# From Fountain or Final Draft to a Storyboard Without Rewriting the Script

Canonical URL: https://www.cineoboard.com/blog/fountain-and-final-draft-to-storyboard

How to import a Fountain or Final Draft script, split scenes into beats, and keep sluglines attached to frames so the board can round-trip.

Published: 2026-09-07 · 6 min read · Workflow

If you retype a script into a board, you now have two scripts. Import the file. Split it. Board on top.

## What to import

- **Fountain** — plain text, version-control friendly, fine for drafts
- **Final Draft (.fdx)** — what most US film and TV writers actually send
- **Word / plain text** — last resort; scene headings are less reliable

CineoBoard imports Final Draft, Fountain and Word, and can export shot lists back toward Final Draft so the board sits beside whatever the writer prefers. You do not have to move the writing process into the boarding tool.

## Split on scene headings, then on beats

Scene headings (`INT. KITCHEN – NIGHT`) become scenes. Inside a scene, split when:

- The camera would have to jump
- A new subject takes the frame
- Time jumps
- The intention changes (joke, reveal, product)

Do not split on every dialogue line. That produces a comic, not a board.

## Keep the slugline on the frame

When a producer asks “which scene is this?”, the answer should be on the footer, not in your head. Numbering is covered in [shot codes](/blog/storyboard-numbering-and-shot-codes).

## Round-trip without duplicate work

Script changes. The board must change. The failure mode is a new PDF with no connection to the old shot numbers. A local-first app like [Reframe](/reframe) plus a project layer means you re-split the new scene, keep locked frames, and only rebuild what moved. Agent tools can drive that via API if the script lives in git — that is the point of CineoBoard’s CLI, not a gimmick.

## FAQ

### Can I board before the script is locked?

Yes. Mark the board version as “pre-lock” and expect scene numbers to move. Do not send that version to a production company as if it were a shooting document.

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