Coverage

What this is about

How do we cover this is the daily question between director and DoP. Classic coverage runs master, over-the-shoulders, singles, inserts; a director with a strong cut in mind may shoot far less. The trade is concrete: every additional angle costs a lighting change, every skipped angle removes an exit in the edit. Missing coverage is what forces reshoots. German crews use the same word, Auflösung, for the planning step of breaking a scene into shots.

A term only helps when everyone on set means the same thing by it — so what follows is how it is used, not a dictionary definition.

What runs differently here

Where this differs from the general case:

• Coverage is a plan, not an accident: it starts in the shot list, not on the day.
• Shooting the master first anchors continuity for the closer angles.
• Cross-coverage with two cameras saves time but chains both frames to one lighting compromise.

With TillyGen

Tilly AI proposes coverage per scene in the TillyGen shot list — master, angles, inserts — which you trim to your cutting style.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.