How to Storyboard a Six-Shot AI Video Before You Generate

Anyone about to burn credits on a "short film" can storyboard a six-shot AI video before you generate in five moves: write six still cards, one action each, lock the person or the product, note camera and duration, then generate in shot order. Do it on paper before Runway, Kling, or Grok Imagine turns a paragraph into cousins.

A board is a contract. Each card is a clip you can fail. A paragraph is a wish.

After the six clips exist, assemble them with the video prompt to finished-edit workflow. The board stops you from asking one generate to be an editor.

Storyboard a six-shot AI video

Six cards. One action. One lock. Camera and time. Then shoot in order.

1. Write six still frames, not a paragraph

Open a doc. Six headings. Shot 1 through Shot 6. Under each, a still you could prompt as an image:

"Shot 3 still: Mara, charcoal coat buttoned, at the stoop, three-quarter, dusk, key from the left, empty street."

If you cannot describe the still, you have a vibe. Vibes are how shot 3 becomes a different city.

Cap the set at six. Setup, action, a turn, a hold, a button. If a seventh appears, it is a new board.

2. One action per shot

Under each still, one verb.

Good: "Action: she sits." Bad: "Action: she sits, checks her phone, sighs, then stands as a cab arrives."

A second verb is a second shot. AI video smears stacked verbs. Write motion as one readable move or the card is fiction.

Banned on the card: "and then," "meanwhile," "montage energy," "we feel her past."

If two things must happen, you need two cards. Do not sneak a seventh.

3. Lock character or product across the six

Write one lock paragraph and paste it on every card.

"Mara, mid-30s, olive skin, scar through the left eyebrow, black bun, charcoal wool coat buttoned, small gold hoop right ear."

Or a SKU lock, if this is a product story.

Approve stills that share the lock before you animate. If shot 1 and shot 4 disagree on the bun, you do not generate yet. You fix the stills.

Segment lock, still, action, and camera as separate blocks on every card. A camera line that shares a sentence with hair will restyle Mara to match the dolly.

4. Note camera and duration on each card

Each card gets two more lines:

"Camera: locked off, waist-up, no move." "Duration: 3 seconds."

Or: "Camera: slow dolly in, one meter, no pan." "Duration: 4 seconds."

One camera decision per card. If you want a move, it is the only move. Duration is a number, not "a beat." Beats are how a 3-second sit becomes an 8-second stew.

Add an optional sound note: "Street hush" or "cup down." Do not score the movie on the board. If you need a theme later, that is a Suno music prompt after the cut.

5. Generate in shot order, not as a mega clip

Shoot shot 1. Pass-or-fail against the card. Then shot 2. Do not prompt "the whole story in one 15-second take."

If a shot fails, rewrite that card. Do not "fix it in the next shot." The next shot has its own contract.

When six clips pass, you have footage. Cut, grade, export. That order lives in the finished-edit guide, not in the generate box.

Save the six-card template so the next piece does not start as a paragraph in the prompt field.

Reusable skill card

Trigger: You are about to paste a story paragraph into Runway, Kling, or Grok Imagine and hope it becomes a scene.

Input: Six cards. Each card: still, one action, shared lock, one camera, a duration number.

Output: Six approved stills, then six clips, then an edit. No mega-prompt.

Stop: After six clips that match their cards. No seventh shot. No stacked verbs. No scoring in the generate box.

Takeaways

• Six still cards beat one story paragraph.
• One action per shot. "And then" is another card.
• Paste the same lock on every card. Fix stills before you animate.
• Camera and duration are numbers and one decision, not vibes.
• Generate in order. The editor is a later tool.