Keeping a shot list flexible means knowing which rows are fixed and which are open. The fixed ones protect the scene. The open ones leave room for the accident that turns a competent video into a memorable one.
A rigid list and a loose list are both failures, in opposite directions. One ignores what the location offers. The other forgets what the video needs.
A must shot is one the edit cannot survive without. A should shot improves the scene but has a substitute. A could shot is a luxury you grab if time allows. Mark them on the page and you can make decisions in seconds when the day slips.
When the schedule tightens, cut from the bottom. You drop could shots first, then should shots, and you protect the must list with everything you have. That order is the entire value of the ranking.
Flexibility is not the absence of a plan. It is a plan with the importance of each row already decided.
A location will offer shots you did not imagine. A reflection, a doorway, a patch of light that lands in a corner at four in the afternoon. If the list is packed to the minute, those gifts have nowhere to live.
Build small windows into the schedule. A blank row labeled open is permission to follow what the place gives you. Creators who shoot the same angle every time are not lacking skill. They are lacking room to notice.
When a shot stops making sense, say so and cross it out. Quietly skipping rows is how a list rots. Naming the change keeps the crew aligned and keeps the document accurate for the next shoot.
Keep a small note of what you changed and why. A list marked up over a shoot becomes a more honest plan for the next time you stand in the same room.
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Noting angles and focal lengths on a shot list prevents coverage gaps and reshoots. A few extra columns turn a wish list into a usable camera plan.
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