R & P Post 13: Our Shoot-board

Another vital preparation for the test shoot was to create a shoot-board. A shoot-board is a table containing information for every shot whilst shooting - including the shot’s number and framing, who was in each role (director, camera, etc.) for each shot, and a brief description of the action and dialogue within the shot. When shooting, the crew has to write how many takes each shot required, as well as the best take. They also have to adhere to the time allocation in which to film each shot – important to prevent the shoot from overrunning.

We felt that the shoot-board would be extremely useful when shooting, as it is the primary source of information when shooting and setting up, enabling the crew to have a clear idea of which actors & props need to be on set and what the actors need to say & do. It also allows the crew to easily keep to time – this is important not only as it is frustrating if a shoot overruns, but also because light may run out towards the very end of a shoot and cause continuity errors if there is different lighting between shots.

The shoot-board contained various columns detailing where the shot was to take place,
what time we were going to decide each shot was to go ahead, and a shot's description,
actors, props and framing. 

Looking back, however, whilst I still feel that it is a central piece of information when shooting, I also think it has certain drawbacks. For instance, whilst identifying good takes is useful for the editing stage, it doesn’t take long at all to do so when editing and is perhaps easier as there is not so much of a time constraint. It could waste time in the long-run if, when on set, the crew are unsure of which is best. Moreover, whilst dividing roles is useful to ensure that each member of the group has a fair share of responsibility in each role, it is much easier dividing this up on the day as opposed to having to plan in advance and remind ourselves of when we decided to swap over.

On the whole, though, I believe that the shoot-board is hugely important to keep track of the shoot, and to aid the crew in setting up each shot to its description.