A client sent you a reference video. Now what?

StoryFolder — 2026-09-02

Last updated: 2 September 2026.

The link arrives with one sentence under it: we want something like this. There is no script, no shot plan, and no shared meaning yet for the word "like". The move that gets you out of this is to turn their reference into a numbered document. Import the file into StoryFolder, let it cut the reference into shots with a thumbnail and a duration on each one, then write against each row what the client wants kept and what making that would actually take. Send the annotated reference back so you are both pointing at shot 12 rather than at a vibe. Once the rows are agreed, they go into your own estimating sheet.

StoryFolder finds the shot boundaries, times them, and gives you rows to write in. It has no opinion about the lens, the rig, the lighting, the location, how many days this runs, or what any of it costs, and it does not schedule anything. The PDF it prints is a shot document on US Letter, portrait, two cards to a page, with no cover and no page numbers, so a designed treatment still gets built in Milanote, Canva or Keynote.

What does "make something like this" actually ask you to decide?

It asks you to separate the part the client wants preserved from the production method the reference used to get there. Those are different things and clients rarely know which one they are pointing at. The part they want preserved might be a story beat, the cutting pace, a framing, a camera move, a performance, the sound, the on-screen copy, or a brand tone. The method is a blackout stage, a crane, a choreographer, four days, and a post budget.

On an r/cinematography thread from 4 December 2021, someone who had been asked to recreate the sinking scene from Get Out on a small budget worked out what was hiding inside it: "we would need to book a blackout studio, expertise in harnesses/wirework with the appropriate crew, digitally remove the wires in post and get in some good lighting." Their conclusion is the whole problem in one line: "What looks like a simple scene, is actually pretty complex and does require money and crew." A commenter on the same thread supplied the governing distinction, which is worth saying to a client out loud: "Emulate means emulate, not achieve exactly."

The vaguer version of the same request is a mood word. On a thread from 15 October 2023, someone described a client who "have absolutely no clarity" and were "harping upon" one word: cinematic. Another commenter read the word accurately: "'Cinematic' is the easiest direction for them to give because it's one word that communicates high quality that they think allows them to hide behind the fact that they don't know anything. They obviously don't understand it, and they also don't understand how many ways there are of interpreting it."

Neither of those conversations needs software. What they need is a place to write the answers down against something specific. That is what the reference becomes once it is a list of shots.

StoryFolder does not answer a single question in that right-hand column. It gives you the row the answer gets written on, with the frame beside it so nobody argues about which shot you meant.

How do you turn the reference into a requirements document?

Six steps, and the first one is usually the annoying one.

1. Get a file you can actually open. StoryFolder imports a public YouTube or Vimeo URL, and it imports six local formats: .mkv, .avi, .mp4, .mts, .webm and .mov, one file at a time. See importing a local video file and importing from a URL. If their link is private or gated, skip to the last section of this article.
2. Import it and let detection run. Every frame gets decoded and compared to the one before it, and the board fills with one card per detected shot, each with its own thumbnail, its start, its duration and its first and last frame number. A 59-second vertical reel comes back as around fifty cards.
3. Correct the boundaries before you write anything. Move the sensitivity slider if the whole board is wrong in one direction. Then split and join the individual mistakes: click a thumbnail where a cut was missed, hover a card's edge to fuse it with its neighbour. Hard cuts are what the detector is good at. Dissolves and fades spread their change across many frames and get missed, so a reference full of them needs a pass by hand.
4. Write the requirements onto the shots. A new library ships with a set of note fields that are already close to what this job needs: Story, Action, Messaging, Emotional tone, Visuals / Cinematography, Performance, Sound & Music, Symbolism, Key Takeaways, Interpretation, plus a Tags field and dropdowns for Shot Size, Movement and Content Type. You can type into those on any plan. Creating your own fields is on Pro. See the fields that ship with StoryFolder.
5. Mark the shots that need a decision, in batches. Select several cards and the inspector writes one value across all of them at once, which is the difference between a ten-minute pass and an afternoon. A field whose value disagrees across the selection reads Mixed · N values. Tags are the exception and edit one shot at a time. See editing several shots together.
6. Publish it, or export it. A published board gives the client three ways to look at the same thing: Storyboard, Thumbnails and Shot List. Storyboard and Shot List carry your notes against each shot; Thumbnails is frames only. See publishing a board and what a viewer sees when they open the link.

Your notes are keyed to frame numbers rather than to shots, so re-cutting the board does not throw them away, and joining two annotated shots carries both halves of the notes onto the merged card. And there is no version of step 3 that involves watching the reference in real time. You scroll the board and fix what looks wrong, and that pass scales with the number of cards rather than with the runtime.

