# How to Storyboard a Music Video Against the Track

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

Board a music video by the bar, not by the script: drop the track, mark choruses, assign frames to timestamps, then export an animatic the artist can feel.

Published: 2026-09-05 · 6 min read · Production

A music video has a locked clock: the master. If the board ignores timestamps, the edit will invent a second video.

## Drop the track first

Import the audio before you draw. Mark:

- Intro, verse, pre, chorus, bridge, outro
- Downbeats you must hit (title, costume change, explosion, product if it is a paid placement)
- Any lyric that has to be literal on screen

Each mark is a frame or a hold. Chorus repetitions can reuse frames with a note (`CHORUS 2 — same blocking, tighter CU`).

## Duration is not a guess

If the chorus is 22 seconds, the chorus frames must add to 22. This is why still PDF boards fail music videos: nobody adds. An [animatic](/animatic-software) is the deliverable. Still frames are the appendix.

## Coverage on a budget

Music videos run out of setups. Board the hero ideas at full care. Board the connective tissue as reusable location + movement (`handheld WS, warehouse, 8s`) so the producer can see what is actually a new setup.

## Review with the artist on the track

Send a timed MP4, not a PDF. Artists approve feeling. Producers approve setup count. You need both from [one version](/blog/client-review-for-storyboards).

## FAQ

### Do music videos need shot lists?

Yes if there is a crew. No if it is two people and a mirrorless camera — until the day it is not. Writing the list later from memory is how night exteriors get lost.

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