What matters in practice
A storyboard is not a work of art and does not need to look good. It only has to do two things: show what is in frame, and show in what order. Stick figures are entirely sufficient.
Its real value lies not in the drawing but in the agreeing. As long as a film exists only as text, everyone involved pictures something different. They only notice at the first edit. A storyboard forces those mental pictures out of people’s heads and onto paper, where they can be compared. An argument about a sketch costs ten minutes. The same argument after the shooting day costs a second shooting day.
When the effort pays off
For animation and motion design a storyboard is not optional. There is no footage that could later be recombined in the edit. Every shot is built, and what is not planned does not get built.
For live-action shooting on a site or in a workshop the opposite applies: an over-specified storyboard does more harm than good. The most interesting moments of a shooting day are almost never the planned ones. Here we work with a shot list instead. It holds the shots we know we need and leaves deliberate room for whatever happens on the day.
Confusion with the moodboard
Briefings often treat the two as the same thing, but they answer different questions. A moodboard collects references and settles the look: colour, lighting, visual language. A storyboard settles the sequence. You usually need both, but in that order: look first, then dramaturgy.