Storyboard Template PDF: Blank and Filled-In Boards

A storyboard template is a page of empty frames in your film's shape, one per shot, with lines under each for the shot size, the action and the dialogue.

By Zoey Z.Last updated

An ink drawing of a storyboard sheet with six empty frames and a pencil lying across it, on a warm taupe ground

A blank storyboard template PDF shows you the boxes but not what a good board puts in them, so most first boards end up as pictures with no camera, no action and no lines. We went through the public canvases of four films made in Flick and found the boards their makers planned with: 36 titled storyboard boards for Battery Boy, a scene sheet for Happy Souls Alive, and hand-drawn panels for A Proper Introduction and Ulysses. This page lists what goes on a storyboard template, then shows those real filled-in boards frame by frame, and the four steps to fill in your own.

Make your storyboard in FlickSee the filled-in boards

What goes on a blank storyboard template?

A row of frames in your film's aspect ratio, each numbered, with room under it for the shot size and angle, one line of action and the dialogue, so anyone can read the scene without you.
The fields of a storyboard template, with what the real boards on this page wrote in each one
FieldWhat it holdsFrom a real board
Frame numberThe shot's place in the scene1 to 10 on every Battery Boy grid
PictureWhat the camera sees, in the film's frame shapeA 16:9 box, or 2.39:1 for a wide film
Shot size and angleHow big the subject is and where the camera sits"Wide / floor level", "Low angle wide", "ECU / face-off"
ActionOne line on what happens in the shot"A giant cat shadow falls over him."
Dialogue or soundThe line spoken, in quotes"That is... a lot of cat."
Focus or emotionWhat the audience should feel"Curiosity, social pull" on the Happy Souls Alive sheet
Notes for every shotWhat stays the same across the scene"Same late-afternoon lighting and color palette."
  • Download our blank storyboard template PDF: six numbered 16:9 frames on a landscape page, with lines for the shot size and angle, the action and the dialogue under each, and a notes strip for the whole scene.
  • Six frames to a page leave room to write under each one, and ten frames fit a whole short scene on one sheet, as the Battery Boy grids do.
  • Draw the frames in the shape of the finished film, because a square box hides how much space sits beside a character in a 16:9 shot.

What does a filled-in storyboard look like?

A filled-in storyboard is the template with every frame drawn and labelled, in the order the film plays, so the board reads like the scene before a single shot exists.
  • These eight boards come from Battery Boy by Adrien Bodson, from the Summer 2026 Flick Residency, about a toy robot at 1% battery crawling to his charger.
  • Each is a 10-frame grid with a title, and the obstacle boards add a shot size and a spoken line to every frame.
  • The film's public canvas holds 36 titled boards like these, and each of its 15 generated video clips starts from one of them as its first-frame reference.
A 10-frame storyboard grid descending from sunset clouds to a suburban street and one attic window, from Battery Boy

Opening Board 1: A Star Over Home

An opening board with no dialogue at all, where ten frames move from above the clouds down to one attic window, so the board sets the place before any character appears.

Adrien Bodson, director of Battery Boy

A 10-frame storyboard grid of a boy playing with a blue remote control truck while a small brass robot watches, from Battery Boy

Opening Board 9: One Minute

Each frame carries a two-word title and one line of action, such as "Bolt races toward the door before the palms meet; Leo turns after it."

Adrien Bodson, director of Battery Boy

A 10-frame storyboard grid of a boy running home and hugging a small brass robot whose screen reads 3%, from Battery Boy

Intro Board 1: The Return

Here the line under each frame is the dialogue alone, from "Playtime is the best time!" to "You're no fun when you're so low," so the turn of the scene reads in ten quotes.

Adrien Bodson, director of Battery Boy

A 10-frame storyboard grid of a boy throwing a brass robot across the floor and picking up a new blue truck, from Battery Boy

Intro Board 2: Thrown Aside

A sound effect gets its own frame, "CLUNK!", because a board of pictures alone loses the beat where the robot hits the floor.

