The Ins and Outs of Shot Coverage: How to Always Get the Footage You Need to Deliver a Finished Product

Learn the fundamentals of shot coverage from a script supervisor who has worked on major blockbusters like FURIOUS 7, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, JURASSIC PARK 3, and more!

Making movies is filled with stressful moments and on-the-spot choices and decisions, all with a ticking clock. The last thing you want as a filmmaker in post production is to have to compromise your visual story because you didn’t get that one shot you needed. Yet this is incredibly common and one of the main reasons for reshoots, delays in a film’s release, and ultimately going over-budget. This is why having a full understanding of shot coverage and what constitutes the bare visual minimum for any type of scene is essential to making a compelling movie.

Everything begins with a visual plan. But as a director, DP, AD, or script supervisor, how can you design shots before you have blocked a scene? How many shots do you actually need? And how do you know when it is time to move on when you are running out of filming time? It’s a difficult balance, but skillfully navigating when and when not to spend a few more precious moments on an unplanned shot separates wise filmmakers from the pack. It requires a vision, visual literacy in storytelling, and a willingness to communicate and collaborate with your coverage team while maintaining your role as visionary on the set.

Brenda Wachel is an accomplished and sought after script supervisor with over 30 years of experience and credits on some of the biggest films of all time, including JURASSIC PARK 3, OCTOBER SKY, BRIGHT, COLLATERAL, FURIOUS 7, and CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER. She has worked with countless directors like Paul Haggis, Joe Johnston, Michael Mann, David Ayer, Tim Robbins, and Terry Gilliam and continues to serve as script supervisor for projects like Netflix’s just released mockumentary feature DEATH TO 2020, written and directed by BLACK MIRROR’s Charlie Brooker and starring Hugh Grant, Samuel L. Jackson, and Lisa Kudrow. Brenda has overseen shot coverage on countless films and television shows and knows how this process can save or destroy a project. Now she’ll share her experience with the Stage 32 community.

Brenda will give essential and helpful tools to allow you to best prepare for your film or project’s production and ensure you get the footage you need the first time around. She’ll outline the different tools the directors have and the choices they have to make, including shot sizes, angles, lens choices and focus choices. She’ll next delve into the tools to use for successful shot coverage. She’ll explain how to build a strategic shot list and how to use storyboards and look books. She’ll explain how to collaborate with your core coverage team (the director, DP, script supervisor and AD) to ensure you’re getting the footage you need in the moment. Next, Brenda will give a deep dive into what to do to cover basic scenes, including dialogue scenes between two people, dialogue scenes with three or more people, walk and talk scenes, and interior car scenes. Finally, Brenda will offer a live case study by showing a scene from a notable film and reverse engineering the shot list to demonstrate how the filmmakers got the coverage they needed to make the scene work.

And the best part - this webinar is available to watch on-demand right now!

With the tools and knowledge Brenda is providing, you’ll be able to attack your next production more strategically and ensure you wrap production with exactly what you need.

Praise for Brenda's Previous Stage 32 Teaching:

"Loved the level of expertise. I often take webinars and find that I'm as knowledgeable as the instructor, but this one was exceptional." -- Scott F.

"Brenda was clear and generous in sharing her knowledge." -- Kathleen O.

"I loved Brenda's talk! She provided a ton of work-related experiences that can be applied to the job, many that you cannot find in a book. She was very enjoyable to listen to and she was open and honest. I loved it!" -- Allish S.

"Brenda’s wealth of working knowledge was amazing." -- Pamela F.

"Brenda is a phenomenal teacher and film industry expert. I recommend any course she teaches!" -- Ana N.