How do screenplays and storyboards work?

Before a camera rolls, a film already exists twice: as a script where one page is about one minute, and as a comic strip of every shot. Screenplays use 12-point Courier and fixed margins for headings, action, names and dialogue, so one page runs about one minute.

Read how it works: How do screenplays and storyboards work? · The history of screenplays and storyboards · More boxes on Glassbox

Chapters in this interactive model

1. The screenplay page: Why every script looks the same, and how one page becomes about one minute.
2. Story structure: the beat board: Where the big turns go, and how the tension climbs across a script.
3. From words to pictures: Shot sizes, camera angles and camera moves: turning each line of script into a drawing.
4. Shot lists, coverage and the 180° rule: Film one moment from several set-ups, and never cross the line.
5. The animatic: a film before the film: Play the storyboard in time, with temp sound, then see it in 3D pre-vis.
6. Your turn: board the scene: Pick six shots, time them, and check your board for the classic mistakes.