Camera

Shot list

What is shot list in film production?

A shot list is the ordered list of individual camera setups planned for a scene or a shooting day, each entry specifying the shot size, angle, movement, lens and what it covers. It is the director and cinematographer's plan for how a scene will be assembled.

The shot list is what converts a page count into a day: a schedule says a scene is being shot, the shot list says how many times the camera has to be moved and relit to finish it. Setups, not pages, are what a day runs out of.

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Reviewed 2026-08-27

Related terms

Storyboard: A storyboard is a sequence of drawn frames representing the intended shots of a scene, showing composition, camera position and movement. It communicates visual intent to every department before anything is built, lit or shot.
Coverage: Coverage is the set of different angles and sizes shot of the same scene so that it can be assembled in the edit. A conventionally covered dialogue scene includes a wide master, matching mid shots or singles of each performer, and often close-ups and cutaways.
Shot size: Shot size describes how much of the subject the frame contains, from extreme wide through wide, medium, close-up and extreme close-up. It is one of three properties that define a shot, alongside camera angle and camera movement, and it is the one that carries most of the emotional distance.
Script breakdown: A script breakdown is the process of reading a screenplay scene by scene and tagging every physical element a scene requires — cast, extras, props, wardrobe, vehicles, stunts, special effects, animals. The tagged result is what the schedule, the budget and every department's prep list are built from.