments are looking at a storyboard.

But is it really nothing more than a bunch of images that you can look at? Are you paying for a pile of JPGs?

Over the course of my career I realized that creating those images is a quite narrow definition of my job. From a broader perspective my job is to involve myself into someone else’s vision and help to bring it to fruition. Having a pile of JPGs at the end is a part of it. But what you actually are buying is a structuring, exploring, evaluating and planning thought process which results in the thing you need most: decisions.

As long as everything is „somehow“ this and looks „somewhat similar“ to that, you are operating in the mud. A creative, necessary mud – but still a mud. A storyboard is one possible tool to eliminate a very expensive and time consuming word, and that word is „maybe“.

Often enough a director has answered that question. But when I ask it and a director hates me for it, we are still surrounded by maybe-mud. It’s a natural state of any creative project and the best ideas come from it. But you can’t stay there forever. At this stage, I might draw a few frames. But more likely than that I’ll begin asking questions. A lot of questions. My drawing skills are not needed right away. Instead I have to be a sparring partner willing to dive into the horrifyingly unclear parts of the story. If I just wait with a blank face to be told what to draw, you should not hire me.

This aims at several good outcomes. We (hopefully) manage to come up with answers to holes in the plot or idea. Developing ideas works best not when you look at your ideas, but when you have someone react to them who understands where you want to go and is familiar with the format.

Also we create a first proof of concept – if two people agree on a way to do it, it might have a chance to actually work. Besides that I learn everything I can to bring myself in position to make the storyboarding doable. And, maybe most importantly, we try to fix problems early to save everyone the trouble later, when time, money and patience run out. Yes, it’s one of these investments that most regret not having made. If you want to know what making a story will cost, you have to know the story. A feedback I still often get is „we should have done this earlier“ – and I always have to agree. So strangely enough, a huge part of storyboarding has nothing to do with drawing.

Don’t get me wrong, there is great writing without much „maybes“ and there are concepts that are crystal clear. But that leads to the next aspect. If it is clear to people who make movies and commercials for a living – is it also clear to a client? In other words: do you get a job-go for a text or reference clips, even really good ones? If not, you don’t necessarily need a better concept – you need a better way to explain it. At a certain point a client might not be in the mood for another mood board. And showing a presentation with charts what your movie MIGHT look like might not work in your pitch.

Next up, once you have a storyboard in your presentation, you automatically delivered something that seems widely overlooked. Something that goes beyond a mutual understanding of the movie itself – but what your client might need to make a choice. The client saw the movie in a show-don’t-tell format as you hoped, but he saw something on top. He saw effort and engagement on your side. You have just proven yourself to be a partner that not only has the right idea but can handle it and did so in advance. You didn’t hide behind vague excuses. You thought it through to the end and gave your client something so defined that he can actually grasp what he is making a choice about. If a commercial is helping a client to sell a product, a storyboard is helping you selling a commercial to your client.

One peculiar insight is that a good storyboard often shows less. Not on the level of story and solved problems. But visual details. Why is that helpful? Because if you have to make decisions, you have to make the important ones first. If your meeting is meant to discuss if the concept solves the clients problem, you don’t want to end up discussing the hair color of the waitress in the background of a particular scene. Making a storyboard is constantly making the decision what needs to be in the frame and for what purpose. Sometimes that purpose is „sell this commercial in a presentation“

Which brings us to the next helpful aspect – a storyboard works even if your idea does not. Imagine that you presented your pitch and the client says „thank you“ (if they are polite) “but that’s not what we meant“. With a storyboard it’s much easier to agree on what does not work and what to improve or change. Everyone can point at exactly the part they disagree with. It’s the same „maybe“ you better to get rid of, only this time not about what everyone wants but what they don’t want. It’s the best possible conversation you can have in a situation like that.

It’s still about being involved in someone else’s vision. Not only do you have to sell that vision to a client, but you have to share it with everyone bringing it into being. So they can actually do their magic (or whatever you hired them for). Not only do you plan shots, action, camera specs, VFX and so on, but you have to get everyone on the same page. If I tell you a shot, it looks different in everybodys head. If we can actually look at it, it becomes a working blueprint and tasks get done. If there is a mistake, people from their specific point of view can quickly spot them where the storyboard artist and the director couldn’t and everything becomes much less bumpy. And in advertising, that’s close to optimal.
Even more so, it always surprises me how a storyboard can energize a team, although everybody already knew the story somehow. It seems to act like the „bang“ that get’s sprinters running – when you know what to do you want to get to it.

More than ever, projects are under heavy budget constrains. If there is a less expansive solution, it will be used. Will AI deliver frames with shots in them for free? Yes.

A huge amount of content generation is already fully automated. It’s not about weather we like that, but knowing the difference between engagement und impact. Algorithms prefer engagement – that’s what they are built to do. It may be high, but nothing sticks or has an Impact. The white noise.
Where everyone can produce „the same“ automatically in infinite amounts for free, „more of the same“ is no longer a job. Creating impac is the job. Today authenticity is the most asked for criterium in client briefings. Which brings us back to where we belong: the mud.

Automation does work under one condition: the absence of „maybe“.
As long as we collaborate, it will be messy. As long as we work for clients, not only do we have to make decisions, but we have to work ourselves towards them. Infinite output needs judgement with expertise. That doesn’t come for free. But I don’t think it gets cheaper when we skip all of that. If you get a solution for free you are not the only one to use it. If you have to rework an automated result extensively, you probably pay extra. If you want something other than „the same“, your tool isn’t automation.

My tools are communication, creative association, clustering comlexity and – drawing, so i can quickly look at it all. I am convinced that when messy means „complex, unclear, constantly changing and no fixed criteria for success“, nothing beats human minds in communication. Nothing is more flexible. Nothing generates more ideas on the side while trying to solve a problem. Nothing costs less. Personally, that’s the mud I want to work in – and myself out of it, over and over again. I call that purpose. And I would not want to miss how it transforms me and my skill every time. I don’t strive to just execute. If that sounds valuable to you, I might be of help for your project. See you in the mud!