Shortboard → Rules

12 rules of a good shot list

A shot list is not a wish list. It is a promise that a specific number of seconds will contain a specific idea. These are the rules that decide whether a plan survives contact with the edit — how long a shot should be, how to time dialogue, and how much video you actually have.

1. One idea per shot

   If you cannot say what a shot is for in one short sentence, it is two shots, or it is none. The test is brutal and it is reliable: write the sentence into the shot field. When the sentence needs an "and", split the card.

2. Write the line, then time it — never the reverse

   Words take the time they take. Around 150 words per minute is a normal speaking pace, so roughly two and a half words per second. Fifty words of voice-over is twenty seconds of video whether or not your plan said twelve. Count the words first and let the shot length follow.

3. A hook is three seconds and one sentence

   The opening shot has to state or promise the entire video before the viewer decides. That leaves no room for a build-up, a logo, or a slow push in on nothing. If your first shot is setting something up, your second shot is the real opening — start there.

4. Most shots want two to four seconds

   In short-form, two to four seconds is the range that reads as deliberate rather than restless. Talking to camera can hold six to ten if the line earns it. Past twelve seconds you need a reason a viewer can feel: a reveal, a punchline, or real change inside the frame.

5. Ripple by default

   When one shot gets longer, everything after it moves. Planning as if it does not is how a script that "only ran four seconds over" arrives eleven seconds long. Keep ripple on while you write and turn it off only to time one shot in isolation.

6. Set the target before the first shot, not after the last

   A runtime target is a constraint that improves writing; a runtime discovered afterwards is just bad news. Decide you are making a 30-second Reel, then write to it. The cut you make to fit is nearly always the cut the video needed.

7. Every cut needs a reason that is not boredom

   Cut to show something new, to compress time, or to land a beat. Cutting because a shot has been on screen a while is how a video ends up busy and unmemorable. If the reason is "it felt long", the fix is usually a shorter line, not another angle.

8. Name the b-roll while you still remember why you wanted it

   "B-roll here" is not a plan; it is a note to argue with yourself later. Write the actual shot — hands sliding hangers, steam off the cup — because the specific one is what you will forget on the day, and the vague one is what you will fail to find in the edit.

9. Mark where music starts, not just that there is music

   Music entering on the right shot is most of what makes an edit feel professional. Put the cue on the card where it starts, and note whether it sits under a voice-over or carries the shot alone. The two are different mixes and different tracks.

10. Read it out loud before you shoot it

    Every script sounds fine in your head. Reading it aloud at your real speaking pace is the only cheap way to find the sentence nobody can say, the joke that needs a beat before it, and the thirty words that turn out to be forty. A teleprompter run costs a minute and saves a reshoot.

11. Plan the insert you always forget

    Almost every edit stalls on one missing shot: the close-up of the thing being discussed, the hands, the screen, the label. It is never in the plan because it is obvious — and obvious shots are the ones nobody rolls on. Put it on a card.

12. Hand over the list, not the vision

    Whoever shoots or cuts this needs shot numbers, durations, lines and cues on one page. Export it and give them that. A shot list everyone can read is worth more than a perfect one that only lives in your head.

Shot length cheat sheet

A starting point, not a law. Every one of these bends for a good enough shot.

Word counts assume a normal 150 wpm delivery with no pauses for b-roll or music. Budget roughly 10–20% fewer words than the table if your video breathes.

How long should a shot be?

Two to four seconds for most shots in short-form video; six to ten for talking to camera when the line is worth it. The number matters less than the reason. A shot is the right length when removing a second would lose something and adding one would gain nothing — which is a judgement you can only make against a running clock, not in your head.

How many shots does a 30-second video need?

Eight to fifteen. Under eight tends to feel static unless the performance is carrying it; over fifteen rarely leaves any single idea long enough to land. If your 30-second board has twenty-two cards, the video is probably two videos.

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