Adrien Bodson, director of Battery Boy

A 10-frame storyboard grid of a brass robot crawling across a wooden floor past a large tabby cat, from Battery Boy

Obstacle Board 1: The Cat Blockade

Every frame names its shot first, "Wide / floor level", "Insert / shadow", "Robot POV", so the camera plan is readable without looking at the pictures.

Adrien Bodson, director of Battery Boy

A 10-frame storyboard grid of a robot vacuum pushing a small brass robot across a wooden floor, from Battery Boy

Obstacle Board 3: Roomba Ram

The board runs one gag from "Wide / warning" to "Resolve / refocus", which is how a single obstacle fits into ten frames with a start, a fight and an exit.

Adrien Bodson, director of Battery Boy

A 10-frame storyboard grid of a brass robot climbing a curtain cord to a window and looking down at a broken toy truck, from Battery Boy

Heart Board 3: The Choice

The longer captions spell out the camera and the emotion together, such as "Low angle: he hauls his child-scale body upward with painful effort."

Adrien Bodson, director of Battery Boy

A 10-frame storyboard grid of a crying boy holding a crushed toy truck and then hugging a brass robot at 100%, from Battery Boy

Final Board 4: Love Comes Back

The last board ends on the robot's battery reading 100%, with a tagline along the bottom, "Some things break. Some hearts bring them back."

Adrien Bodson, director of Battery Boy

Why the boards are not the first frame

A board used as a video reference is a plan to read, not a picture to copy, and the prompt for one Battery Boy scene says so in its opening lines.

The image loaded into the FIRST-FRAME reference slot is not the literal first frame of the video. It is STORYBOARD BOARD A: a multi-panel visual and narrative reference describing the outdoor RC-truck sequence.
Adrien Bodson, director of Battery Boy

What does a one-scene storyboard sheet look like?

A scene sheet puts six numbered shots on one page with an angle, an action and an emotion under each, then adds notes that hold for every shot and a reference for the look.
  • Simay Ezer Pekcan's sheet for Scene 02 of Happy Souls Alive, "The Gathering", follows the tailor into a crowd around a storyteller in six shots.
  • Under the shots, a strip of consistency notes lists what must not change, beside small portraits of the two characters and a style reference for the town.
  • A 14-second clip on the same canvas was prompted to follow "the storyboard and shot progression", with the sheet cited by name.
A storyboard sheet titled Scene 02, The Gathering, with six painted town square shots and notes under each
A painted elderly tailor with a grey bun walks into a crowd gathered around a storyteller in a medieval town square00:14
The scene sheet, then the clip made with it as a referenceSimay Ezer Pekcan, director of Happy Souls Alive · Seedance 2.0 · Reference to video

What does a hand-drawn storyboard look like?

A hand-drawn board keeps just what the shot needs: where the camera sits, how big each figure is and where the light falls, with faces and textures left rough.

A Proper Introduction, in sketch frames

Jaime Yao planned this Flick team film about a tiny knight from a girl's drawing as loose sketch frames made with Nano Banana Pro, then turned each sketch into a finished frame, like the one at the top of this page.

Flat colour sketch of a man at a desk seen from behind, a tiny knight figure walking toward his monitor

The desk

Over the shoulder, with the man as a dark shape and the knight small on the desk.

Jaime Yao, director of A Proper Introduction

Colour sketch of a man drawing in a large sketchbook while a small knight figure stands in the foreground

The sketchbook

A closer shot, so the drawing and the knight share the frame.

Jaime Yao, director of A Proper Introduction

Pencil sketch of a small knight with a tube on his back standing on an open sketchbook beside his own drawing

The page

Plain pencil, as the knight stands on the page he was drawn on.

Jaime Yao, director of A Proper Introduction

Colour sketch of a man by a window holding a small knight toy above an open cardboard box

The box

A medium close shot that keeps the window light behind the man.

Jaime Yao, director of A Proper Introduction

Pencil sketch of a very small knight seen from behind looking up at a tall desk cabinet with drawers

The cabinet

A flat, straight-on frame that makes the cabinet a wall.

Jaime Yao, director of A Proper Introduction

Sketch from above of a small knight on pale wood shading his eyes from the sun under a dark shadow band

The sunlight

Top down, with the shadow's edge drawn exactly where it must fall.

