Set & Crew

Mood board

Also called Moodboard, Look book, Reference board

What is mood board in film production?

A mood board is a collection of reference images, colours and sketches that sets the visual direction for a scene, a sequence or a whole production. The art department, director and director of photography use it to agree on a look before anything is designed, built, dressed or lit.

A mood board shows the feeling and the palette; a storyboard shows the shots. Boards are usually assembled from photographs, location recces, paintings, frames from other films and rough sketches, and they work best attached to the scene or sequence they are for — a look agreed in a pitch deck is easy to lose by the shoot day.

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Reviewed 2026-10-05

Related terms

Storyboard

A storyboard is a sequence of drawn frames representing the intended shots of a scene, showing composition, camera position and movement. It communicates visual intent to every department before anything is built, lit or shot.

Shot list

A shot list is the ordered list of individual camera setups planned for a scene or a shooting day, each entry specifying the shot size, angle, movement, lens and what it covers. It is the director and cinematographer's plan for how a scene will be assembled.