How to Storyboard a Music Video (With Examples)

To storyboard a music video, work to the track, not to a script. Play the song, mark the structure (intro, verse, chorus, drop, bridge, outro) against a running timecode, then board the shots beat by beat so each frame is pinned to a moment in the music. That single habit — timing the boards to bars rather than to dialogue — is what separates a music-video board from a commercial board, and it is where most first attempts go wrong.

Below is the method I use on commissioned music videos, the frame counts to plan against, and what a usable template actually needs in it.

Why a music video board is different from a commercial board

A commercial storyboard follows a script; a music-video storyboard follows the song. A TV commercial is built around a scripted narrative beat sheet, so the boards track scenes and lines. A music video has no dialogue to anchor it — the structure lives in the track itself, in the bar count, the section changes and the hook. The board has to encode timing, not just composition.

That changes three things in practice:

• Shots are pinned to the music, not the page. Every frame carries a timecode or a bar reference, so the editor and director know exactly where in the track a shot lands.
• The chorus repeats, so the visuals have to earn the repeat. A board for a three-chorus song has to show how each chorus escalates — same hook, rising energy — or the video flatlines on the second pass.
• Performance and concept run in parallel. Most videos cut between a performance layer (the artist to camera or on stage) and a concept or narrative layer. The board has to track both and show where they intercut.

The method, step by step

A six-step method that takes a three-minute track from a blank page to a board the director can shoot from.

1. Listen to the track on a loop and map its structure. Write out the sections against a stopwatch: intro 0:00–0:12, verse one 0:12–0:38, chorus 0:38–0:58, and so on to the outro. This timing map is the spine of the whole board.
2. Decide the layers. Settle the performance layer (where and how the artist appears) and the concept layer (the story, world or visual idea that runs alongside). Note which sections belong to which layer, and where they intercut.
3. Set the visual rhythm per section. Verses usually run longer shots; choruses and drops cut faster. Decide the average shot length for each section before you draw a single frame, because that decides the frame count.
4. Board the hook first. The chorus is the part the label, the artist and the audience remember. Board it before anything else, get it signed off, then build the verses to lead into it.
5. Draw the frames against the timing map. One frame per shot, each labelled with its in-point timecode or bar, a one-line action note, and the camera move. Mark intercuts between layers explicitly.
6. Pressure-test against the track. Play the song and read the boards in time. If a section drags or a cut lands off the beat, you will feel it here, on paper, before it costs a shoot day.

How many frames a music video needs

Plan on roughly 40 to 80 frames for a full three-to-four-minute music video, weighted toward the choruses and any high-cut sections. A performance-led video with long takes can come in lower, around 30. A fast-cut, concept-heavy video with frequent intercutting can run past 100.

The variance is mostly about cut frequency. The same logic drives a commercial — the more cuts per second, the more frames you board — and it is worth reading alongside the frame-count guide for commercials if you are pricing a board against an edit.

What a music video storyboard template needs

A music-video template is a standard storyboard grid with one extra column the commercial version does not have: timing. Most generic templates from tools such as Milanote give you a frame box and a notes field. For music videos, add the music reference so the board stays locked to the track.

A usable music-video board has these fields per frame:

• Frame — the drawing itself, in the correct aspect ratio for the final delivery.
• Timecode / bar — where in the track this shot starts.
• Lyric or section cue — the line or musical moment the shot sits under, so the visuals stay synced to the song. This is the field StudioBinder and most professional templates make central.
• Action — one line on what happens in shot.
• Camera — lens, move, angle.
• Layer — performance or concept, and any intercut note.

If you are commissioning rather than drawing, you do not need the template at all — you need a clear brief. The storyboard brief template covers what an artist needs from you before the first frame, and the guide on how to brief a storyboard artist walks through the rest.

Examples from commissioned music videos

The clearest example of timing-led boarding in my own work is the Lexus × Mark Ronson "Make Your Mark" interactive film. It was an interactive music video, so the story branched at the viewer's prompt, and every branch had to read in the same visual language — car, talent and Ibiza-night beats — so the cut between paths felt like one continuous piece. The boards held each branch against the same musical structure rather than treating them as separate films. The full case study is here: Lexus × Mark Ronson.

The same timing discipline carries into brand films that are scored rather than scripted. The Premier League "The Run In" boards and the Coca-Cola × Harry Kane campaign both lean on music-led pacing in their hero cutdowns, where the edit is locked to a track and the boards have to land the beat.

Common mistakes to avoid

Five things that break a music-video board, in rough order of how often they show up.

• Boarding to a script instead of the track. If the frames are not timed to the music, the edit will fight the board on day one.
• Treating every chorus the same. A repeated hook needs rising visual energy, or the second and third choruses feel like reruns.
• Forgetting the intercut map. When performance and concept layers cut together, the board has to show the join. Leave it implied and the edit guesses.
• Over-boarding long takes. A ten-second performance oner is one frame, not five. Boarding it as five wastes budget and misreads the rhythm.
• No aspect-ratio plan. Vertical social cutdowns and the landscape master are different compositions. Decide early which frames need a vertical-safe version.

When to draw it yourself and when to commission

Board it yourself when the video is performance-led, the budget is tight, and you know the track cold. A simple performance video with a handful of setups is well within reach of a director with a template and a clear timing map.

Commission a storyboard artist when the concept is complex, the intercutting is heavy, or you need the boards to win the artist or label sign-off. Concept-led videos with VFX, multiple worlds, or branching structures are where boards earn their fee — they de-risk the shoot and give the label something concrete to approve. That is the work covered on the music video storyboard service page, including bar-timed frames and animatics cut to the track.

If you are weighing the cost, the storyboard cost-per-frame guide and the day-rate vs project-fee guide cover how music-video boards are usually priced.