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Shotlist & storyboard

Create a storyboard

Beginner4 min readUpdated May 2026

A storyboard shows the shot before you shoot it. In Curtyn, storyboard frames live next to the shots they belong to, so the plan and the picture stay together. This guide covers building a storyboard.

Before you start

A shotlist makes the storyboard more useful, since frames attach to shots. See “Build a shotlist from your script”.

1

Open the Storyboard

Select Storyboard in the project sidebar. It opens as a strip of frames you can add to, sketch on, and reorder.

2

Add a frame

Create a frame for a moment you want to picture. A storyboard doesn't need a frame for every shot, just the ones that are worth seeing before the day.

3

Sketch it or drop in a reference

Draw the frame directly, or drop in a reference image, a still or a grab from another film. Either way it becomes part of the project, so the whole crew is looking at the same picture.

4

Attach a frame to its shot

Link a frame to the shot it belongs to. Now the storyboard and the shotlist read as one plan: the line that says what to shoot, and the frame that shows it.

Tip

On a complex setup, a frame attached to the shot saves more explaining on the day than a paragraph of notes.

5

Reorder and present

Drag frames into the order the scene plays. When the storyboard is ready, walk the director or the crew through it on screen, or export it as a PDF to take to a meeting.

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