How to storyboard a vertical scene

Updated September 13, 2026 · 6 min read

Storyboard a vertical scene before you direct it: sketch the beats as a shot list so the scene plays in 9:16 instead of a cropped 16:9. Vertical framing changes everything — faces carry more, backgrounds carry less, and the frame stacks instead of spreads. This guide walks a worked scene through the Scene Planner: pick the five shots, order them, hold the last one. Takes about twenty minutes.

Time to first board: ~20 min
Difficulty: Intermediate
You need: A scene in mind
Studio surface: Scene Planner

The penthouse terrace set in 9:16 — skyline below, two chairs facing each other, empty and waiting for blocking. — A vertical scene is planned shot by shot — here’s the set before anyone sits down.

Understand what 9:16 changes about a shot
A vertical frame doesn’t show a room — it shows a person in a sliver of room. Faces and hands do the storytelling; wide establishing shots mostly read as wallpaper. If your scene depends on a vista, 9:16 is the wrong canvas — stack the story vertically instead: skyline behind shoulders, face above hands.
The practical rule: every shot should have one clear subject. Two people arguing fit fine if you stack them — foreground face, background silhouette — but three people across a frame won’t read.
Same scene, restacked: faces and hands, not the room.
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Describe your show
Write the scene’s five shots before opening the planner
Most vertical scenes need five shots, not twelve. The skeleton: one establishing close on whoever wants something, one reverse on what they want, one medium where the tension turns, one close on the reaction, one held shot to end on.
Write them as five lines on paper first — “close on her, close on the ring box, medium both, close on him, hold on her face.” If you can’t name five, the scene isn’t a scene yet; it’s a premise looking for its beats.
Five lines on paper before the planner opens.
Lay the shots into the Scene Planner
Now open the Scene Planner and lay your five shots in order — each becomes a card the Director will stage. The planner is where the list stops being notes: drag a card up and the scene re-orders; the shot sizes and the cast come along with each card.
This is also where weak shots expose themselves. A card that doesn’t change what the viewer knows is a card to delete — in 9:16 every frame is close enough to feel wasted.
Five cards, in order — the Director stages from this.
Order for tension, not geography
Shot order is the scene’s argument. Start on the person who wants something, not the person who has it — the viewer sides with the want. Save the widest shot for the turn: in 9:16, going from close to slightly-less-close is a big enough jump to land as a shift.
And hold the last card longer than feels right. The held shot is where the scene’s meaning settles — the cliffhanger guide calls it the only frame the viewer remembers.
The held card is the frame they remember.
Board the turn as a contrast, not a cut
The moment the scene changes should be visible in the board itself: shot three sits between the two sides of the argument. If your turn is “she finds the letter,” the card before is her face, the card after is the letter — the board shows the turn as a collision of two images.
Check the board as a strip: shots one and five should look like different movies. If the scene ends visually where it started, the turn didn’t turn.
Every finished scene sits on a board this plain.
TRY THIS
Describe your show

Made this way

Two subjects, stacked — a shot built for 9:16.
A held reaction close — the board’s last card.
Blocking follows the board: one clear subject per shot.
The same shot grammar works in ink — close on the evidence.

Generated in Character App · example stills, not a live product demo

Common mistakes

Boarding in 16:9 habits. Wide establishing shots and three-across groupings die in a vertical frame — stack subjects or lose them.
Twelve shots where five would do. A vertical scene is intimate; overcutting an argument reads as anxiety, not pace.
The establishing shot first. Open on the want, not the room — the skyline is a garnish, the face is the meal.
Ending the board on the action. The last card is a held reaction, always — action resolves, a face withholds.

Questions

Do I need to know how to draw to storyboard?

No — a shot list is words, and the Scene Planner turns each line into a staged shot. Five lines of “close on X” is a complete board.

How many shots does a vertical scene need?

Usually five: establishing close, reverse, medium turn, reaction close, held shot. Add shots only when each one changes what the viewer knows.

What’s different about boarding for 9:16 vs 16:9?

Everything vertical: one subject per shot, faces and hands over scenery, subjects stacked instead of spread. A 16:9 board cropped to 9:16 loses its edges — board for the real frame.

Should the last shot always be a held close?

Almost always — the held reaction is where meaning lands. The exceptions are the visual stings: an image (a hand, a door, a screen) that is itself the cliffhanger.

Can I storyboard before I have a Cast?

You can, but the board gets better with faces attached — blocking decisions change when you know who’s on which side of the frame. Lock the Cast first if you can.