Shot and b-roll lists
What has to exist on a card before a shoot day, so the edit is far less likely to become a rescue operation.
The short version
What you get. A shot list that covers the edit’s needs and the formats agreed for the shoot.
Is this for you? For shoots that need planned coverage, cutaways or material for several uses. Come back once the shoot’s outputs are agreed; the list is built from them.
What leaves your plate. Angles, b-roll and format requirements, grouped into a practical card for the crew.
Start with the Free Audit.
Counted at the cuts it makes possible
Where another angle would help
We walk through the planned video and identify where another angle or cutaway would help. Two angles on a speaker and one on the work are one useful teaching setup; the smallest workable set depends on the material.
B-roll needs a purpose
A cutaway can cover a trim, demonstrate a step or show a detail the main angle misses: hands on keys, a pan going onto heat or a cable entering an amplifier. We name the shot and its purpose so the crew knows why it is needed.
One shoot day is listed against every format it owes
Before the shoot, we list the agreed outputs and the framing each needs. A long video, vertical cut, blog still or text-free version may share material, but each requirement has to be checked while it can still affect the capture.
The card is standing, so the b-roll becomes a library
The same list runs every month, which turns a day's filming into stock the partnership owns. A shot of a light being switched on gets used in a piece nobody had imagined when it was filmed, then again the quarter after that. Filming to a standing list is the cheapest content anybody on this page will ever make, and it is the first thing a busy brand stops doing.
The inventory, before anybody unpacks
| Angles | each with the job it is on the list for |
|---|---|
| Coverage | something to cut to wherever a trim will land |
| B-roll | named shots, with the detail, action or transition each should support |
| Openings | several per subject, so there is something to choose between |
| Clean pass | one version with nothing written over it |
| Stills | frames the blog can use, taken from that clean pass |
| Vertical | the shots the crop needs, framed for on the day |
The card, handed over
What is written on the card
Each angle with the job it is there to do. The b-roll, named, so a room is not relit for one forgotten shot. Several openings per subject, because there is no choosing an opening from a single take. A clean pass of the finished thing with no text on it, since that is where the photographs come from. And the shots that only the vertical cut is going to need.
Where the list comes from
The brief and planned outputs come first. Previous edits add useful evidence: missing coverage, a recurring cutaway or a setup worth repeating. We combine those needs into a list for this shoot.
Who holds it and what it looks like
A single page the partner's crew or the creator can work from, with the b-roll grouped so nothing needs a second lighting change. Long enough to be complete and short enough to be read standing up, with the reason printed beside anything whose reason is not obvious from the line itself.
At the bench
The work, demonstrated
Try a decision from the craft: drag, tap or toggle, then read the trade-off.
These are illustrative models; no partner’s results are shown.
More demonstrations at the bench →A cutaway that exists is a cut you can make, and the same cutaway missing is a jump you have to keep.
What changes for you
The crew knows what the edit and agreed formats need. Useful recurring shots can also build a library for later work.
Related: Shoot planning · Camera and lighting setup · Repurposing · Multi-camera editing
Send recent videos. We will identify changes to the recording setup that could improve the next shoot.
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What you will get
What is working, what could improve and whether we can help.
Two or three priorities, with the reason for each.
A recommended next step, even if that step is not us.
There is no obligation to continue. We only arrange a call if you ask for one.
The work, written up
The case studies keep their dates, sources and limits visible.
See the casework →