A storyboard by any other name...

Working on my current machinima feature has made me realize I've been doing previs without knowing that's what it was.

Previs — previsualization — is a moving storyboard, and like traditional storyboards it comes in many forms.

For a presentation I've been developing for this group, I pulled together several versions of the same scene from Anna Fermin's MADE pilot: a written cinematic breakdown I WROTE, FORMATED by Claude and a visual storyboard generated with GPT.

For my own work I use Boords software — essentially a digital cork board, the same way a writer might pin index cards the way David Stem does, just without the tactile element.

Each method has a different cost, a different look, and a different use case — but they all originate from the same place: the creative mind of the writer and creator.

The Coen Brothers are famous for boarding every shot before they touch a camera, the entire film mapped before a single day of principal photography.

A storyboard in any form is a director, crew, or screenwriter seeing the story before anyone else does.

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