Shot list

It looks like a table: shot number, location, shot size, static or moving, who is in it and rough duration. The director builds it with the camera operator during pre production and the producer signs it off, using it to build the day's schedule. It is ordered by location and light rather than by the order in the finished film, so the crew does not move back and forth four times. A one day corporate shoot has thirty to sixty entries.

Why it touches the budget: a shot list is the only way to discover before the shoot that the day will not fit. When the list holds eighty shots and there are twelve hours, the producer sees it in a spreadsheet rather than at five in the afternoon in a factory hall deciding what to drop. Splitting into two days costs money, but agreed in advance it is a budget line, not a crisis.

What the client gets from it: the shot list tells you which of your people are needed and exactly when, and how long the operation will be occupied. You supply access to the locations, a contact who can open doors and a note on what must not be filmed. Do ask for the list the day before the shoot, it is not an internal document and it saves you surprises.

Where it goes wrong: a shot list written as a wish. When it contains everything that would be nice to have, the crew runs all day and shoots nothing properly. The opposite error is following it slavishly. If a better shot appears on location, take it and drop something else. The list is a tool, not a contract.

Every shot list of ours splits into must have and would like. The first part is short and gets filmed in the morning, while everyone is fresh. Try it today: before your next shoot write down three shots without which the video cannot be edited, and check they sit at the top of the list.