Hey and welcome back to our pre-production series.
This is the second part of our shot listing episode.
Today, we're going to take an existing script,
turn it into a shot list
and then go on set to actually shoot the scene.
So, let's dive in.
[Music]
In this video, we are going to walk you through the process
of creating a shot list from scratch.
As reference, we're going to shot list a short scene called "The Pen."
If you haven't seen it, click here to check it out.
All right, so let's break down what happens in the story.
In this scene, we start with a character named Jamie
who is sitting in the conference room.
Then his coworker Pat walks in and sits down.
They both reach out for the pen at the same time,
but there is only one.
They get in a tussle and then an all-out brawl.
It escalates pretty fast and Jamie breaks Pat`s neck.
Yeah.
So Jamie puts the pen in his pocket,
but as he does an intern walks in.
Captures Jamie red-handed, a lock eyes and a final shot on the pen,
and roll credits.
You using StudioBinder to create the shot list and storyboard.
It's free to get started and we will make your life much easier.
Check it out.
So you looking at my shot list for the project.
To give us a visual reference,
I asked someone to stand in for all three characters
and snapped these photos.
In act 1, we see our first character Jamie
sitting in a conference room by himself.
He's joined by Pat and there's an awkward conversation.
I was thinking about covering this part in four shots.
First, we will start with a wide shot to establish the conference room.
You generally want to establish geography at the start of the scene.
This is referred to your master shot.
We will keep it on eye-level.
Like, most of the shots actually,
since this gives us the most natural feel.
If I selected a low-angle or high-angle,
it will be making a statement about Jamie,
but I don't really want to build any assumption just yet.
Static shots on sticks will be my main choice for almost the entire film.
So once I do switch it up,
the change will be noticeable and draw more attention to the shot.
Now, I want to cover Pat`s entrance in the medium shot,
so we see enough of him.
But this time I want to establish some authority or danger,
so we're going to shoot it from a low-angle.
A classic power shot.
The shot will tilt down with Pat
as he sits until the camera becomes eye level
which means Pat and Jamie are now in opposition and equally matched.
The next two shots are basic coverage as we say,
which means we will cover the scene in different angles,
but we don't need to change shots throughout this part of the scene,
as the actors are stationary versus moving through the space
which would require changes in setups.
All right, so one medium shot on Pat
and one on Jamie.
Same settings,
but what's important to me here is that the characters
are staying centered with the eye line slightly off-camera.
You may be familiar with highly stylized straight on symmetrical shots,
if you seen Wes Anderson movies, for example.
To me, it gives the scene an awkward feeling
which I'm trying to achieve here as the situation our characters are,
it simply calls for it.
"- It`s between you and me.
- Yeah, I heard that they were downsizing."
Let's move on to act 2.
Both characters noticed the pen on the table.
This leads to the fight under the table
where Pat eventually dies.
Here, we will need a bit more coverage.
Let's start with a close-up on eye-level on the pan,
as it's a story relevant detail.
To cover the wrestling action above the table,
we will use a medium-long shot.
That way we can follow the action clearly
when both characters reach out for the pan at the same time.
To be clear in my shot list,
I'm going to specify this as a two-shot
which means two subjects will be in the same frame.
Once the pen flicks out of Pat's hand,
it will first hit the table and then the floor.
Here, I will grab two close up shots.
One when the pen hits the table on eye-level, static.
And then the other one on the ground in a high-angle
to sort of match the actor's eye line.
Next is our wide shot,
as the characters move under the table.
It's the same as the opening shot of the film,
but I want to shoot it on a jib arm to move the camera vertically.
This is called a pedestal shot,
and the camera will be moving down.
Now to our fight scene.
I will grab a shot of Jamie and another one of Pat
both medium close-ups.
And I will shoot low-angle and high-angles
and vary between them in the edit
whenever I want to add a power shift later.
I will use some tilts for those two shots
and let's make a change in equipment here.
This time, I'm going handheld to build the energy
and visually communicate chaos
as things are getting out of control.
Oh, by the way, if you want to dive deeper into various kinds of camera movements
and their effects on storytelling,
check out our filmmaking techniques series right here.
All right moving on.
Now, poor Pat is dead.
Jamie has the pen and gets back to his seat.
I want to get the same pedestal shot here as before.
The only difference here is the camera moves up, instead of down.
Finally, the last act.
Act 3.
Jamie goes to write but finds out the pen has no ink,
and then the intern walks in.
So let's grab an insert of the pen to clearly show the viewer
the pen was not worth the effort.
Remember, I want to keep things centered and symmetrical.
So I'm thinking about a close-up, overhead shot here.
