What each line needs
Number every shot, and give each line the same columns. Scene and shot number. Shot size and angle. Camera move and its speed. The action, written as one short verb phrase. Which references it uses: character, wardrobe, product, location. Start state and end state. Duration. On-screen text or graphics, if any, to be added in the edit. Sound: dialogue, voice-over line, effects, music cue. A final column for status and approved take. A line that fills every column leaves little for the model to guess.
Writing shots a model can make
One action per shot. "She picks up the bottle, opens it and pours" is three shots, and the model will usually fumble at least one of them. Describe where the shot starts and where it ends, since that is what the edit depends on. Keep fine hand work, crowds, mirrors and readable text out of generated shots where the story allows, or give them their own short, simple shots. Keep each duration within what the model handles well, and split anything longer.
From script to shot list
Break the script into beats, then each beat into the shots that show it. Let the voice-over decide timing: read the lines aloud against a timer and give each shot the length its line needs. Mark the shots that carry a product claim, a price or a legal line, because they need extra review. Mark which shots are essential and which are nice to have, so a tight deadline cuts the right ones. Add inserts, such as a product detail or a hand on a door, as their own lines; they are often what holds a cut together.
The shot list as a review record
Approve shot by shot against the line, not the whole film at once. Each shot keeps its takes, the one chosen and who approved it, so a change request names a shot rather than describing a moment vaguely. The finished list doubles as the production record: which references, which takes and which approvals made the film, which helps when a rights question or a regulator's query arrives months later. Synthetic White runs approvals with roles, sign-off steps and an audit trail of who approved what.
Updated 26 October 2026