The two halves: pitch boards vs director boards
The single most important distinction in the trade. Get it wrong and you will do beautiful work for half the money - or ugly work for a client expecting art.
11 minute read · one activity · lesson 3 of 21
Every storyboard job in the world is one of two things, and the book divides the entire profession on this line. Learn to identify which one you have been asked for - before you quote - and you will never be badly paid by accident.
Pitch boards (client-facing)
These exist to win. They go into a room with a client, an agency or a funding body, and their job is to make people say yes. They are sold on wow factor.
The budgets are higher. The finish is higher. You are allowed - encouraged - to over-indulge in the time given to you. Think large advertising campaigns, film-funding art, TV pilot pitches.
The frame count is LOWER than a director board of the same scene: the client cares about the story arc and the concept, not every take.
A 'hero board' is the extreme of this: a single-frame concept image, one snapshot that carries the essence of a whole project.
Director boards (crew-facing, a.k.a. shooting boards)
These exist to build. They come after the money is in, and they are read by the crew: camera, lighting, AD, art department.
Many more frames. Every camera action, usually with arrows for movement. Every shot broken down, sometimes to each take, so the director can count the tempo of angles across a scene.
They must contain everything expected on the shoot day: cast, extras, locations, props, lighting, SFX.
A rougher, sketchier frame is not merely acceptable, it is correct - because the output per day is expected to be higher. The book's own approach here: pencil, plus tone if the scene lives on shadow or a night setting.
The pricing lever this hands you
This distinction is a negotiating tool, and it is the one most beginners never realise they hold. When a client's time and budget cannot buy pitch-level art, you do not silently work for free at night to deliver it anyway. You say so - and you offer the other tier.
The book's method: define the project's total time and budget FIRST, then divide it. Working backwards from that division tells you what your output must be per day, which tells you what level of finish is honestly deliverable.
“If the time and budget provided by the client is not a suitable schedule for you to achieve the 'pitch' level of art they would ideally require, ask them to lower their expectations or increase the time and budget. If you're not happy for a rate to create 'pitch' art, negotiate a 'director' storyboard.”
- Mitchell James Hughes, Storyboard Art
Board the same scene twice
The most clarifying exercise in this entire course. One scene. Two completely different deliverables.
- Take any 30-second scene - an ad you like, a scene from a film, or something you write in three lines.
- PITCH VERSION: 4 frames. Your best finish. Wow factor. This is going in front of a client who is deciding whether to spend money.
- DIRECTOR VERSION: 12+ frames of the same 30 seconds. Rough pencil. Every camera move arrowed. Every prop and cast member present. This is going to a camera crew at 6am.
- Time both. Write the two timings down.
- Now divide: if a day is 7 working hours, how many pitch frames could you do in a day? How many director frames?
What you should have at the end
Two boards of one scene, and - far more valuable - your first two real output numbers. You will use them on Day 18 to build your rate.
Day 3 in one line
Pitch = fewer frames, higher finish, higher fee, wins money. Director = more frames, rougher finish, builds the film. Identify which you have been asked for before you say a number.
This course is free and stays free. If you want to board in the suite Mitchell James Hughes built for his own work - script, shot list, storyboard, animatic, AI artist - the free tier opens every app with no card.
Start free →