Shot list template

What this is about

Sorted by story order, a shot list is a wish list; sorted by setup, it becomes a plan. Every relight and every camera reposition costs minutes that never come back, so shots sharing a direction, a lens package or a lighting state belong next to each other regardless of where they sit in the film. The second job of the list is triage: when the day compresses — and it will — the priority column decides in seconds what survives instead of opening a debate at 16:40.

A template is the starting point, not the goal: once it has been filled in by hand twice, it is worth asking whether the document should come out of the plan instead.

What runs differently here

In planning terms, that means:

• A shot ID tied to its scene number, so a note in dailies or the edit traces back to one line instead of a guess
• Size and movement columns using fixed abbreviations — WS, MS, CU, plus dolly, pan or handheld — because a vague description shoots vaguely
• A setup grouping column that clusters shots sharing light and camera position, which is what the shooting order is actually built from
• A priority flag with three honest levels — must, should, could — agreed with the director before the day, not negotiated during it

Step by step

This order gets you there fastest:

1. Go through the script scene by scene and write down every image the edit will need, including inserts and cutaways you already know about.
2. Assign size, movement and lens notes to each shot, keeping the vocabulary consistent so the DP reads the same film you imagined.
3. Cluster the shots into setups by camera direction and lighting state, then number the setups in the order they will be built.
4. Estimate minutes per setup — including the relight — and compare the sum against the shooting day before anyone commits to it.
5. Mark priorities with the director while there is still calm: which shots carry the film, which carry polish, which are luxury.
6. Walk the list with the DP and the first AD, fold their objections in, then freeze it and track any later change with a visible note.

Common pitfalls

What most often goes wrong in practice:

• Shooting in story order and paying for it with a relight every third shot
• Marking everything priority A, which is the same as marking nothing
• Writing sizes as prose — a nice wide-ish feel — that three people interpret three ways

With TillyGen

TillyGen derives the shot list from your briefing and keeps it linked to storyboard and schedule, so a cut shot disappears from the day plan instead of haunting three documents.

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.