These 8 Techniques Separate AMATEUR vs PRO STORYBOARD ARTISTS
The Shot Size You Choose Helps Dictate The Story
When a director keeps hiring the same storyboard artist over and over, it’s usually not because that artist draws the most gorgeous, hyper‑detailed frames on earth. It’s because that artist speaks the director’s language — shot by shot, frame by frame.
When I’m boarding, I treat shot sizes as my visual vocabulary. Picking an extreme wide shot versus an extreme close‑up isn’t just a “what looks cool?” decision; it’s a storytelling choice that ripples through every department. Costume, production design, camera, lighting, sound — they’re all reading your boards to figure out what the director actually wants.
In the video this article comes from, I walk through eight essential framing techniques every storyboard artist should have on speed dial. Here, I’m expanding that into something you can keep open next to you while you board your own sequences.
If you want to see the original breakdown while I talk through it, start here:
Watch the full video
The Core Idea: Shot Size Is Emotional, Not Just Technical
When I’m boarding a scene, I’m not just asking, “What do we see?” I’m really asking, “How do I want the audience to feel right now, in this exact beat?”
Each shot size:
Communicates a different emotional distance.
Tells the crew what actually matters in the frame.
Guides the viewer’s eye and attention.
Sets up, sustains, or releases tension.
Think of these eight shot sizes like eight different pencils in your kit. The more intentionally you use them, the more confidently you can translate a director’s ideas into a visual plan that everyone else can execute without guesswork.
Prefer a downloadable PDF? Get it here.
