Preproduction
Shot Lists and Story boarding
Learning intention
Learn how to shotlist and storyboard a film.
Activity
Shotlist
Storyboarding is an essential part of planning a film. It’s an opportunity to think about each of the shots you’ll need to tell your story. Before you start storyboarding, creating a shot list is absolutely essential, allowing you to imagine what the film will look like before you commit yourself to the time consuming process of creating your storyboards.]
A shot list is exactly what it sounds like, a list of all of the shots in your film. Use the sheet below to write a shot list for your film. This sample shotlist shows you what a good shotlist will look like. It will include:
• Scene number. The scene changes when you change time or place. For example, in the sample below, scene one occurs at the school
gate, scene two occurs near the library.
• Shot number. This is the number of the shot within a scene. Start counting the shots again when you begin a new scene.
• Shot size. Use the abbreviations below to indicate what sort of shot size you will use for a particular shot. Remember that you will need to use medium shots or close ups for dialogue and extreme close ups to show small details.
• Description. A description of what will be on the screen in a shot.
Things to remember:
• Begin each scene with an establishing shot • Use a medium shot or close up when filming a line of dialogue or showing emotion on a character’s face • Use extreme close ups to show small details that are important to the story
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