Chapter 16 — Exercises
Pre-production is a writing skill before it is a shooting skill, so most of these exercises are done at a table, not behind a camera — and they are the highest-leverage practice in Part IV. Do them with a notebook, a spreadsheet, or a notes app; a few ask you to stand in a room with your phone. Take the Project 2 items especially seriously: they are the actual working papers you will shoot from, so the effort here is not practice for the real thing — it is the real thing.
Exercises are graded by effort and depth:
- ⭐ Warm-up — a few minutes; locks in a concept.
- ⭐⭐ Core — the real practice; do as many as you can.
- ⭐⭐⭐ Stretch — deeper or more ambitious; where the biggest gains are.
Model solutions and critiques for the starred and odd-numbered exercises are collected in Answers to Selected Exercises at the back of the book. Attempt each one before you read its answer — a plan you got wrong teaches more than a model answer you only read.
A. Reading the plan behind the video (Eye & Ear Training)
These need no camera — only the ability to watch a finished video and reverse-engineer the pre-production that made it.
1. ⭐ Spot the treatment. Watch any short documentary or brand film (2–4 minutes). In one sentence, write the logline you think its makers started from — the story, not the topic. Then name the one adjective that seems to have driven its tone. (Answer discusses how to tell a logline from a topic.)
2. ⭐ First image, last image. For the same video, write down its literal first shot and its literal last shot. Do they "bookend" — does the ending rhyme with or answer the beginning? Most planned videos do; note whether this one was planned or just stopped.
3. ⭐⭐ Reverse-engineer the shot list. Pick a 60–90 second segment of a video you admire and list every distinct shot in it as a shot-list row (size, subject, rough move). Count them. You will almost always find more shots — and more coverage — than you expected. What does that tell you about how much B-roll the shoot must have gathered? (Model answer provided.)
4. ⭐⭐ Find the fixed points. Watch a video shot on location (a travel piece, a doc). Identify one thing the makers clearly scheduled around — golden-hour light, an empty location, a specific event. How can you tell it was planned for rather than stumbled into?
5. ⭐⭐⭐ The missing plan. Find a video that feels amateur or chaotic — a shaky, echoey, aimless one. Diagnose it as a pre-production failure: name the specific document (treatment, shot list, schedule, recce) whose absence you think caused each problem. This is the whole chapter in reverse. (Model answer provided.)
B. From idea to plan (Write the Treatment)
6. ⭐ Logline gym. Write loglines for three of these topics, turning each topic into a story: a hardware store, a public swimming pool, a night-shift baker, your own morning commute. One sentence each; no sentence may contain the word "about."
7. ⭐⭐ The six-question treatment. Write a full one-paragraph treatment for a 90-second video on an ordinary subject near you (a laundromat, a barber, a community garden). Answer all six questions — logline, audience, format, tone, so-what, look — and include a first image and a last image. (Model answer provided.)
8. ⭐⭐ Same subject, two treatments. Take one subject and write two treatments that lead to opposite videos by changing only the tone adjective — e.g., a gym as "triumphant and loud" versus "quiet and disciplined." List three concrete production choices (light, pace, sound) that flip between them. (Answer provided.)
9. ⭐⭐⭐ The client swap test. Write a treatment for a local business, then try to swap in a different business without changing the wording. If you can, your treatment is a topic, not a plan — rewrite it until the swap breaks. Explain what you had to add to make it specific. (Model answer provided.)
C. Scripting (Script This)
10. ⭐ Video/Audio sort. Given this beat — "we see hands kneading dough while a baker explains, in voice-over, that the recipe is ninety years old, over soft piano" — write it as a single two-column row, correctly sorting each element into VIDEO or AUDIO.
11. ⭐⭐ Write a cold open. Write a two-column (A/V) script for the first 15–20 seconds of your Project 2, in the FIGURE 16.2 format. Fill both columns for every row — if the AUDIO column is empty, you're forgetting that sound is half the picture. (Model answer provided.)
