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How to Diagram Shots in a Film

Before filming even begins on a movie set, the director and director of photography have gone over exactly how they will cover the scene. Determining who does what and what exactly to cover can be a tad tricky-leading to this hopefully helpful tutorial.

Things You'll Need

  • Sketch paper
  • Coffee!
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Instructions

    • 1

      Before shots can even be diagrammed, the tone or style of the film must be discussed. There might be a specific mood the director wants to set and the DP needs to know this information in order to film it that way.

    • 2

      Once the mood/style is set, get the script out and separate each line of dialogue or chunk of action, since each needs to be treated like a separate entity.

    • 3

      Decide which areas only need standard coverage. By standard coverage I am referring to the simple setup of Wide Shot-Over the Shoulders-Close Ups. These may be perfect for simple scenes of dialogue going back and forth.

    • 4

      From the standard coverage, find the more emotional lines or actions and discuss whether or not to institute a slow move in as opposed to a static close-up.

    • 5

      Once the standard shots are out of the way, the more difficult camera swoops, pans and tilts come into play.

    • 6

      Not every scene needs a specialty shot, but the director and DP need to diagram exactly how the story will unfold on screen through text, not drawings, as that comes a bit later in the storyboarding period.

    • 7

      Once all standard and specialty shots are written down, create a shooting script that breaks down each line/action into a setup and list all the shots for each setup.

Film Production

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