Lesson 7 · 18 min
Making a shot list means cutting the written scene into numbered shots, each with a camera, timing and sound. In 2026 sound joined the list: video generators return audio along with the image, so what you hear in each shot is also a directing decision.
Start the lesson
Goal: turn a written scene into a numbered shot list with the size, angle, movement, sound and duration of each shot.
Six decisions, in this order. Click each one.
Order matters: deciding the sound before the timing avoids a shot too short for the dialogue to fit.
The example is the scene that runs through the course: "The first batch".
Write the scene before thinking about the camera. Four sentences are enough: where and when, who and what they do, what changes, how it ends.
Also decide what the audience should feel. In the batch scene, it's the quiet pride of someone who wakes up before the city.
4:50 a.m., a neighborhood bakery still closed. Dona Lia prepares the dough alone. The first batch comes out of the oven. Someone knocks on the iron door and she opens it for the first customer.
The three-act convention gives a guide proportion: a quarter of the scene to set up, half for tension and the turn, a quarter to close.
Opening wide and closing on a strong image gives you a beginning and an end. Paused on the last second, the final frame has to work on its own.
As of Oct 2026, the main video generators return audio in the same pass, with ambience, effects and speech. That's why the shot list gained a sound column.
Google's official video prompt guide recommends describing the audio in sentences separate from the image. The shot list's sound column becomes those sentences in course 1.
sound: creaking oven, hissing steam. For dialogue, one short line: "Coming!"
Dialogue in a short video is one sentence. The character doesn't explain what they feel: "Coming!" says routine and pride without naming either one.
Silence is sound too. A shot with only the ambience before the line gives it weight. Score, voice and mixing are the subject of course 2.
The format the page checks, and a request for the AI assistant to make the draft.
Scene: <scene name> (<duration> s) Script: <the scene in 3 or 4 sentences> # n | size | angle | movement | duration | what happens | sound: ambience, effect, speech 1 | <size> | <angle> | <one movement> | <n> s | <shot action> | sound: <what you hear> 2 | <size> | <angle> | <one movement> | <n> s | <shot action> | sound: <what you hear>
You are a film directing assistant. Read the scene below and propose a shot list of 5 to 8 shots, one line per shot, in this format: n | size | angle | movement | duration | what happens | sound: ambience, effect, speech Rules: - one camera movement per shot (or a locked-off camera); - the shot size changes between neighboring shots; - the durations add up to <scene duration> seconds; - the sound column carries the ambience, the effect of the action and, if there is one, a short line of speech; - do not invent a character, place or object that is not in the scene. Scene: <paste the scene here in 3 or 4 sentences>
Paste the file (or upload the .txt). First try the example that passes and the example with errors: it's a rehearsal, and it costs nothing.
Only for those who already use a terminal. Download the course from GitHub and run it in its folder: the rules are the same as the page's. For your own file, replace --exemplo with its name (decupagem.txt); it exits 0 when it passes.
python3 conferir.py decupagem --exemplo; echo "saída: $?" python3 conferir.py decupagem --errado; echo "saída: $?"
$ python3 conferir.py decupagem --exemplo; echo "saída: $?" OK: 6 planos com tamanho, ângulo, movimento e som · 20 s saída: 0
$ python3 conferir.py decupagem --errado; echo "saída: $?" Ainda não. O que falta: - Plano 3: 2 escolhas de movimento; fique com uma só. - Plano 4: falta a coluna som. - Plano 5: falta a duração em segundos (ex.: 4 s). - Os planos somam 13 s; o pedido é de 16 a 24 s. saída: 1
A scene of your own, about 20 seconds long. You can start from the assistant's draft, but the final decision is yours.
Write the scene in four sentences and break it down into 5 to 8 shots in the template's format: size, angle, one movement, duration and the sound column. Paste it into the "Check your shot list" section and use "Download the file" to save decupagem.txt in your project folder.
Done when: the page answers OK: [n] planos com tamanho, ângulo, movimento e som · [s] s for your text, with the total between 16 and 24 s, and decupagem.txt is in the project folder.
In your shot list, leave one shot with no dialogue, only ambient sound, right before the shot that has the line. Check again.
Done when: the page still answers OK: … and, in your list, the shot before the line shows only ambient sound or effect in the sound column, without the word dialogue.
Four questions. The explanation shows up after each answer.
Question 1 of 4
Why does the 2026 shot list have a sound column on every shot?
Question 2 of 4
One shot in your list says "dolly in with zoom in." What does the page answer, and why?
Question 3 of 4
Which of these lines has subtext?
Question 4 of 4
Your scene is 20 s long and the shots add up to 31 s. What do you do first?
Pick an answer. The explanation appears after you try.