The storyboard and shot list provide the director with a game plan.
Again, this is more of a website about producing and not directing, and so I’m not going to go into the details of how to storyboard.
Doing a google search for either or both of these terms will provide you will a ton of information on both subjects.
How this relates to the producer is that ideally, and this doesn’t always happen nor is it always expected, the director will have the shot list (and storyboards, if they are a director that uses them) ready by the time the crew meeting occurs and will have a copy for you (the producer) and the cinematographer.
The cinematographer needs a copy in order to confirm that the shots are feasible with the time and space that the production has allocated for the shoot.
The producer needs a copy in order to confirm that the shots are feasible from a financial point of view. If the director included a crane shot for the opening of a 5 minutes short, someone you know better be really great at homemade set equipment construction, or else the producer (you) is going to have to reject that part of the director’s plan and the director is going to have to substitute another shot for the one that she wanted.
When I direct, I make copies of my shot list for most of the crew and cast. I keep the storyboards for me and the cinematographer (and maybe the production designer and the gaffer) because I don’t feel anyone else would really benefit from seeing them, anyway (except to get a good laugh at my poorly drawn stick figures).
Speaking of stick figures, there are many websites with storyboard software available on the Internet. Despite my stick figure style of drawings, I don’t wish to take the time to learn the software, and I feel making the drawings on with the software would be more time consuming.
As long as my crew and I understand what I want to shoot from what I have drawn, along with my list, my storyboards have served their purpose. And actually, I do draw more than stick figures, but I would definitely consider them rough
