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
Is this for you? For b-roll gathered as leftovers and edits that turn into rescue operations. It is for anything that will be cut; a single unbroken take has no joins to cover and needs none of this.
What leaves your plate. Every b-roll shot given a specific join to cover rather than filmed in case, one shoot day listed against every format it owes, and the card kept standing so what you gather becomes a library, not a one-day supply.
What starts working. An edit that reaches for something and finds it there, a shoot day that feeds four formats because all four were on the card before anybody unpacked, and a b-roll library that keeps paying out.
The smallest way in. A free audit: three fields, and a written reading back, usually within about three working days. It commits you to nothing.
What to read next. The five levels to see where this fits, or the casework to see it done.
Where a shot list stops being a wish for nice pictures
The list is counted at the cuts it has to make possible
An edit trims a filler word, a false start, a silence that went on too long. Every one of those trims leaves a visible jump unless there is somewhere to land. So the list is built by walking the video forward and asking what will be available at each point where the cut wants to leave the face. Two angles on a speaker and one on the work is the smallest set of angles that hides a trim with a clean cut, before you even reach for b-roll or a punch-in, and it is on the card for that reason and no other.
Every b-roll shot on the list has a join to cover
B-roll here is a list of hiding places with names on them: the hands going to the keys, the pan going onto the heat, the softbox being raised, the cable going into the amplifier. Each one is there because a particular moment in a particular edit will need a second and a half of something else. Footage gathered without that question gets filmed, filed and never opened again.
One shoot day is listed against every format it owes
The same morning has to produce a horizontal long video, a vertical cut, a set of stills for a blog and a master with nothing written over it. Those are four different framings of one action and they are settled on the card, because nothing widens a frame afterwards and nothing takes a caption back off a still.
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, each covering a join the edit will need |
| 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 |
Everything written on the card
What is written on the card
Each angle with the job it is there to do. The b-roll, named, so nobody is relighting a room 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 last edit. Whatever somebody reached for and did not find goes onto the next card, which is why these are specific to a partnership and close to useless copied between two of them. A generic list produces generic coverage, and generic coverage is exactly what an edit runs out of at the worst possible moment.
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.
A cutaway that exists is a cut you can make, and the same cutaway missing is a jump you have to keep.
The list is counted at the cuts it has to make possible, not the pictures it would be nice to have.
What changes for you
An edit that reaches for something and finds it there. A shoot day that feeds four formats because all four were on the card before anybody unpacked. And a b-roll library that keeps paying out long after the morning it was filmed.
Related: Shoot planning · Camera and lighting setup · Repurposing · Multi-camera editing
Most fixes here cost nothing on the day of the shoot and everything after it. The audit reads recent videos for what should have been decided before recording, and puts the list in writing.
Request your free audit.
Three fields, and a written reading back: a fit snapshot, two or three prioritised opportunities, and a recommended next step.
A person reads the channel and writes the audit by hand: a considered read typically takes three working days. That is the usual shape, not a promised turnaround. We use these details only to reply to you: no lists, no lurking.
What you will get
A fit snapshot: where your channel stands, and whether we are a match.
Two to three opportunities: specific, prioritised, yours to keep.
A recommended next step, even if that step is not us.
The audit is free and commits you to nothing: nobody follows up with a call you did not ask for.
The casework shows all of this done.
The case studies are the same work with the numbers, the sources and the dates attached.
See the casework →