Lesson 9 of 10 · Module 4: Craft and Time
Script-to-Shot-List Translation
Take your finished two-column AV script and produce a numbered shot list (shot number, shot type, description, estimated duration) that a filmmaker could shoot from without ever seeing the underlying script.
How They Made This, Coinbase Commercial Breakdown
director Oscar Hudson discusses one specific, complex shot from the real, finished Coinbase commercial in detail, with the footage playing, closest available real-world match to a shot-by-shot discussion of a produced spot. It is a director interview, not a literal numbered shot list laid next to the footage, so it demonstrates the underlying skill (naming what’s in frame and why) rather than the exact visual format the slot describes.
Objective
Why This Matters
This is the bridge from writer to set. A script nobody can shoot from is a draft, not a finished script, no matter how well the words read aloud. This lesson forces you to look at your own AV script the way a director or director of photography will look at it, and it’s the direct handoff point into the filmmaking track’s grammar of shot types and coverage.
The Technique
Go row by row through your AV script’s video column, one at a time.
For each row, name the shot type: wide establishes place or context, medium frames a person from roughly the waist up and is where most dialogue lives, close-up isolates a face or a reaction, insert or detail isolates a specific object, hands, or product.
Estimate each shot’s duration from the audio it plays under in the AV script, not from a guess.
Number the shots sequentially and note anything that needs a specific location or prop to be shot. Don’t over-specify camera movement yet, that belongs to the filmmaking track. Your job here is to name what’s in frame and how tight the frame is, not how the camera physically gets there.
Watch For This
Good
- Every beat has an unambiguous, shootable shot line.
- Durations add up to the script’s real, timed length.
Classic Failure
- The shot list skips a video beat because it seemed “obvious” and didn’t need spelling out.
- Shot types are vague (“nice shot of the product”) instead of using a standard term.
- Durations were guessed rather than pulled from the AV script’s actual timed audio.
Your Drill
Take your Lesson 5 AV script, or its Lesson 8 trimmed version. Build a numbered shot list: shot number, shot type, description, duration. Cross-check that every video row in the script has a matching shot on your list. Submit the shot list alongside the AV script it came from.
Done? Paste what you made into the AI coach below for notes against this lesson's pass checklist.
Pass Checklist
Lesson complete
Criterion met: The shot list is complete, with no AV script video beat missing a corresponding shot, shot types correctly categorize the visual content described, and total shot durations land within 2 seconds of the script’s timed length.
Next: Lesson 10: Capstone, The Complete 30-Second Commercial PackageHow solid did that feel?
Noted.
Coach Note
A shot list is where the writer’s job ends and the filmmaker’s job begins. Hand it off cleanly, be specific enough that no interpretation is required, and get out of the way of the person who has to actually shoot it.
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Resurfaces In
Lesson 10 (Capstone).