Those of you who have submitted films for feedback will know that I'm big on having a motivation for every decision you make. Some of those will be huge decisions (where to put the camera, and why), and some will be tiny (crop in a few pixels more).
As long as you have a framework for making them, the size of the decisions doesn't matter - they'll all pull you forwards.
The end result of any creative process is the result of tens of thousands of decisions. If they're all aligned through the same impulse, you get artwork that powerfully tells a story. If the decisions lack singular motivation, the end result will be weaker.
One of the biggest issues with using AI is that it makes so many big and small decisions for us, so we need to powerfully fight it if we want to stay in charge of our creations (spoiler alert: we do)
This cheat sheet is how I approach every shot that I'm planning. It's largely influenced by Steven Katz's book “Shot by Shot”, which I recommend whenever I can.
Essentially you're breaking your script into beats (pivotal moments), and for each beat you're asking 4 questions:
The 4 Questions
Whose moment is this?
How close are we to them and why?
What angle are we viewing them from and why?
Is the camera still or moving?
You need to practice asking these questions, and connecting the answers with the exact thing that you want to say in that beat.
This sheet not only goes deeper with that, but also gives you a 3d shot with characters so that you can put your decisions into action, and block out a full scene.
Enjoy!