I may not be able to shoot this on sticks
since the tripod will get in the way,
but I can think of alternatives,
like going handheld and stabilizing it in post.
I might need to make some adjustments here on set,
so I will leave it for now.
Well, the intern I will re-use the same medium shot
as when Pat walked in.
So this way we can just shoot both medium shots back to back on set.
"Does anyone want something to drink?"
Next, we're going to grab the entrance POV and a medium shot
when he notices the corpse.
This will be a tilt as he looks down
and I will stick with handheld to give it a jittery, nervous feeling.
Jamie's reaction shot will be the same as the medium close-up
in the beginning of act 1.
It's kind of a callback and implies,
"Here we go again."
And here's our final shot of the film.
A close-up on the entrance phase moving down,
to reveal the pen in his chest pocket.
Since I want to freeze-frame on the pen full of the credit roll,
I will use a pedestal shot down with the gyp,
so we can get on eye level with a pen.
So now we basically turned our script into a shot list.
And before we go on set and actually shoot it,
we need to do one last step
which is grouping our shots into setups.
So number one, we have our master wide.
And we also going to pick this up later
for our pedestal shot on the jib arm.
So what I'm going to do is,
I'm going to shoot the pedestal shot first on the jib.
And I'm going to use the same shot as the static shot
for our master wide.
And from there, we just move our way closer to our medium shot
when they grab the pen
and then later the close-up shot of the one pen in the cup holder.
So now we get everything from the same axis,
we don't need to change lighting or anything else.
From there, I want to cover Jamie's coverage
but not only his but also the intern`s coverage
because we're on the same angle
and we basically use, like the same shot size as well.
So we're going to group those together here.
And then we're going to flip the entire world around
and shoot Jamie's coverage.
And now when we're done with this,
we want to move everything under the table,
which means a lot of lighting changes.
So from there, I'm going to have these two shots on Jamie and Pat.
We're going to grab those and bundle them together.
And then from there we basically only have four shots left,
which is the intern`s POV shot of Pat`s feet.
And then we just have our three close-up shots of the pen
when the pen hits the table
when it hits the ground,
and when Jamie's trying to write with it.
For this, you basically don't even need your actors
since it's just a close-up of the pen
so you can send them home, get your last shots
and you're done.
So now we basically have everything we need.
We have a full populated shot list
and we grouped everything into set ups,
so we will be really efficient during the shoot.
So now let's begin the fun part.
[Music]
Alright guys, so I got our shot list all printed out here.
This is our set - our conference room.
We have our actors Cyrus and Mike over here.
We're going to go through the shot list and see what we get.
We got our master wide shot here.
Since we shot in 4k and we're going to go out in 1080P,
we can just punch in and get the same shot here.
We do a quick little change here in the shot list.
We don't want to change the setup right now
because it requires more like moving lights and actors,
so we're going to do the last shot of the pen which is a close-up.
Cut, got it.
We got our close-up shot.
So we're going to do our pedestal shot,
but instead of using the jib arm
because we don't have space enough here to use it,
we actually going to go and use Ronin
which is a gimbal.
Cut it.
Thank you so much, that's the pen.
We can cross those shots out.
So in our shot list,
we have Pat`s coverage first
and then we're going to go to Jamie's coverage.
The thing though is our actor
who plays the intern is not here yet,
so we can go ahead and shoot Jamie's coverage first.
"But I have kids."
Action.
Cut. Great, love it.
So now let's do a quick breakdown here.
We got Cyrus coverage right here,
so we cross those out.
For now, I'm going to flip the world over to Pat`s coverage.
And cameras rolling.
"I have kid.
I just bought new car"
Cut.
We got the medium close-up of Pat.
All we need now
is actually Pat walking in and dealing with the chairs,
which is a medium shot right here.
Right after that, we going to fly out Pat,
and fly in the intern,
and get the very same shot size,
so we don't need to change anything,
we just need to change the actor.
We really just need the POV.
After a POV shot, we're going to move the world under the table,
grab two shots and we wrap out the actors.
Grab our inserts after, we are all done.
So this is officially direct.
We got around 20 shots in three hours or so.
And this shot list, really helped me to get a clear head.
Know exactly what coverage I need
and move strategically throughout the entire shoot.
So I think these guys did an amazing job.
We're going to bring this to the edit
and let's watch the film right after.
I hope you guys enjoyed this episode on shot listing.
I use StudioBinder`s shot listing feature
to streamline your entire pre-production.
So now I'm curious how you would have shot the scene of the pen?
So if you click on the link in the description,
you can use do to StudioBinder for free
and create your own shot list.
Send us the link in the comments,
and we will give you a shout out in all social media.
And don't forget to subscribe and click the bell icon
to learn more about pre-production.
Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time.