Creating a Doc Shoot-list

Some experienced producers like to shoot “from the hip” without a shoot list. They may get all the various shots they need to tell a compelling story. Or, they may not. It’s like gorilla filmmaking on the fly and it can be exciting at times. Besides, some producers have their experience and their outline to help. However, we owe it to you in this book to equip you with the solid tools to make you successful. And your shoot list is one of those tools. You may find that you use it less as time goes by when you’re more comfortable with your productions. For now though we’ll give you a rundown on what you might consider in designing a shoot list.

The good news is that it’s already at your fingertips for the most part in your lists of characters, settings, and tension-timeline graph. All you need to do is think about visually telling the story then flesh out a list of shots to portray each part. Plus, here’s another rule of thumb for making a shoot list… you’ll need to shoot plenty of B Roll or cover footage to “cover” the talking heads of your characters. If you don’t, you’ll end up with a film full of talking heads that will lull your audience. Believe it or not, no matter how much cover footage you shoot, more often than not you’ll still be lacking all the cover footage that you’ll need to show your story. So plan on shooting a lot more cover footage than you think you’ll need. Again, it helps to work with your team to build your shoot list with creative stuff to “show your story”. Here’s a potential list from our manatee example:

Setting

  • Establishing shots of where the story takes place:
  • Aerial views – Fl coastal flyover, Google Earth, maps
  • Wide shots – Towns, water treatments, boat harbors, discharge outlets, save the manatee HQ, Dept of Tourism offices, Clearwater springs, research centers.
  • Medium, close elements of above noted settings above that help tell story.
  • Static shots, wide angle, of settings that connect foreground elements with background elements that show your story. Connect people, manatees, and action with settings.
  • Water, waves, beaches, coastlines, canals, pelicans, seagulls, anything that shows interesting elements of settings – from big stuff to fiddler crabs.

Characters (not your host)

  • Interviews of characters – play it safe and have your experts and characters look “off camera” during their interviews. Only your host should look at and interact with the camera. The next chapter will offer more detailed advice on framing and shooting your experts during production.
  • Your characters in action doing their “thing”. Wide and close shots of action stuff that supports their stories and their interaction with other characters, the manatee related to threats or solutions.
  • Places and things related to your characters - boats, buildings, co-workers, laboratories, facilities, and agency buildings.
  • Close-ups of characters faces in thought, looking, working, interacting, reacting, hands in action, feet moving, picking up and putting down relative gear.

Host

  • Creative “action build” sequence of host getting to opening scene – arrives in car, unloads gear, takes off to meet expert, puts on gear to snorkel with manatee researcher.
  • End action sequence to pose “big question”
  • Bridge shots planned between segments at locations with action to wrap one segment of provide lead to next.
  • Wrap shot with “take-home message”
  • Similar shots to those of characters during host’s discovery and interviews.

Protagonist (Manatees)

  • Similar shots of characters “doing their thing”
  • Underwater shots, lots, medium and close – interactions and head shots
  • Above water shots
  • Establish connections between manatees and threats or solutions
  • Connecting shots between manatees and various characters and host

Antagonists – medium and close shots of elements and people in action within each antagonist category:

  • boat propellers – boats, engines, docks, wakes, wheels, boat related stuff & action
  • fishing lines – people fishing, reels, rods, hooks, lures, casting, baiting
  • affluent discharge – facility, pipes, current, foam, water interface, fence, hand opening big valves, underwater interface
  • coastal climate change – sun, moon, steam, smokestacks, electric lines
  • sea grass impacts – sea grass, sea bottom, waste water plant, water discharge
  • sanctuary loss – human dominated canals, dredging, boating, developments
  • time ticking by – time lapses, weather, clouds, tides

Go ahead and adapt this example shoot list to your planned shoot to cover all your bases. If you’re shooting at a unique location that’s difficult to access, have one of your team make a list of key things that the expert talks about during the interview. When the interview is over, you can shoot the missing bits to be sure you’ve got cover footage of crucial elements. Another solution to make sure you have plenty of cover is to have a two-camera shoot and assign a list of cover footage for one of your team to acquire.