The Importance of Storyboarding

Storyboarding, setting all your ideas out and getting an idea of what each shot is going to look like. It can be a daunting task and for major feature length films, storyboarding can take a long time. However it is worth it, it can in fact save you time.
So why do we use storyboarding? Here are a few reasons:

It's economic, it can save you time. If you have a well worked out storyboard, it can save time in editing later. If you know exactly how many shots and what the shots are meant to look like, you won't have to add anything last minute.

It prepares you for exactly what your film is going to look like. In that sense it can save you from disappointment. With your storyboard you will know what each scene will look like and it will give you a clear idea of how it's all going to work out. You can practically see your film just by looking at your storyboard.

It's ready. Hitchcock's storyboards were so detailed and so well worked out that they could be read and fully understood. A bit like a cartoon. This made sure his film was ready to be shot.

So before just going right ahead and filming, we had to make sure we had a well worked out storyboard. We did this by jotting down what was in each scene, then we did some sketched storyboards. Finally we went out and took pictures, lots and lots of pictures. Each was a shot that we would take with the camera. Looking at our full storyboard now we can see what our film is going to look like come shooting day.