12. ⭐⭐ Outline, don't script. For an interview-driven piece, write an outline script of at least four beats. For each beat, write the question you'd ask (not the answer) and the B-roll that beat needs. Notice you are planning the edit without knowing a single word your subject will say. (Answer provided.)
13. ⭐⭐ Two-column vs outline. For each project, say which script form fits and why: (a) a scripted 30-second product promo with narration; (b) a 5-minute profile of a retiring teacher; (c) a how-to explainer you'll narrate; (d) a wedding highlight film. (Model answer provided.)
14. ⭐⭐⭐ Write for the ear. Take a paragraph of dense written text (from a website or brochure) and rewrite it as spoken narration for a two-column script: short sentences, contractions, one idea per line, easy to say out loud. Read both versions aloud and time them. Which is shorter, and which sounds human? (Model answer provided.)
D. Boarding and listing (Storyboard & Shot-List This)
15. ⭐ Board four frames. Storyboard a simple four-shot sequence (someone entering a room, sitting, opening a laptop, reacting) as four boxes with one-line captions, in the FIGURE 16.3 style. Stick figures and boxes only — drawing skill is banned.
16. ⭐⭐ The twelve-row shot list. Build a shot list of at least twelve rows for one of the four setups (talking-head, walk-and-talk, product, event) in the FIGURE 16.4 format, including size, move, subject, audio, and a priority for every row. At least half the rows must be coverage/B-roll. (Model answer provided.)
17. ⭐⭐ Prioritize under fire. Take the shot list from Exercise 16 and imagine the shoot is cut to half its time. Cross out every row you'd sacrifice, keeping only what leaves you a cuttable film. How many priority-1 rows did you have? If more than half your list was "must-have," your priorities are too soft — re-sort. (Answer provided.)
18. ⭐⭐ When NOT to storyboard. List three kinds of shot that clearly need a storyboard and three that clearly don't. State the general rule that separates them. (Model answer provided.)
19. ⭐⭐⭐ Board the line. Storyboard a two-person exchange (an order at a counter, a handshake, a hand-off) across at least four frames, and use the board to check the 180-degree line — mark each person's screen position and confirm eyelines match across the cut. Where would a crossed line show up? (Model answer provided.)
20. ⭐⭐⭐ Coverage audit. Take any shot list (yours or FIGURE 16.4) and, for each interview or hero setup, confirm there is at least one shot you could cut to to hide a trim. If any setup has no cutaway, add one. Explain, using Chapter 20's coming logic, why a setup with no cutaway is a trap. (Answer provided.)
E. Scheduling (Schedule This)
21. ⭐ Story order vs shooting order. Given a video that plays wide → interview → B-roll → wide, write the shooting order you'd actually use for a one-location, one-morning shoot, and explain each reordering in a phrase. (Answer provided.)
22. ⭐⭐ Build the day. Turn your Exercise 16 shot list into a shoot-day schedule in the FIGURE 16.5 format: grouped by setup and location, built around at least one fixed point (light or quiet), with a buffer block in it. (Model answer provided.)
23. ⭐⭐ Estimate honestly, then add a third. For a lit interview setup, write your honest time estimate for (a) lighting, (b) rehearsing/settling the subject, (c) shooting the coverage. Total it, add a third for buffer, and compare to a beginner's optimistic guess. Where does the beginner's plan break? (Answer provided.)
24. ⭐⭐⭐ Two fixed points, one day. Plan a schedule for a shoot that must capture both a golden-hour exterior and a quiet indoor interview in a single day. Show how you'd sequence the day around both fixed points, and what you'd shoot in the "flat" middle hours. (Model answer provided.)
F. Budgeting (Budget This)
25. ⭐ Three currencies. For your Project 2, list one cost that lands in each currency — money, time, and a favor — and, for the favor, write how you'll repay it. (Answer provided.)
