The stopping frame
The film,beforeit is shot
Import the screenplay. The scenes appear as boards. Plan the shots. The shot list, the lighting plans, the gear list and the call sheet are already written when you finish.
Context, fast
One card. Three documents.
Her face, eyes open, waiting for the alarm.
Hold until the second ring. The room stays dark around her.
- Moodboard
- Drop a reference anywhere on the canvas. Nothing to name, nothing to file.
- Storyboard
- Sketch over it, or draw straight onto the canvas beside it.
- Shot list
- Press T. The same card takes a number, a size, a lens and a duration.
Import the screenplay. The boards appear.
Screenplay
ImportAct 1: The morning
INT. FLAT - NIGHT SCENE 1
The flat, still dark. Street light through the blind.
INT. FLAT - DAY SCENE 2
Her face, eyes open, waiting for the alarm.
EXT. STREET - DAY SCENE 3
The door. She does not look back.
Act 1: The morning0
The flat, still dark. Street light through the blind.
Her face, eyes open, waiting for the alarm.
The door. She does not look back.
Numbered from the page. Nothing retyped.
Change a shot once. The shot list changes too.
Shot list
01WS24mmThe flat, still dark
02MCU50mmHer face, waiting
03CU50mmThe clock turns over
Gear · written by the board
24mmScene 1
50mm2 shots
85mmScene 1 · new
Change the lens, the packing list follows. Nobody edits this page — that is the point of it.
The screenplay becomes the production
A shot list a first AD reads on a phone at 6am. A storyboard, four or six to a page. The shooting script. One production, printed the way each department reads it.
Shot list
Scene 14, Garage
5 shots · 0:34
| Size | Lens | Move | Dur | Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | WS | 24mm | Static | 0:08 | The garage, lamp only |
| 02 | MCU | 50mm | Static | 0:05 | Ray, hands |
| 03 | MS | 35mm | Slow push | 0:06 | His eyeline to the car |
| 04 | CU | 85mm | Static | 0:04 | Ray decides |
| 05 | EWS | 24mm | Static | 0:11 | The car, from the door |
Draw the plan. See what the light does.
A room in metres with its walls and windows. Real lamps at a stated height. Light that falls off, adds where beams cross and stops at walls and flags. Beside it, the subject lit by that rig, updated as you move a lamp. Then the packing list, written from the drawing.
A preview, not a render. It does not predict exposure. How the plan works.
- ANNA4.0 m × 3.0 m
- A cam· 50mm4.0 m × 4.3 m
- Key40°5600K· 1.2k HMI1.7 m × 3.0 m
- Fill100°3200K30%6.4 m × 4.0 m
Lit preview
ANNAA preview, not a render: direction, height, colour and softness come from the plan. It does not predict exposure.
A 1.2k through a softbox, camera left at eye level. The face is lit from the side; the shadow falls away from camera.
Day 2 of 5
Tuesday, the garage
3/63 left
Scene 14 · INT. GARAGE - NIGHT
04MCU50mmRolling
Alexa 35 · 25 fps · 180° · T2.8 · Static
Action
Ray decides. Hold on the hands.
‹
Take
NG
Pickup
›
Shot
Then it is Tuesday, and you are shooting
The plan already knows the day: which scenes, in what order, at which locations, who is in them and what has to be in the van. Frameboard hands that back as a schedule, a call sheet and a screen you can hold in one hand at six in the morning.
- Computed from the scenes, not typed. Breaks anchor to the scene they follow, so moving a scene carries the company move with it.
- Scenes, locations, cast, crew calls and gear are already known. You add the date, the crew call and the unit base.
- One shot at a time on a phone. Log takes, circle the one you want, mark it shot, and it moves to the next one owed.
There is no AI in Frameboard, and there will not be.
Deciding where the camera goes is the job. A tool that offers to do it for you is selling off the part you were hired for. Frameboard holds your references, your frames and your numbers, and stays out of the decision.
To be exact about it: the software is written with the help of an AI coding agent, the way most software is now. What it will never do is put a model between you and your film. Nothing you make here is read by one, trained on, or generated for you.
What is in it
- Infinite, with pan on wheel, zoom on ctrl, and snapping that can be turned off.
- Images, clips, notes, sketches, comments and tables. Any of them can become a shot.
- Automatic, and it survives reordering. Type 12A by hand and it stays 12A.
- Slugline, location, INT or EXT, day or night, and a target runtime the shot list measures against.
- A plan in a real room, with light that behaves like light: beams fall off, add where they cross, and stop at walls and flags. A preview of the subject under the rig, and a packing list written from the drawing.
- Fountain in and out, so a screenplay becomes scenes and the scenes become a script.
- A scene belongs to a shoot day. The day derives its own schedule, cast, locations and gear, and prints a call sheet.
- One shot at a time on a phone: status, takes, circled takes, pickups, and a count of what is left.
- Live. Edits stream as patches, cursors and selections show, and two people on different cards never overwrite each other. Comments thread on a shot, and a client can sign off on a share link.
- Shot list, storyboard, shooting script, lighting plan and call sheet PDFs on every plan, plus CSV, PNG, Fountain, and the whole production as JSON you can keep.
Every one of these in detail, or skip the description and open a production somebody actually planned.
On the craft
All writing- The pre-production checklist, in the order things actually breakWhat has to exist before the first shoot day, when each piece is due, and which missing document causes which disaster. Usable for a short or a spot.
- Shot list or storyboard? You are asking the wrong questionThey are not two documents. A storyboard is what a shot looks like; a shot list is when it gets made. How the two stay in sync, and what breaks when they don't.
- Shot sizes, and what each one is actually forA working reference for the seven standard shot sizes, from extreme close-up to extreme wide, and when a director reaches for each.
- What belongs on a shot listThe columns a shot list needs, the ones it does not, and why the AD cares more about the order than the detail. With a free template.
What it costs
Free is genuinely usable rather than a trial with the lights off. Every export is on it, PDFs included, because the crew needs the document. Pro takes our name off the footer and puts yours on.
Checkout opens soon. Choosing a paid plan today records your interest. Nothing is charged.
€0
For the film you are making now.
- 3 active productions, archives are free
- Screenplay import, lighting plans, documents
- Shoot days, call sheets and On Set mode
- Every export, PDF included
- Up to 3 people editing a production
€19/ month
For the films you make for a living.
- Everything in Free
- Your library: kit, crew, places and lighting setups, kept between productions
- Unlimited productions
- Exports with no Frameboard line
- Up to 10 people editing a production
€25/ editor / month
For the company.
- Everything in Pro, for everyone
- A workspace holding the company's productions
- Company roles: admin, editor, viewer
- One shared library of kit and setups
- Unlimited people editing a production