The pre-production tools
a shoot actually needs.

They keep one source of truth that gets more specific as the shoot approaches: brief, breakdown, shot list, schedule, call sheet. In Storyflow those documents sit on one board, each drafted from the one before, so a change shows against everything it touches. They also name one owner per document and write changes as dated notes. The pre-production to shoot day page walks through the full handoff.

Brief or treatment first, then the script, then a breakdown of what each scene needs. The breakdown feeds the shot list and the budget; the shot list and your constraints feed the schedule; the schedule feeds one call sheet per day. The moodboard, locations, crew list, gear list and releases run alongside. Doing them out of order is how a schedule ends up booking a location the script no longer uses.

Yes: Google Docs and Sheets cost nothing and handle a one day shoot well, and some suites have limited free tiers. Storyflow is not free during early access; it is paid-only, with plans from $7.99 a month billed annually ($9.99 monthly). A free plan launches before the end of 2026, and anyone a paid member invites to a board joins free.

Usually not. Most shoots need storyboards only for the shots where composition or movement matters, and a shot list covers the rest. Storyflow's AI lays out a storyboard scene by scene on the same board as the shot list, with AI-generated frames on Pro and Max. It has no drawing tools for frames, so a director who sketches every panel by hand may prefer a dedicated drawing app.

Storyflow's AI drafts a call sheet PDF for a shoot day from the schedule, locations and contacts on the board, and the crew can open it on a phone. It does not send it or track who confirmed. StudioBinder sends call sheets and tracks confirmations; Celtx emails them as PDFs. Tracking matters most on crewed shoots with dozens of people.

StudioBinder is a production management suite built around separate modules for scripts, breakdowns, schedules, call sheets and contacts, with call sheet distribution. Storyflow puts the pre-production documents on one canvas beside the moodboard and treatment, and its AI drafts them from the brief or script. Small crews often plan in Storyflow; larger crewed shoots may want StudioBinder's distribution too.

Yes. From a brief it drafts the moodboard direction, a pre-production plan and a shot list. From a script it drafts a breakdown with page-eighth estimates, a shot list per scene and a stripboard of shoot days, then a call sheet PDF per day from the schedule. Edits land on the board with one-click Undo, so you keep what works and redo what does not.

Five things: the call sheet for what should happen, the shot list and schedule for what comes next, a contact list for when something changes, and notes for what actually happened. Mark shots must get, should get and nice to have, so the director has something to drop when the day runs long. Everything else can stay in pre-production.

Make them visible instead of quiet. When a location cancels or a client adds an interview, write a dated change note beside the affected day, update the schedule and re-draft that day's call sheet. On a Storyflow board the change sits next to the scenes, shots and people it touches, so nobody works from last week's version.

Yes. Invited collaborators edit the same board in real time on any paid plan and join free, with admin, edit or view access. Clients and day players open a view-only link with no account and see the latest version when they open or reload it. Signing in lets them comment on a specific shot or scene.

No. Storyflow runs in the browser, nothing to install, on any computer with a modern browser. There is no native app for phones or tablets, but a view-only link and the call sheet PDF both open on a phone, which is what the crew needs on location.