Board First, Then Frame
Draw the shot before you prompt it. One storyboard, one prompt, Midjourney.
The prompt
Copy it, run it, change whatever you want. No signup.
photorealistic cinematic film still, a quiet family drama in a dim 1970s farmhouse kitchen, the camera set low at a child's eye height. A boy of about eight with tousled brown hair and a faded striped t-shirt stands large in the left foreground, seen from behind at the shoulder, watching. At the far end of the room an open screen door; his father stands small in the far doorway, a man in his forties in a canvas work jacket carrying a worn brown suitcase, stepping out into bright summer daylight. Daylight pours through the door and falls in a long bright wedge across the worn pine floorboards toward the boy; the rest of the kitchen, the wooden cabinets, an old enamel stove and a rounded refrigerator, sinks into deep cool shadow. Warm late-afternoon sun in the doorway against cool blue-green shadow inside, high contrast, dust hanging in the shaft of light. The bright doorway is the brightest thing in the frame; the father is a dark shape against it. Shot on a 32mm lens at f/4, deep focus holding both the boy and his father sharp, Kodak Vision3 500T color, deep but detailed shadows, fine film grain, cinematography in the style of Robbie Ryan. The image fills the entire frame edge to edge, no borders or bars. --ar 16:9 --raw --stylize 150 --v 8.2 --relax --no painting, illustration, sketch, drawing, letterbox, black bars, borders, matte, split screen, diptych, collage, grid, text
The board
This drawing came first. It is rough, and that is fine. A board only needs to show where things go: where the camera sits, who is big, who is small and where the light falls.
Midjourney never saw this drawing. Every choice on it was written into the prompt as words.
Why it works
Each choice on the board became one phrase in the prompt.
Put the camera where the boy’s eyes are. the camera set low at a child's eye height puts the camera at his height. We see the room the way he sees it.
Make the boy big and his father small. stands large in the left foreground, seen from behind puts the boy close to the camera. his father stands small in the far doorway puts the father far away. Big and close is the person we care about. Small and far is the person leaving.
Let the light fall toward the boy. Daylight pours through the door and falls toward the boy. The light starts at his father and ends at him.
Before you run it
Draw your own board first. Stick figures work. Mark where the camera is, who is big, who is small and where the light comes from. Then write one phrase for each mark.
Say who is sharp. The board cannot show focus, so the prompt has to. This prompt asks for both people sharp, and Midjourney made the boy soft and the father sharp anyway. If you want one of them sharp, name that person in the prompt.
Check the frame against the board. Of four renders, all four kept the low camera, the big boy, the small father and the light on the floor. Pick the one where the father is smallest and the light reaches the boy.