26. ⭐⭐ The zero-dollar budget. Build a budget skeleton (FIGURE 16.6 format) for a shoot you could actually do this month, keeping the money column as close to zero as honestly possible by moving costs into the time and favor columns. Do not forget the food line, the contingency, or your own time. (Model answer provided.)
27. ⭐⭐ Rent, borrow, or buy. For each item, decide rent / borrow / buy and justify in one line: a tripod, a cinema-grade long lens for one shoot, a lav mic, a gimbal you'd use twice a year, a spare memory card. (Model answer provided.)
28. ⭐⭐⭐ From budget to bid. Take your zero-dollar budget from Exercise 26 and convert it into a client price: add a realistic day rate for your time, mark up any rentals, and write the single number you'd quote. Note which lines a client pays for that a passion project absorbs. (This previews Chapter 38.) (Answer provided.)
G. Scouting (Scout This)
29. ⭐ The sound scout. Go to a room you might film in, stand still, and record ten seconds on your phone. Play it back on headphones. Write down every sound you did not consciously hear while standing there. This is the check beginners skip. (Answer discusses what to listen for.)
30. ⭐⭐ The five-domain recce. Scout a real location for a possible shoot and fill in all five domains (picture, sound, light, power/logistics, permission/people) as a checklist. Take three reference photos and note which way the light comes from. Do it at the time of day you'd actually shoot. (Model answer provided.)
31. ⭐⭐ Draw the recce map. Turn your Exercise 30 scout into a top-down recce map in the FIGURE 16.7 style — mark the subject, camera, light source, mic, and any bounce, plus notes on sound and power. This is the bridge from scouting to a shootable plan. (Model answer provided.)
32. ⭐⭐⭐ Plan B. For a location you care about, write the single biggest risk the recce surfaced (noise, no power, no permission, bad light) and a concrete backup plan — a different room, a different time, a different approach — you'd switch to if it goes wrong on the day. (Answer provided.)
H. Diagnosing broken plans (Fix the Plan)
33. ⭐⭐ Fix the shoot day. A crew plans: "10 a.m. — shoot the interview in the café. 11 a.m. — exterior shots outside. Noon — B-roll of the pastries." List every pre-production problem in this plan, sorted by domain (sound, light, order, buffer), and rewrite the schedule. (Model answer provided.)
34. ⭐⭐ Fix the shot list. A shot list for a testimonial reads: "1. Interview (wide). 2. Interview (medium). That's it — keep it simple." Name what's missing and what will go wrong in the edit, then add the rows that fix it. (Answer provided.)
35. ⭐⭐⭐ Fix the treatment. A "treatment" reads in full: "A video about our company. We'll show the office and interview the CEO about our values and mission." Rewrite it into a real treatment that makes actual decisions, inventing whatever specifics you need. Explain what you added and why. (Model answer provided.)
I. Interleaving prior chapters (Mixed)
36. ⭐⭐ Coverage on the page (Ch.7). Your shot list is where coverage gets planned. For a single interview answer you want to shorten in the edit, list the minimum shots (sizes and cutaways) you must put on the shot list so the trim won't jump. Tie each to its job in the cut. (Model answer provided.)
37. ⭐⭐ Continuity makes the schedule possible (Ch.9). Explain, in a short paragraph, why shooting out of story order (as a schedule demands) is only safe because of the continuity skills from Chapter 9. What specifically must you shoot carefully to reassemble the pieces later? (Answer provided.)
38. ⭐⭐ Directing in pre (Ch.10). Your subject is a nervous first-timer. List three pre-production decisions (from Chapter 10's directing lessons) you'd bake into your treatment, schedule, and recce to get a relaxed, truthful performance. (Model answer provided.)
39. ⭐⭐⭐ Light and sound are pre-production decisions (Ch.13, 15). Take your Project 2 plan and mark every place where a choice about light (Ch.13) or sound (Ch.15) is actually being made in pre-production — on the schedule, the recce map, the shot list. Argue that "fix it in pre" is mostly about light and sound. (Answer provided.)