Jaime Yao, director of A Proper Introduction

Colour sketch of a wide wooden floor with a heavy table, an orange ball and a tiny knight far away

The floor

A wide shot where the knight is a speck, to sell the scale.

Jaime Yao, director of A Proper Introduction

Watercolour sketch of a small knight from behind facing a dark toy block castle with an orange ball on top

The castle

The knight from behind, so the audience looks where he looks.

Jaime Yao, director of A Proper Introduction

Ulysses, in pencil

Jaime Yao turned each planned shot of Ulysses, another Flick team film, into a plain pencil sketch with Nano Banana Pro, keeping the framing and dropping the detail.

Pencil sketch inside a drawn frame of a man running across a flat reflective floor under a cloudy sky

The run

A frame line is drawn around the sketch, as on a paper board.

Jaime Yao, director of Ulysses

Pencil sketch over the shoulder of one young man facing another who stands with a hand on his hip

The meeting

An over-the-shoulder shot, blocked with two figures and nothing else.

Jaime Yao, director of Ulysses

Pencil sketch of one man standing with a hand on his hip while another sits against a tall tree trunk

The tree

A wide two-shot that fixes where each man is before any detail.

Jaime Yao, director of Ulysses

Pencil sketch of a young man looking down at an orange held in his hand, the orange in colour

The orange

One prop is coloured, so the eye goes to it first.

Jaime Yao, director of Ulysses

How do you fill in a storyboard template?

Number the shots from your script, draw each frame as simply as it can be read, write the shot size, action and line under it, then check the board in order before you make a single shot.

  1. 1Number the shots

    Break the scene into shots and number them before drawing, as the Battery Boy grids do from 1 to 10, so every frame, note and file can be called by one number.

  2. 2Draw just the layout

    Sketch where the camera sits, how big each figure is and where the light falls, as the A Proper Introduction sketches do, and leave faces and textures rough because they change later anyway.

  3. 3Write under every frame

    Put the shot size and angle first, then one line of action and the dialogue in quotes, so the board still reads to someone who cannot see your drawings clearly.

  4. 4Read the board in order

    Read the frames from first to last and cut any shot that repeats what the one before it already showed, then fix the board rather than the footage.

Make your storyboard in Flick

Questions about storyboard templates

What is a storyboard template?

A storyboard template is a blank page of frames, each in the film's aspect ratio, with numbered boxes and lines under each for the shot size, action and dialogue. You fill it in to plan a scene shot by shot before filming or generating anything.

How many frames should a storyboard template have?

Six frames to a page is the usual layout, because it leaves room to write under each frame. A short scene often fits ten frames on one sheet, which is how the maker of the Flick residency film Battery Boy laid out each of his boards.

What should I write under each storyboard frame?

Write the shot size and camera angle, one line of action in the present tense and any dialogue or sound in quotes. Add the emotion the shot should carry when it matters, and keep notes that apply to every shot in one strip at the bottom of the page.

What aspect ratio should storyboard frames be?

Draw the frames in the shape of the finished film, usually 16:9 for online video and television, or 2.39:1 for a widescreen film. A frame in the wrong shape hides how much space surrounds a character, which is what the board is meant to show.

Do I need to draw well to make a storyboard?

No drawing skill is needed: boxes and stick figures work if they show where the camera sits and how big each figure is. Photos, a 3D blockout or an AI image of each shot can also fill the frames.

What is the difference between a storyboard and a shot list?

A shot list is a written table with one row per shot: its size, angle, movement and action. A storyboard draws each of those shots as a frame, so it shows what a shot list cannot, such as how big a figure is and what stands in front of what.

Can I make a storyboard with AI?

Yes. An image model can draw each frame from a one-line description and a character reference, and in Flick each frame sits on a canvas in story order, where it can become the start of the shot it plans.

More on planning a film in Flick

See all

Films in this collection

Fill in the board, then shoot it

Put one frame per shot on a Flick canvas, in story order, and turn each frame into the shot it plans.

Make your storyboard in Flick

Try for free, no credit card required.

Ask AI about this page:ChatGPTPerplexityClaude