Which fields turn visible shots into production questions?

Keep what is visible in the reference separate from what you are inferring about how it was made. The detector supplies the first. Everything in the second column below is you.

The shipped schema is treatment-shaped on purpose, and people use it that way. One StoryFolder board built for a commercial has the Story field filled on 41 shots and Messaging on 19, one row at a time, the whole pitch written into the fields. On a board for a veterinary product ad, whoever built it had gone further and made their own fields: Original Storyboard Video Notes, Existing/Original VO with 12 filled entries carrying the actual script, and Existing On-Screen copy. One of the notes on that board reads "is a modification of original storyboard - very similar", which is this exact job, written down by someone in the middle of doing it.

Custom fields like those are a Pro feature. The fields that ship in the box are not, and for a first pass on a reference they cover most of it.

How should you handle the scope conversation before quoting?

Go shot by shot and ask four questions of each marked row: is this essential, can it be adapted, does a specialist have to look at it, or is it out. Do that before anyone talks about money, because the argument you are trying to avoid is the one where the client thinks they bought something you never agreed to.

The most useful account of this conversation I have found was posted by a commenter on that October 2023 thread, describing a band who wanted a Thriller-level dance number a week out: "I explained to them they'd have to hire a choreographer, multiple dancers, rent out a space to practice, buy more costumes, and put more people through makeup. I told them it's technically possible but the budget would have to quadruple… They instantly took back their idea and said 'Oh never mind, we didn't think of all that, we just thought it would be cool.' They weren't angry, they truly just don't know what goes into a production." The same person's summary of the job: "It's your job to think of the things they don't know they don't know."

That worked with nothing but a phone call. It works better against a numbered list, because "the dance number" becomes shots 14 to 22 and the client can see how much of their reference it actually is.

On a free plan the shipped Tags field carries those four labels. On Pro, make a Dropdown with the four values, which stops the fifth spelling of "needs discussion" appearing on shot 31 and lets you write one value across a multi-selection.

Then the counts. The Statistics page tells you how many shots are in scope, and it gives you the average, median, longest and shortest shot duration. On Pro it also draws a distribution for each of your checkbox, dropdown, tag and rating fields, so "how many shots did I mark as needing a specialist" is a chart rather than a manual tally. Those counts are the input to your estimate. They are not the estimate: StoryFolder holds no rates, crew model, schedule, or arithmetic connecting any of this to money. You take the counts to the spreadsheet or the production system where you actually price work, which is where they belonged all along.

What can you send back to the client?

A published board is the fastest thing to send, and it is the one that does the arguing for you, because the client is looking at their own reference with your notes on it. The share popover gives you the link, an Include notes & metadata toggle, and Public, Unlisted or Password visibility, with the password option on paid plans. The page they open is StoryFolder-branded and carries a sign-up prompt, and it is view-only. There is also no video player on it unless the source was a YouTube URL, so for a local file they are looking at frames.

The storyboard PDF is the other option, and it prints two cards to a page on US Letter, portrait, with the shot number, start timecode, duration and frame range on each card, your filled fields underneath, and any empty field dropped entirely rather than printed blank. It has no cover page, no header, no footer and no layout controls. If the thing you owe the client is a designed treatment with typography and full-bleed frames, build that where you build documents and use this as the source material.

What if the client's link will not import?

Ask them for the file. A private video, a members-only one, an age-restricted one, a password-protected one, or a Vimeo link that wants you signed in can all refuse, and each refusal names the reason and suggests downloading the file and importing it directly. That is the reliable path anyway. A reference arriving as a private review link is a common snag, and the fix is a one-line reply asking them to send the mp4.

FAQ

Can StoryFolder import a client's Vimeo link? Yes for a public Vimeo URL. A link that requires a login or a password can be refused, in which case download the file and import it locally.

Which video files can I import? Six formats: MKV, AVI, MP4, MTS, WebM and MOV, one file per import.

Does it tell me which lens or rig was used? No. It finds the shot boundaries and times them. Lens, rig, lighting and VFX are things you write into the shot's own fields.

Can I mark several shots at once? Yes. Select the shots and the inspector writes Text, Dropdown, Checkbox, Rating and Number values across the whole selection. Tags edit one shot at a time.

Can the client play the video on the published board? Only when the reference came in as a YouTube URL. A board made from a local file shows the exported frames.

Does StoryFolder produce a budget or a quote? No. It reports shot counts, durations and the values you typed. Rates, days and totals live in your own estimating sheet.

Do my notes survive changing the detection sensitivity? Notes are stored against frame numbers rather than shots, which is what makes a re-cut non-destructive to them. Verify it once on your own board before you rely on it in front of a client.

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