J. The book's spine (Project & Frame Log)
40. ⭐ Frame Log: the plan you can see. Add today's entry: watch any polished video and note one piece of pre-production you can infer from the screen — a planned camera move, a bookend, a location clearly scheduled for its light. You are now reading plans, not just shots.
41. ⭐⭐⭐ Complete the Production Checkpoint. Pre-produce your Project 2 documentary short in full: the one-paragraph treatment, the twelve-plus-row shot list, and the simple schedule. This is the assignment that begins your three-minute documentary; keep all three documents, because you will shoot from them in Chapters 19 and 20. (Model checklist and a critique rubric provided.)
K. Deeper drills (Settings, Five Ways, Recreate, Read the Plan)
42. ⭐⭐ Settings Drill: from tone to settings. Take your Project 2 treatment's tone adjective and derive the shoot it implies. In a short table, write what that tone dictates for four things: camera support (locked vs. handheld), shot length in the edit (held vs. quick), light (soft vs. hard), and sound (quiet/natural vs. driving). Then name the single biggest pre-production decision that follows from it. (Model answer provided.)
43. ⭐⭐ Five Ways: one subject, five loglines. Choose one subject and write five different loglines for it — five genuinely different films (e.g., for a public library: a nostalgia piece, a homelessness story, a kids'-summer story, a "buildings-as-democracy" essay, a day-in-the-life of a librarian). Pick the strongest for a 3-minute doc and say, in two sentences, why it would hold a stranger best. (Model answer provided.)
44. ⭐⭐⭐ Recreate the plan. Take a short film, ad, or music video you admire (2–4 minutes) and reverse-engineer the complete pre-production package it must have required: a plausible one-line treatment, the six or eight shots that clearly headline its shot list, the scheduling logic (what was shot around — light? a location? a crowd?), and where its budget's real costs lived (money, time, favors). You are proving that everything polished was planned. (Model answer provided.)
45. ⭐ Read the plan: spot the gap. A shot-list excerpt reads: "1. Interview, medium, subject to camera. 2. Wide of the room. 3. Detail: hands. + room tone." For a 3-minute interview piece you intend to shorten heavily in the edit, name the one kind of shot most conspicuously missing and the edit problem its absence will cause. (Answer provided.)
46. ⭐⭐ The one-card shoot. Compress an entire small shoot onto a single index card: the logline, your top six shots (with priorities), three schedule blocks, and the budget's headline (money / time / favors). If it doesn't fit on a card, your plan isn't focused enough yet — cut until it does.
47. ⭐⭐ Settings Drill: the recce-to-settings bridge. Given these recce findings — "east-facing window, gorgeous 7–8 a.m. then hard sun; fridge hum in the back room; no outlets; opens to the public at 9" — write the four decisions they dictate about when to shoot the interview, how to light it, how to protect the audio, and how to power the shoot. (Answer provided.)
48. ⭐⭐⭐ The pre-production defense. Present your finished Project 2 plan to a peer (or in writing) and defend three specific decisions by naming the earlier chapter each one draws on — e.g., "the interview is scheduled at dawn because of Chapter 13 (light) and Chapter 15 (quiet)." If you can't cite a reason for a choice, it's an accident, not a decision (Theme 4: motivate every choice).
49. ⭐ Frame Log: the plan you'd change. Watch any video and note one pre-production decision you would have made differently — a shot they clearly didn't get, a location that fought them, a bookend they missed. You are now editing plans in your head before they're shot, which is exactly the skill this chapter trains.
When your treatment, shot list, and schedule for Project 2 exist on paper, you have done the single most valuable thing in this book that isn't shooting: you've made the shoot day winnable before it starts. Move on to Chapter 17, where we make sure the plan you just built tells a story worth watching.