Definition

Shot list

Every shot the edit will need, written down before the day, so none of them get forgotten.

A shot list enumerates the specific shots required: framing, subject, action, and, usefully, which part of the edit each one serves. It's built backwards from the cut you intend to assemble.

Its real function is catching omissions while they're still cheap. Reading a shot list out loud a week before the shoot surfaces the establishing shot nobody planned, the cutaway the voiceover will need, the alternate take for the version that runs fifteen seconds. Discovering those in the edit costs a reshoot.

Keep it in shooting order rather than edit order once you're on the day (you want to move the camera as few times as possible), but build it in edit order, because that's how you notice what's missing.

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