A shot list works when it follows what the viewer wants to look at next, and when every frame could be shot in the same real room. Tell the scene as a story first, cut on changes, then check each shot against a floor plan.
What we tell your LLM
Connect your own LLM and it reads these rules before it writes a shot list. This is what we tell your model, in case you want it to direct on its own.
- Tell the scene beat by beat in plain words first: what happens, who reacts, where the power shifts.
- Give one shot to each beat that needs a picture of its own.
- Give every important line a reaction. The listener's face is half the scene.
- Keep track of who is speaking, so a line never lands on the wrong face.
- Vary the frame size from one shot to the next.
- Carry wardrobe, props in hand and positions from shot to shot.
- Open on a picture of the space and end on tension, usually a close-up.
- Never set a length on a shot. The person times the shots.
- If the person gives a shot list, keep their count and order. Do not merge, drop or add shots.
Length
Fill a render toward 30 seconds.
WhyShort renders of a few shots each gave weaker results and more joins to hide. Seedance did its best work on longer scenes.
What we doAn eighth of a script page is about eight seconds. Plan parts of up to 30 seconds and split where the continuity gets simpler: a beat change or a change of place.
End a part on a face.
WhyA part that ends on a held reaction gives the next one a clean place to start.
What we doEnd each part on a heightened close-up, a reaction that holds tension, and start the next on something new.
Open with the world, then the lead.
WhyAn establishing shot shows the video engine the colours of the things in the scene early, so they are less likely to drift in the shots that follow.
What we doOne establishing shot of the place, then one strong shot that introduces the lead.
Where the camera stands
Know the room before you dress the shot.
WhyA shot list full of bokeh, haze and flares read well and described frames no camera could take. In one, a bathtub sat behind a woman's face while she was walking toward it.
What we doSketch the room first: the door, the window, the furniture, the lamps. Decide where the actors and the camera stand in each shot. Then you know what is in front of the lens, what is behind the actor and which side the light comes from.
The 180-degree rule still applies.
WhyTwo shots of one conversation were taken from opposite sides of the two people. Cut together, both seemed to look the same way, and the scene stopped making sense.
What we doKeep the camera on one side of the two people talking. Cross only during a moving shot. The floor map in the app warns you when a shot crosses.