Storyboards

Definitions

"A storyboard is a graphic organizer in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in the form it is known today, was developed at Walt Disney Productions during the early 1930s, after several years of similar processes being in use at Walt Disney and other animation studios."

"a series of drawings or pictures that show the changes of scenes and actions for a movie, television show, etc."

"a panel or series of panels with sketches depicting changes of action and scene, as for a motion picture or a television show."

"a rough, pictorial outline of the different scenes, camera angles, or perspectives in a movie or interactive sequence, such as a video game."

"a series of sketches or photographs showing the sequence of shots or images planned for a film."

A title sequence is a small story in itself. Although often abstract, It has a beginning and an end. It can prepare viewers, set the tone of the movie or tv show, carry useful information (Game of Thrones) etc.

There's no clear rule how a storyboard should look like. There's a huge range. Next to a sketch or digital composition there can be text or/and symbols/icons to describe the meaning, motion or transition .

Examples

Above a post-production diagrammatic storyboard for Alexander Nevsky, a 1938 film by Sergei Eisentstein, a Russian film director and one of the first theorists of the medium. That storyboard is a timeline in which visual representation of the film components are precisely synchronized into a sequence of “audio-visual correspondences” including film shots, music score, a “diagram of pictorial composition”, and a “diagram of movement.” The “diagram of movement” represents specifically the camera work resulting in on-screen motion. Choreographed very precisely, in fact to a fraction of a musical measure, this “diagram of movement” attests to how essential for the cinematographer was on-screen motion and its meaningful integration with all other elements of his vocabulary