For Art Director (Agency / In-House)s ·
What you'll accomplish
The script is approved and the boards are due. Before a pencil moves, someone has to split the script into frames. Upload the script to a regular ChatGPT chat and ask for a numbered frame list: what is in the frame, shot type, camera move, on-screen text, a duration placeholder and a list of questions for the director. You react to an outline instead of a blank page, and the thin spots in the script show up fast. You draw the boards yourself, or commission them.
What you'll need
Check before you upload. An approved script is unreleased work, often under NDA. Swap in a code name such as "Project Lantern" for the client, product and any distinctive line of copy you can do without. Delete talent names, director names and contact details. Read your AI policy, then look in ChatGPT's data controls for the setting about using chats to improve models. If your policy does not allow outside tools for unreleased scripts, stop here.
On images. This guide produces words, not pictures. Do not ask AI to draw the storyboard frames unless your legal team has cleared that tool, and even then keep AI frames internal. Boards that go to the client are drawn or commissioned by people.
Save a copy as a PDF or Word document. Replace names with code names and delete any notes or page headers that carry real names.
Open a new chat. Do not use a project for this one-off task.
Look for a + or paperclip icon near the message box and choose to add a file. Pick your coded script.
What you should see: The file name shown above the text box before you send. Troubleshooting: If you do not see an attach option, your plan or workspace may not support uploads. Paste the script text into the message instead.
Use the prompt in the next section.
Read the frame list next to the script. Every line of dialogue, every super and every action should appear in a frame. Strike anything the list added that the script does not say.
What you should see: A numbered list. If frames are missing or invented, reply "Frames 4 and 5 are not in the script. Rewrite the list."
The duration column is a placeholder. You and the director decide timings. Check that your timings add up to the spot length.
From the frame list above, list every frame that needs a location, a prop or a wardrobe decision, and say which.
List the questions for the director in order of how much they affect the cost of the shoot.
Rewrite the frame descriptions in one plain sentence each so I can hand them to the board artist.
Check that every on-screen text line in the script appears in exactly one frame. List any that do not.