I was recently reviewing a Reddit conversation on r/Storyboarding about storyboarding a 90 minute live action film as a single artist, and it honestly made me stop and think.
The original post came from an experienced storyboard artist. Someone who knows their craft, but mostly from commercials and short projects. They were being asked to storyboard an entire feature film, shot for shot. And the big questions were simple, but heavy.
Is this even realistic?
Does it take months?
Is asking for $20k–$30k actually too low?
And do you really need to board every single dialogue scene?
You can read the full Reddit thread here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Storyboarding/comments/1ovg3by/storyboarding_a_90_minute_live_action_film_as_a/
The short answer: yes, it’s possible, but not the way most people imagine
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One thing almost everyone in the thread agreed on is this:
storyboarding an entire film does not mean drawing every shot.
A lot of newer directors imagine storyboards like a comic book version of the movie. Every angle. Every reverse shot. Every line of dialogue. That sounds nice, but in reality, it’s a fast way to burn time, money, and patience.
Experienced artists and filmmakers in the thread made a strong point. Most standard scenes do not need boards at all.
Dialogue scenes.
People walking into rooms.
Simple coverage.
A competent director and DP can handle those without drawings.
One thing I would like to add, if you are a beginner storyboarder you could use ai sotryboards like our that do script analysis and generate a quick storyboard draft to compare if your manual storyboard has all the scenes it needs. Could be a good anchor point for deciding the level of detail required.
So what should be storyboarded?
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This came up again and again in the discussion.
Storyboards are most valuable when scenes are complex or risky, like:
Stunts and action
CGI or VFX shots
Complicated camera moves
Scenes with animals or special coordination
Big set pieces where many departments overlap
One artist explained they usually work directly with the DP. They pick scenes by priority, do a shot list together, then board only what truly needs visualization. Scene by scene. Block by block.
That approach keeps the workload realistic and actually useful.
That being said, DPs sometimes might not know the best way to stage a complex scene or coordinate tricky camera moves, and offering guidance early can save weeks of confusion and rework.
Beat boards vs full shooting boards
The Ultimate Journey Through Storyboarding From Ideas to Characters scene 1 shot 1 (6)
Another big takeaway was the idea of beat boards.
Instead of thousands of frames, beat boards focus on the key moments of a sequence. The emotional turns. The important visual ideas. The stuff that defines the scene.
That might mean:
One strong frame for a dialogue scene
A few frames to explain geography
Clear staging, not coverage
The detailed shot-reverse-shot decisions can come later, often on set.
This is something many artists know instinctively, but feel pressure to ignore when a client asks for “everything.”
About time, money, and expectations
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One of the most honest parts of the thread was about budgets.
Several professionals pointed out that $20k–$30k for a fully boarded feature is not expensive. If anything, it’s low. Especially if the expectation is high detail or color. (Note, if this budget made you awe, then start looking into automated solutions, because having a professional storyboard artist put together a storyboard is always pricey)
Multiple people said the same thing:
Film boards are usually rough.
Black and white. Loose. Functional.
Color boards are a luxury. Not a requirement.
And if a production insists on color, full coverage, and fast turnaround, that usually means they don’t fully understand the process or the cost.
What this conversation confirms from real production experience
This Reddit thread didn’t just “spark a thought” for me. It confirmed patterns we see constantly at story-boards.ai when filmmakers reach out asking for full feature film boards.
The request is almost always the same: “Can you storyboard the entire movie?”
And the problem underneath is also the same: unclear priorities.
In real productions, storyboards are not about volume. They are mainly about risk reduction. The scenes that cost the most when misunderstood are the ones that deserve boards. Action, VFX, stunts, blocking-heavy moments, complex geography. Not two people talking in a room.
We’ve seen projects move faster and cheaper once teams stop treating storyboards like a comic book version of the script and start using them as a planning tool. When boards are focused, departments align faster, shoots run smoother, revisions drop or reduce, and budgets survive.
The artists in that Reddit thread are right. You can storyboard an entire feature alone. People do it. But most professional productions don’t need that, and many can’t afford the time it consumes.
The real skill isn’t drawing faster.
It’s knowing what not to draw.
That decision-making is where experience shows. And it’s the difference between storyboards that look impressive and storyboards that actually get a film made.
