Quick sketch of camera position, movement, and framing — director and DoP nail down what goes in the viewfinder. Cuts setup time in half.
Before the first camera rolls on set, you sit down with the director and sketch—literally with pen on paper or tablet. The scribble is your shared tool: a fleeting, unfiltered drawing of the planned shot. No architectural plans, no measurements—just lines showing where the camera is, how it moves, where the actors are, and what lands within the frame. This quick visual dialogue saves you hours on setup later.
The practical power lies in its speed and non-committal nature. A scribble is quickly discarded, quickly changed. You draw the camera position (seen from above), mark movements with arrows, and roughly sketch where people or furniture are in the space. The director immediately sees if your interpretation of their scene works. If not, you erase three lines and try the next solution. This works faster than verbal descriptions—and more precisely than simply experimenting on set with a tripod and camera. Especially for complex sequences of movement or when multiple actors are crossing the space, scribbles provide clarity before the 1st AD blocks time for setup breaks.
You most often use scribbles in preparation—during location scouting with the director, in production meetings, or directly before shooting a scene. On larger productions, you also receive floor plans from the production designer; you then sketch camera position and movement onto these. Some DoPs prepare their scribbles at home, others draw them spontaneously on set if something shifts during the setup. The tablet has replaced the notepad, but the method remains identical—quick, visual, changeable. A good scribble also includes notes on focal length or planned depth of field, if relevant to the visual composition.
The scribble differs from a classic storyboard in that it remains internal and only concerns the camera. It is not designed for the shooting schedule but for immediate coordination between the director and the DoP—a private exchange of visual ideas. Those who cultivate this habit not only save time on positioning but also document that the director and DoP are indeed working on the same wavelength before the clock starts ticking.