A unique insight into the film production process.
Storyboards to Films
Glass Distortion has created instructive side-by-side comparison videos, which show storyboards alongside finished film sequences, with excerpts from the script.
The result: a unique insight into the production process, where changes, subtle or significant, hint at the kinds of choices made along the way, or simply highlight the different types of concepts each format (script, storyboard, film) is able to suggest and convey.
The Empire Strikes Back‘s storyboard is transformed here into an animatic, which suggests the final sequence stuck pretty close to its original storyboard – certainly in terms of framing:
The Dark Knight‘s camera angles seem to have become even more strictly or conventionally shot/reverse-shot by the final shoot:
No Country For Old Men remains almost unchanged through each stage, making the slight differences in framing feel like meticulous fine-tunings of an already clearly previs’d sequence:
Shot, Drawn & Cut
“There was nothing wasted.” Director Steven Spielberg on how he storyboarded every single scene, from complex action to basic dialogue. He explains that this could then lead to models, animatics, or digital previs. This saved time and money in production on Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). It also served “as a common reference, a template” to help everyone across the “many disciplines [camera, SFX, VFX, etc] that had to be married seamlessly” in Jurassic Park (1993) (via Shot, Drawn & Cut):
The ending of Thelma & Louise (1991), overlaid with its storyboards, and director Ridley Scott talking us through it all (via Shot, Drawn & Cut):
Storyboard artist Harold Michelson and Production Designer Robert Boyle discuss their work with director Alfred Hitchcock pre-visualizing The Birds (1963, via Shot, Drawn & Cut):
More Examples
The tower jump from Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) – storyboard vs final cut:
Tomorrow Never Dies tower jump: storyboard vs final cut.
— The Sting (@TheStingisBack) June 12, 2026
Storyboard sells it as one continuous, rappel down a glass wall.
The film chops it into quick cuts, masking the height, body doubles and two locations, then caps it with a joke: “Next time I’ll take the elevator.” pic.twitter.com/eA2AtAHAEo
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 here, and download the full 192-page screenplay PDF 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
Further Viewing
Thomas Flight outlines lessons that can be taken from director Bong Joon Ho‘s meticulous storyboards for Parasite (2019):
Todd Harris describes how he created the storyboards for the surreal juke joint oner in Sinners (2025):
Director David Fincher presents storyboards for the alternate ending of Se7en (1995):