3 Reasons Why You Should Start Making Shotlists
Having a shot list for your shoot is extremely important and crucial. It helps you save time, money, and gives you guidelines to work in during the shoot so you don’t get sidetracked from the objective of the shoot. Shot lists can come in many different forms and templates and everyone has their own methods of building them. BUT today I wanted to take sometime and talk about how I make my shot lists for Music Videos, promo videos for brands and artists, and commercials.
As a DP & director, shot lists breakdown your vision and idea into tactical examples of how to make your vision a reality. A lot of times when we make a treatment or dream up an idea, and pitch it to the artists, it’s important to leave a little bit of room in your treatment for different interpretation or other possibilites because you don’t always know if you’re going to deliver on the exact details of the video. For example, if you’re going to shoot a scene with an old car, it’d be better to say 1970s Camaro vs orange 1976 Camaro Z28.
Most of your shot list is going to be built once you have you locations down. When you know where you’re shooting, it’s easier to imagine your shots in those locations.
So why is it so important to have a shot list?
Stick to timeframe & budget - Having a shot list helps you breakdown how much time you need to shoot at a location. This comes handy when you’re working with small budgets because you wanna make the most of every $ that you’re handed. If you only have a few shots to shoot at an indoor studio, then you wouldn’t want to book for more hours than you need it.
Less stressful shoot day: It’s critical to always have something to reference when you’re on set. This comes handy when you’ve been on set for quite a few hours and start getting that midday after lunch brain fog that just slows you down. It’s serves a template for what the post-production is going to look like. You know that if you miss a few shots in your video, it could mess up the story you’re trying to tell and maybe ruin the continuity you were going for.
More time efficient: it’s just more time efficient when you’re able to reference your list because you don’t have to be building each shot from scratch and figuring out what focal length, or lighting you wanna go for.
Project will feel more put together rather than impromptu. It’ll make the client feel more at ease knowing that you have a gameplan for executing the shoot. You are on set to serve the client and create something meaningful for them. So part of job is that you built trust with the client and show them that you care about the $$ that they’re investing into this project.
What does a shot list typically consist of?
-Type of shot and description
-Focal Length
-Style of Shot - handheld, stabilizer,
-Location and lighting set up
-Clothing
-Props and set decorations
-# of shots and scenes
For me whenever I work on music videos, I build my shot list according to the song and the story. Sometimes the music video is more of performance video, so it’s less work in that sense, but it’s still important to have the list around.
This helps me stay on schedule and feel like we’re moving towards an end goal. It’s also useful for all small budget shoot when you don’t have an assistant, producer, or script supervisor to help you stay on track.
Now obviously when budget is higher, you’re able to have more people on crew that could help you with building the shot list and assisting you. This is for situations where budget is tight and you can’t really afford to have another person on set.
Last tip that I’d give is that until you’re comfortable with referencing your shot lists, it’s better to overshoot than undershoot. You wouldn’t want to find yourself in a place where you can’t piece your final video together because you didn’t get the shot for a certain scene.
A Shot list is just a guideline, you can still improvise when you’re on location and tweak everything when on set. Do you guys typically make shot lists for every shoot? Or do you just like to keep it guerrilla style and just shoot in the moment? Comment below! Hope you found this information useful! See you guys soon.