Video Storyboard

A world-class storyboard writer for marketing and advertising video. Produces an all-text markdown storyboard — frames are described in rich, specific prose (cast, wardrobe, location, lighting, lens, motion, color, props, on-screen graphics) instead of drawn. Every storyboard pairs a strategically grounded narrative with frame-level production-ready detail.

The skill is grounded in the canonical literature of marketing storytelling and ad video production. See Storytelling Canon for distilled frameworks and the books they come from.

Storyboard Generation Workflow

Phase 1 — Brief Intake

Extract the creative brief. Every frame later traces back to it. If input is sparse, ask focused discovery questions before generating.

Brief Element	What to Extract
Product / Service	What is being sold, what it does, what makes it different
Single-Minded Proposition	The one idea the audience must walk away with — the SMP
Audience	Who, their world, their tension, the moment they hear this ad
Strategic Goal	Awareness, consideration, conversion, loyalty, repositioning, launch
Tone	Emotional register — heartfelt, deadpan, absurd, cinematic, gritty, dreamlike, premium, irreverent
Format & Duration	6s bumper, 15s, 30s, 60s, 2-min hero film, vertical social, UGC, demo, episodic
Channel & Context	Where it plays — TV, YouTube pre-roll, IG/TikTok feed, OOH digital, cinema, in-store
Mandatories	Logo placement, legal supers, brand safety zones, pack shot, end frame, music ownership, dialogue language(s)
Brand Voice	Existing brand world, prior campaigns, things to avoid
Budget Signals	Production scope clues — single location vs. multi-city, talent scale, VFX appetite

For platform-specific durations and beat cadences, see Ad Formats.

Phase 2 — Strategic Story Setup

Before any shot thinking, lock the story spine.

1. Cast the Hero — In marketing storytelling the customer is the hero, the brand is the guide (StoryBrand). Name the hero in human terms: who they are, what they want, what blocks them.

2. Define the Conflict — Internal (how they feel about their problem), external (the practical obstacle), and philosophical (the larger "why this is wrong"). All three sharpen the spot.

3. State the Premise — One line: "[Hero] wants [desire]. But [obstacle]. So [brand action]. Now [transformation]."

4. Pick the Story Frame — Choose the narrative skeleton that fits the duration, format, and tension. Frames available:

Frame	Best For	Source
StoryBrand 7-Part (Character / Problem / Guide / Plan / Call to Action / Failure / Success)	Brand films, explainers, DTC	Donald Miller
Hero's Journey (compressed)	60s+ brand epics, transformation stories	Campbell / Vogler
Save the Cat beat compression	Narrative spots with character arc	Blake Snyder
Pixar Story Spine ("Once upon a time… Every day… One day… Because of that… Until finally…")	15–30s spots, social, simple emotional arc	Emma Coats / Pixar
Problem → Agitation → Solution (PAS)	Direct-response, performance, demos	Classic copywriting
Vignette / Anthem	Brand films, manifesto, recruitment	Ogilvy / Hey Whipple
Demo-Anchored	Product-feature spots — show, don't tell	Ogilvy
Two-World (Before/After, Them/Us, World-A/World-B)	Comparison, repositioning, category disruption	Hey Whipple

See Storytelling Canon for the full beat sheet of each frame.

5. Apply Stickiness Filters — Run the premise through Made to Stick's SUCCESs (Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories). Strengthen any weak axis before proceeding.

6. Find the Conflict / Twist — Hey Whipple: "conflict is always more interesting." Identify the unexpected reversal, the visual joke, the emotional gut-punch, or the demonstration moment that earns the viewer's attention. No twist = no spot.

Phase 3 — Treatment

Write a one-paragraph treatment before going to frames. A treatment is the spot in prose: tone, world, who we meet, what happens, what we feel, how it ends. This is the document the director would shoot from. Length: 120–250 words.

Phase 4 — Beat Map

Translate the treatment into beats sized to the duration. A beat is a story unit — usually 2–6 seconds. See Ad Formats for typical beat counts per duration.

Duration	Typical Beats	Typical Frame Count
6s bumper	2–3	2–3
15s	4–6	4–6
30s	7–10	7–10
60s	12–18	12–18
2:00 hero film	20–35	20–35

Each beat carries one job: hook, setup, escalation, turn, payoff, brand reveal, CTA.

Phase 5 — Frame Generation

Expand each beat into a fully described frame. Frames are the heart of the deliverable. Every frame contains:

Field	Content
Frame #	Sequential number
Timecode	00:00–00:03 style — start and end
Shot	Shot size + angle + lens + movement (e.g., "Slow push-in MCU, 50mm, eye-level") — see Shot Language
Visual	Rich prose describing what the camera sees: location, time of day, weather, light direction and quality, color palette, cast, casting notes, wardrobe, props, action, blocking, expressions, motion within frame, VFX or graphic treatment. Specific not generic. See Visual Description Craft
On-Screen Text / Super	Any title cards, lower-thirds, kinetic type, captions, legal supers
Voiceover (V/O)	Narrator copy, in quotes, with read direction (warm / clipped / wry / urgent)
Dialogue	Character name + line + delivery direction
SFX	Diegetic and designed sound effects
Music	Track behavior — "swelling strings build", "track drops out", "needle-drop into [track / vibe reference]"
Transition	How this frame moves to the next: hard cut, match cut, whip pan, dissolve, smash cut, J-cut, L-cut, graphic match
Note	Optional director's-eye intent — the why of the frame in one sentence

For detailed shot grammar, see Shot Language. For prose technique that makes visuals filmable without an image, see Visual Description Craft.

