Storyboarding (both with and without drawing) and beyond: collection of guides for how to prepare before the cameras roll.
StudioBinder gives a quick overview of different techniques used in pre-production…
… clipped from their full-length Guide to Prepping Your Film:
Saul Bass talks storyboarding Alfred Hitchcock‘s Psycho (1960, via Cinematographers on Cinematography):
According to editor Vashi Nedomansky, “The Andromeda Strain (1971) didn’t have a traditional screenplay. It had the first example of a cinescript: an amplified screenplay that combined text and printed visuals to communicate the intended visual language before production began.” Learn more about it over here, and download the full 192-page screenplay PDF from here:
THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971) didn't have a traditional screenplay. It had the first example of a CINESCRIPT: an amplified screenplay that combined text and printed visuals to communicate the intended visual language before production began. pic.twitter.com/Eh17ZabfwH
— Vashi Nedomansky, ACE (@vashikoo) June 2, 2026
Director Francis Ford Coppola developed what he termed ‘electronic cinema’ – filming his actors against a green screen, then replacing the backgrounds with photos and sketches of the locations…
… and we look at this in more detail in our Film School on Rumble Fish (1983):
Try It Yourself
Not great at drawing? Green screen too complicated? Try using still photographs – and bonus: they can double as an educational practice run before actually filming. Writer-director Michael Mann used photographic storyboards for Heat (1995). Shown here is the moment when Lt. Hanna (Al Pacino) approaches the bank, using the building’s corners for cover, right before the violence erupts:
