Free shot list template

The columns, and why each one earns its place

• •Scene + shot letter (12A, 12B…) — the naming everyone from script supervisor to editor will use.
• •Shot type (WIDE, MS, MCU, CU, INSERT) — the size vocabulary that makes coverage discussable.
• •Angle and movement — eye level or low, static, handheld, dolly. Movement costs time; writing it down forces the conversation.
• •Lens — even a rough focal length tells the AC what to build and warns you about relocation time.
• •Description — one sentence: what happens in the frame and why the shot exists.
• •Cast — who must be through the works (hair, makeup, wardrobe) before this setup can shoot.
• •Estimated time — the honest column. Add up a day and compare it to your hours; this is where over-ambitious days get caught on paper instead of on set.

How to build a shot list that survives contact with the day

Work scene by scene from the script, not shot by shot from imagination: read the scene, decide the one shot it cannot live without, then add coverage in priority order. When the schedule collapses — it will — you cut from the bottom of each scene, not at random.

Group by setup, not by story order. Every camera and lighting re-position costs twenty minutes; a shot list sorted by setup is a schedule, one sorted by script order is a wish.

Put an estimated time on every row and total it. If the total exceeds your shooting hours by more than 20%, the list is fiction and the set will find out at 4pm.

When a spreadsheet stops being enough

A spreadsheet shot list cannot tell you which scenes it covers, reorder with the stripboard, or mark itself complete as you shoot. In Production Slate, shots link to scenes and cast, drag-drop reorder on desktop and mobile, connect to storyboard frames, and — if you imported your script — completing a shot can automatically line the script the way a script supervisor would.

Common questions

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