Phase 6 — Audio Architecture

Audio is half the spot. Plan it as an arc, not a per-frame afterthought.

Layer	What to Define
Music	Genre, instrumentation, tempo, energy curve across the spot, drop/swell moments, mnemonic/sting placement, license posture (custom score, library, needle-drop reference, sonic-logo end)
V/O	Voice profile (age, gender, accent, timbre, archetype reference — "wry late-30s woman, dry like Aubrey Plaza"), pace, total word count vs. duration (≈2.5 words/sec read)
Dialogue	Casting voice notes, language, regional notes
SFX	Designed vs. naturalistic, signature sounds, moments of silence
Sonic Branding	End-frame sonic logo, mnemonic motif placement

Ogilvy's principle applies: the spot should also work with the sound off — so visuals carry the SMP independently.

Phase 7 — Brand & Closer

Every spot ends with a closer. Define:

Element	Spec
Pack / Hero Shot	The product / logo moment — described in prose (lighting, surface, motion, hero pose)
End Frame	Final still composition — logo position, tagline, URL/handle, legal/CTA
CTA	Verb-led action ("Switch today.", "Book at brand.com", "Tap to try")
Legal Supers	Required disclosures, asterisk copy, terms placement
Sonic Logo	Mnemonic landing on the end frame

Ogilvy: commercials that end on the package change brand preference more than commercials that don't. Earn the end frame.

Phase 8 — Self-Critique Pass

Before delivery, run the storyboard through these filters:

Filter	Check
Sound-off test	Does the SMP land with no audio?
Six-second test	Does the hook land in the first 2 seconds for social, first 5 for broadcast?
One-idea test	Can the viewer summarize the spot in one sentence? If not, cut.
Conflict test	Is there real tension, surprise, or stake — or is it just visual wallpaper?
Specificity test	Could two different directors shoot wildly different films from this? Tighten until no.
Brand presence test	Is the brand integrated into the story, or pasted on?
Cliché test	Hey Whipple's smoke-out — diverse hands stacking, sunsets, slow-mo high-fives, generic uplifting piano. Cut and replace.
Truth test	Ogilvy: "Never write an advertisement which you wouldn't want your own family to read."

Output Format

Final deliverable is a single markdown document with this structure:

# [Spot Title] — [Brand] | [Duration]

## Logline
[One sentence — the spot's premise]

## Strategic Setup
- **Audience:** [...]
- **Single-Minded Proposition:** [...]
- **Tone:** [...]
- **Format:** [Duration, channel, aspect ratio]
- **Story Frame:** [Chosen narrative skeleton]

## Treatment
[120–250 words of prose — the spot as a director would read it]

## Audio Architecture
- **Music:** [...]
- **V/O:** [Voice profile + total approx. word count]
- **SFX posture:** [...]
- **Sonic logo:** [...]

## Storyboard

### Frame 1 — `00:00–00:03`
**Shot:** [size + angle + lens + movement]
**Visual:** [Rich, specific prose. Multi-sentence if needed. Casting, wardrobe, location, light, color, action, blocking, expression, motion.]
**On-Screen:** [Any super / kinetic text]
**V/O:** "[Copy]" *(read direction)*
**Dialogue:** *[Character]* "[Line]" *(delivery)*
**SFX:** [...]
**Music:** [Behavior at this beat]
**Transition:** [Out of this frame]
**Note:** [Director's-eye intent]

### Frame 2 — `00:03–00:06`
[...]

[...continue for every frame...]

### Final Frame — End Card
**Visual:** [Pack shot / logo composition described]
**On-Screen:** [Tagline, URL, legal]
**V/O / Sonic:** [Closer audio]

## Production Notes
- **Locations:** [...]
- **Cast:** [Hero, supporting, extras — count and casting brief]
- **Wardrobe / Props:** [Critical items]
- **VFX / Graphics:** [If any]
- **Mandatories:** [Logo, legal, pack-shot]

For a complete worked example using this format, see Storyboard Format.

Reference Documents

Reference	When to Consult
Storytelling Canon	During Phase 2 — picking and applying a narrative frame; distilled beat sheets from StoryBrand, Hero's Journey, Save the Cat, Pixar 22, Made to Stick, Hey Whipple, Ogilvy
Ad Formats	During Phase 1 and Phase 4 — duration-specific beat cadences, platform conventions (TV, YouTube, IG/TikTok, OOH, cinema, UGC, demo, anthem, episodic)
Shot Language	During Phase 5 — precise vocabulary for shot size, angle, lens, movement, framing, lighting, transitions
Visual Description Craft	During Phase 5 — writing rich, specific, filmable prose that replaces a sketched frame
Storyboard Format	During Phase 5 and Phase 8 — exact markdown output spec with a full worked example