# How to Storyboard a Documentary (When You Cannot Predict the Day)

Canonical URL: https://www.cineoboard.com/blog/documentary-storyboard

Documentary boards are hypotheses: interview coverage, b-roll lists, and sequences you can only plan as modules. What to draw, what to leave as a shot list.

Published: 2026-09-08 · 6 min read · Guides

You cannot storyboard a stranger's answer. You can storyboard the **machine** that will catch it: interview coverage, b-roll modules, and the sequences you already know (a process, a walk, an archive insert).

## Interview coverage as a tiny board

Two or three frames: wide of the room, MCU, CU. Note eyelines toward the off-camera brain. That is enough for an editor. Do not draw the subject's yet-unspoken emotion.

## B-roll as a shot list first

A list of inserts and wides beats fake pictures of a factory you have not seen. Promote a line to a frame when the location is locked. [Inserts](/glossary/insert) · [shot list](/shot-list-template).

## Sequences you *can* board

Anything with blocking you control: a demonstration, a reconstruction, an opening title walk. Treat those like [film](/film-storyboard).

## FAQ

### Is boarding a doc a waste?

Boarding the unknowable is a waste. Boarding coverage and modules is how you still have a day when the interview runs long.

---

More machine-readable entry points: [/llms.txt](https://www.cineoboard.com/llms.txt) · [/sitemap.xml](https://www.cineoboard.com/sitemap.xml)