Shot List Example: How to Make a Shot List for Film

A shot list is the plan for every camera setup you need to tell a scene. It is what the director and DP agree on before the shoot, what the AD schedules the day from, and what everyone checks when the light is going and something has to be cut. Below is a complete example shot list for a short scene, how to make your own step by step, and a sample shot list CSV you can open in Excel or Google Sheets.

What Is a Shot List?

A shot list is a list of every shot planned for a production, grouped by scene. Each row is one camera setup: how big the frame is, where the camera sits, whether it moves, what lens is on it, and who is in frame. On a small shoot it might be a single page. On a feature it runs to hundreds of rows and is revised every day of prep.

It is not the screenplay. A spec script should leave camera direction out (see Shots and Inserts). The shot list is where those decisions go once the script is locked and you are getting ready to shoot it.

What Goes in a Shot List

There is no single official format, but most shot lists carry the same columns. Start with these and add what your production needs.

Quick reference for the three columns people argue about most:

• Shot size is about how much of a person fills the frame. A wide shows the whole space, a medium cuts at the waist, a close-up holds the face, an insert is an object.
• Angle is where the camera sits relative to the subject. Low makes someone loom, high makes them small, over the shoulder ties two people together.
• Movement is what the camera does during the take. If a shot moves, say where it starts and where it ends.

How to Make a Shot List, Step by Step

1. Break the script into scenes

Every scene heading is a scene on your shot list. Number them in script order. This is the skeleton everything else hangs on, and it is how the list stays in step with the pages when the script changes.

2. Watch the scene in your head

Before you write a single shot, read the scene and ask what it is about. Whose scene is it? What is the moment everything turns on? The shot you most need is the one that lands that moment. Write that one first, then build the rest around it.

3. Plan your coverage

Most dialogue scenes are covered the same basic way, and it is a good default until you have a reason to break it:

• A master: a wide that plays the whole scene. It is your safety net in the edit.
• Singles or over the shoulders on each speaker, usually matched in size and lens so they cut together.
• Inserts of anything the audience has to notice: a letter, a phone screen, a set of keys.
• One shot with an idea in it, if the scene earns it: a push in, a oner, a move that reveals something.

4. Number every shot

Use the scene number and a letter: 12A, 12B, 12C. The letters go on the slate and in the camera report, so the editor can find every take. Skip I and O if your crew slates on paper; they are easy to misread as 1 and 0.

5. Mark priority and estimate time

Give each shot a priority and a rough number of minutes. When you add the minutes up, you find out early whether the day is possible. When the day falls behind, priority tells the AD which shots to drop without a meeting.

6. Reorder for the shoot

You write shots in story order, but you shoot them in setup order. Every time the camera turns around, lights move. So shoot everything looking one way (the master, Theo's singles, the inserts on his side) before turning around to the other. Your shot list is where you work that order out.

Example Shot List for a Film Scene

Here is a short scene from a film script:

The turn is Theo refusing the keys, so the shot that matters most is on him. Here is one way to cover it:

1. INT. ALL-NIGHT DINER - NIGHT

A few things worth noticing:

• 1C and 1D are matched: same size, same lens. They will cut together cleanly.
• 1E is marked optional even though it is the most expressive shot. 1C already lands the moment. If the day runs long, 1E goes and the scene still works.
• The whole scene adds up to 80 minutes. That is a real number to schedule around, not a guess.
• In setup order you would shoot 1A, then 1C and 1B (all looking toward Theo), then turn around for 1D, and do 1E last if there is time.

Download this example as a CSV, or start from the blank shot list template.

Blocking Diagrams

A shot list tells you what each frame is. An overhead blocking diagram tells you where everything is: the camera, the direction it points, how wide the lens sees, and where each actor stands. It is a bird's-eye floor plan, one per shot or one per scene.

Diagrams catch problems a list cannot. If the reverse on Maya puts the camera on the wrong side of the table, you have crossed the line and the eyelines will not match. You see it instantly on a plan, and not until the edit on a list. They also help the gaffer light for the whole setup instead of one shot at a time.

Shot List vs Storyboard

Most independent productions do not storyboard every scene. A shot list with blocking diagrams covers most of what a board does, in a fraction of the time. Board the action sequences and the VFX shots, and shot list everything.

Common Mistakes

• Too many shots. Twenty setups for a two-page dialogue scene will not happen on an indie schedule. Add up the minutes and be honest.
• No priority. Every shot looks essential until 6pm. Decide what goes before you are on set, not while you are there.
• Descriptions that do not say what we see. "Tension builds" is not a shot. "Push in on Theo as he slides the keys back" is.
• A list that drifts from the script. Rewrites happen. A list kept in a separate spreadsheet quietly goes stale, and a scene gets shot from an old draft.

Making One in EnsembleWriter

EnsembleWriter keeps the shot list next to the screenplay. Every scene heading in your script is already a scene on the list, so step 1 is done for you. From there you add shots and fill in the columns above, drag the camera and actors on an overhead diagram for each one, and reorder shots by dragging them. If you would rather react than start from nothing, it can draft a first pass from the script for you to rewrite. Anything you change by hand stays yours.

Your director, DP and AD can all work on the same list at once, and it exports to a PDF with the diagrams, a CSV for your spreadsheet, or a call sheet with running times per scene.