Storyboards center around sketches of the action taking place on screen. They may be as rudimentary as stick figures and basic shapes or very detailed, stylized sketches with color to capture the film's visual style. Basic drawing skills ensure that your storyboards have proper perspective, which is important when determining whether a shot is wide or close-up, and it allows you to sketch human figures and subjects in a variety of poses from different angles and distances.
The action typically includes camera direction and general stage direction cut directly from the script. For example, if the script reads, "CUT TO: CU [close-up] of the old toothless man grinning," this action sits directly next t,o or below, the storyboard panel illustrating that very shot, depending on the storyboard layout you choose. It also specifies a type of cut or effect like a jump cut, a jerky transition from one frame to the next, or a dissolve, where one shot fades away as the next fades in at the same time.
Just as action accompanies a storyboard frame, so does dialogue. This gives the reader a sense of how the dialogue will mesh with the visual storytelling. It also helps time the shot or series of shots implied in a frame. For example, a short or series of shots containing four lines of dialogue will be much shorter than one containing 20 lines of dialogue.
Storyboards typically have arrows or some indication of where the camera sits or where it's moving. A set of arrows on the corners of the sketch pointing toward its center typically means the camera zooms in on the subject. An arrow pointing up, or forward, means the camera travels forward, perhaps in a point of view (POV) shot. The script action and camera direction accompanying the shots further explain shots that may not have an arrow or need more detail.