From a line to a shot list

0:08 Every episode starts as one line. In this video, you'll turn a line into a brief, the brief into a script you approve, and the script into a shot list, where every shot shows one new thing.

0:23 Here's episode one of Every Nine Seconds, in the writers' room. The script is a screenplay page: six sweeps, each with what the beam shows, and what the lighthouse says in the dark. It's approved: version one, by us. On the right, Continuity shows what it must keep: the bible's rules, and the cast, shot by shot.

0:48 Below the script, the director's shot list: one sequence, six shots. Each shot opens with its one new fact: a pale shape, then a door, then rocks. Under it, the direction the Lab will get, its length, its camera, and who's in it. Make takes sends that shot to the Lab.

1:11 Here's the test. Read the facts in order, with the sound off: a pale shape on the water; a door; rocks ahead; a beak, asleep; white under the black; a cormorant, standing. If a shot adds nothing new, cut it, or change it.

1:34 Now, yours: Snail Express's first episode. In the writers' room, choose New production: a title, and a logline, who, what, and why it matters. Then the brief. Kiju brings the channel's audience; you add the one thing viewers leave with, the format, the tone, and your idea, in your own words.

1:59 Then choose Draft script. The writer reads the brief, the bible's rules and the cast, Shelby included, and drafts a first version. The price is on the button, under twenty cents. The draft arrives line by line.

2:18 A draft is a draft until you keep it. Read it like an editor: does it follow the bible? An order, three obstacles, just in time, and Shelby never talks. It does. At the end, the writer lists what it invented: a ladybird, a countdown. Keep it as version one, and ask for one change.

2:42 Write what should change: cut the ladybird; Shelby climbs the hose alone. Then Revise v1. The writer sends a new pass, version two, with your words above it, and you read it again.

2:58 Version two: the ladybird is gone. Shelby climbs the hose alone, and pauses at the top to hum. Keep it as version two: that saves it. Then approve it: that locks it for the director. Nothing is in the script until you approve it.

3:17 Now the director. Choose Break v2 into shots. It reads the approved script, proposes sequences and shots, and films nothing. The price is on the button, under twenty cents.

3:32 The director proposes five sequences and ten shots: the order, three obstacles, just in time. Each direction repeats Shelby's look, from his card. Run the test, shot by shot: one new thing each. And check the length: sixty-nine seconds, for a sixty-second episode. Adopt it, and trim when the takes are in. Every shot now waits for its takes, with a button that sends it to the Lab.

4:02 Pause here, and write yours: a logline, a brief in your words, a script you approve, and a shot list where every shot shows one new thing. Next time: keyframes before motion.