Create a shot list

What this is about

The job of a shot list is not completeness but decidability: which shots exist, in which order they shoot, what goes overboard first when the day compresses. Lists fail in two directions — so vague they plan nothing ('b-roll office'), or so bloated the day is lost before lunch. The working discipline is grouping by setup and attaching priorities, so that at 15:40 the document answers the only questions that matter: what now, what next, what can go. A list built that way also prices the day, because the setup groups are what a schedule and an estimate count.

The order matters more than the tools. Skip a step and you usually notice two steps later — by which point the fix costs several times as much.

What runs differently here

In planning terms, that means:

• Shot IDs tied to scene numbers are how a set communicates — '4C again' beats a description shouted across a room.
• Grouping by setup, not by story order, is the whole efficiency of the document.
• Priorities are decided in prep, when heads are calm — not at 15:40 with the client watching.
• Cutaways and safety coverage are listed deliberately; they are the shots edits get rescued with.

Step by step

This order gets you there fastest:

1. Work scene by scene from script, treatment or storyboard, and give every shot a stable ID tied to its scene. On set, those numbers are how people talk.
2. Specify each shot: size, angle, movement, lens note, subject and action, sound needs. 'Wide of office' plans nothing; 'slow push on Lena at the whiteboard' does.
3. Group the shots by setup, so everything sharing a camera position and lighting state shoots together regardless of story order.
4. Mark priorities in three classes: must-have, should-have, bonus. When the day compresses, the list should already know what dies first.
5. Attach timing: estimated minutes per shot and running totals per setup, so list and schedule remain one system instead of two documents.
6. Add cutaways and safety coverage per scene deliberately — inserts, reactions, clean entrances — the material edits get rescued with later.
7. Review the list with the DP before the tech recce, so equipment choices trace back to actual shots rather than general ambition.
8. Freeze a version for the shoot day and print it. A shot list edited live on set stops being a checklist and becomes a rumor.

Common pitfalls

What most often goes wrong in practice:

• Listing shots in story order and re-rigging the same corner three times in one day.
• Writing descriptions only the author understands, so the list dies with their attention span.
• No priorities — which means the priority call happens at the worst moment, on set, in front of the client.

With TillyGen

TillyGen drafts the shot list from your briefing — sizes, setups, order — so your time goes into judgment calls instead of typing tables.

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.