Vertical video storyboard template: Reels, TikTok and Shorts

A thirty-second video feels too small to plan. Until you're on location, phone in hand, light changing, and you realise you don't know which shot comes after the one you just recorded.

A storyboard saves you that moment: a strip of panels, one per shot, saying what is seen, what is said and how long it lasts. It doesn't have to be pretty. It has to fit on one screen and answer the question "what do I shoot next?".

This template has six panels in vertical 9:16 —the format of Reels, TikTok and Shorts— and, underneath, the same storyboard already filled in with a real example: a restaurant reel.

What goes in each panel

Each panel has a box for the shot and four lines below it:

• On screen. What is in the frame, described the way you'd tell the person filming: "hands stirring the base", not "process detail shot".
• Voice. The voiceover, word for word. If there's no voice, write that too: "no voice, just the room" is a decision, not a gap.
• Text overlay. What can be read even with the sound off, which is how many people watch at first.
• Length. In seconds. It's the line people forget most and the one that prevents the most problems.

In the shot box you can draw (stick figures are fine), paste a photo taken on location or a screenshot from a reference video. What matters is that anyone looking at the panel understands the framing without asking you.

The maths to do before you shoot

At a normal pace people say about two and a half words per second. So a six-second shot fits around fifteen words of voiceover, and a thirty-second video between sixty and seventy-five in total.

Add up the length column and read the voice lines out loud with a timer. If it doesn't fit, don't talk faster: cut an idea. It's the easiest cut to make now and the most expensive one to make in the edit.

The example: Sunday rice

The second row of the file is a thirty-second reel for a restaurant that only serves its rice dish on Sundays. Here's how each panel was decided:

1. Hook, 0-3 s. The rice arriving at the table, seen from above, with the crackle of the crust. It opens with the result because that's what makes someone stay. The voice says "the rice that sells out before two" and the text, "Sundays only".
2. Context, 3-8 s. The cook lighting the fire at nine in the morning. One concrete detail, the time, tells the effort better than any adjective.
3. Step 1, 8-14 s. Hands on the base. "Forty minutes" on screen.
4. Step 2, 14-20 s. The stock going in. Close-up, live sound.
5. Payoff, 20-26 s. A full table. No voice on purpose: the noise of the room says more.
6. Close, 26-30 s. The restaurant door and a request with a date: "book before Thursday". A call to action with a deadline lands better than "follow us".

Notice there are only four lines of voiceover in the whole video. Image and sound tell the rest.

From storyboard to shoot

The storyboard is in the order the video will be watched, but it's almost never shot in that order. Before you go:

• Group panels by location. In the example, the kitchen (panels 2, 3 and 4) is shot in one go, then the dining room and the front door.
• Shoot every shot two or three times, and a couple of seconds longer than the panel says. In the edit you can always trim; you can't invent footage.
• Leave room at the edges. The caption and the app's buttons sit at the bottom and on the right. Nothing important should be there.

Then, the edit

Once the shots are recorded, the storyboard becomes your edit list: panel one, panel two… In the Polimake desktop app's free video editor you can find each take by describing it ("stock boiling", "restaurant door") instead of scrubbing through clips one by one, and export vertical video without a watermark.

The template file is an .excalidraw, an open format: edit it in the Polimake desktop app's design canvas or, without installing anything, at excalidraw.com, which is free and needs no account.

If the video is for a client

At an agency, the storyboard has a second job: it's what the client signs off before the shoot. Six panels take two minutes to review, and a "not this" on a sketch costs far less than on an edited video.

Two habits that help: put the client's name and the version in the file title, and note next to each panel whether it shows product, price or any claim someone on their team needs to check. We go into more detail in how to organise content approval with clients.

If what you need is the video's text second by second, start with the Reels and TikTok script template; the storyboard is the next step.

Frequently asked questions

What is a storyboard?

It's a sequence of panels that shows, shot by shot, what a video will look like before it's filmed: what is seen at each moment, what is said, what text appears and how long it lasts. It's used to plan the shoot and to make sure everyone involved pictures the same video.

How many panels does a 30-second Reel or TikTok need?

Five to eight is usually enough, with shots of three to six seconds. The template has six: hook, context, two steps, payoff and close. If a shot runs longer than six or seven seconds, it's usually better split in two.

Do you need to be able to draw to make a storyboard?

No. Stick figures, a phone photo taken on location or a screenshot from another video work just as well. What matters is that the framing is clear and the text, voice and length lines are complete.

What's the difference between a script and a storyboard?

The script is the video's text: what is said and what happens, written down. The storyboard turns it into images, shot by shot, with lengths. For a short video they're often done together, but if you have to pick one, the script comes first.

How do you open an .excalidraw file?

With Excalidraw, an open-source drawing tool. You can open it free and without an account at excalidraw.com, using the open file option, or in the Polimake desktop app's design canvas. The format is open, so the document stays yours.