Storyboarding is drawing the movie you want to film after writing the film you want to shoot. Bascially, you take each scene,and break it down into frames, and then direct the camera through angles, and movements on the page. A film director should have the look, feel and taste of the film he (or she) wants to make in his head before they even roll camera. Storyboards are how you translate that information from your brain to the cast and crew. (mostly your Director of Photography.)

How you storyboard is completely up to you. I've seen some directors (with high budget films) who create graphic novels for their scripts, and I've seen some directors who draw squares on typing paper and use stick figures to get their point across. So long as the concept is delivered, it doesn't really matter which medium you use.

Let's say you're making a b & w film noir flick: You do a scene by scene breakdown listing cast, crew and props you may need for each scene. You start by drawing squares on a piece of paper. These are your film frames. Now, let's agree that you want to show the bad guy smoking in a close up. So you draw an oval, with eyes, nose mouth, and a stick in the mouth with smoke lines wavign off the tip. If you want the light to hit the lower 1/3 of the face, shade in the upper portion. I draw a triangle ^, like a less than or greater than sign, to show which direction I want the main light to flow.

Underneath the square, I write the scene number, and any notes to myself as a reminder, both for shooting, and editing.

For every scene breakdown, you should create a shot list. A shot list is a detailed description of each shot you want to include in the scene. Your storyboards should correspond, and even expand on the shot list. If you have 30 scenes in a movie, and 20 shots per scene, then you can expect to have at least 60 different storyboards, or more. Usually more! Be as detailed and as creative as possible in this process.

Now, while you're shooting, you will have a step by step visual guide to follow for your film. Set your camera, set your lights, add your actors and scream action! You're making magic.

While shooting, when you call cut, make sure the script supervisor is taking detailed notes for each shot, specifically if you want to use a particular take.

This will help the editor assemble the cut once you begin editing. Again, storyboards can help the editor by giving them a visual element to follow along while cutting your story together.

Storyboarding can be a fun, but detailed process. It also will allow you to shoot the film in your head before you spend one cent on stock, actors or anything, which can end up saving you time, money and effort when you do roll camera!