Chapter 16 — Quiz

A self-check on pre-production. Answer from memory first, then check the key at the end. These questions are the working knowledge you'll use on every shoot you ever plan, so it's worth confirming each one stuck.

Multiple choice

1. A treatment is best described as: - A. A shot-by-shot list of everything you'll film. - B. A short prose description — usually 1–3 paragraphs — of the video you intend to make, fixing its story, audience, length, tone, and purpose. - C. The legal contract with your subject. - D. The exact words the narrator will say.

2. The difference between a topic and a logline is that a logline: - A. Is longer and more detailed. - B. Names the story — what it's really about and why we'd watch — not just the subject. - C. Must be exactly one word. - D. Is written after the shoot.

3. In a two-column (A/V) script, the two columns are: - A. Shots and budget. - B. Video (what we see) and audio (what we hear). - C. Dialogue and stage directions. - D. Pre-production and post-production.

4. You're making a documentary built on an interview with a real person. The right scripting tool is: - A. A two-column script with the subject's exact lines written out. - B. A screenplay in master-scene format. - C. An outline script — the beats, questions, and B-roll you need, with the words coming from the subject. - D. No script at all; just wing it.

5. The single most valuable pre-production document for a working shooter on set is usually the: - A. Budget. - B. Storyboard. - C. Shot list. - D. Model release.

6. A priority column on a shot list exists so that: - A. The client knows which shots cost the most. - B. If time runs short, you still get the shots the edit can't live without. - C. You can shoot in alphabetical order. - D. The editor knows which clips to delete.

7. You do NOT shoot in the same order the finished video plays because: - A. It's bad luck. - B. Shooting in efficient order — grouped by location and lighting — saves the time that story-order shooting wastes on company moves. - C. Editors prefer clips out of order. - D. The camera records backwards.

8. What makes it safe to shoot a scene out of order and still cut it together later? - A. A big budget. - B. Continuity (Chapter 9) — matching action and screen direction so the pieces reassemble. - C. Using only one shot size. - D. Shooting everything in slow motion.

9. A production budget is denominated in three currencies. They are: - A. Dollars, euros, and pounds. - B. Money, time, and favors. - C. Cameras, lights, and microphones. - D. Pre, production, and post.

10. On a shoot day, the "food" line in a budget is: - A. Optional and usually skipped. - B. A real, non-optional cost — if people give you their day, you feed them. - C. Only for feature films. - D. The same as the contingency.

11. The gear rule of thumb from this chapter is: - A. Always buy the best you can afford. - B. Buy what you use on nearly every job; rent the specialty item; borrow the occasional thing. - C. Never own any gear. - D. Rent everything, always.

12. A recce is: - A. A rehearsal with actors. - B. An in-person scout of the location before the shoot, checking picture, sound, light, logistics, and permissions. - C. A type of camera move. - D. The final review of the edit.

13. The most-skipped and most-punishing domain of a location scout is: - A. Picture. - B. Sound. - C. Parking. - D. Wardrobe.

14. You should scout a location: - A. Whenever is convenient. - B. At the same time of day you'll actually shoot, because light and sound change hour to hour. - C. Only after the shoot. - D. Only if it's a paid job.

15. A call sheet (previewed here, built in Chapter 18) is: - A. The list of shots to capture. - B. The one-page document handed to everyone that says where to be, when, what's being shot, and the day's key details. - C. The budget spreadsheet. - D. The treatment.

16. "Fix it in pre, not in post" means, most precisely: - A. Never edit your videos. - B. Solve problems in planning, where they cost a sentence, rather than on set or in the edit, where they cost far more. - C. Post-production is unimportant. - D. Always shoot more footage.

True or false (justify your answer in one sentence)

17. A good treatment describes the topic of the video thoroughly.

18. You should write out an interviewee's answers in advance so they know what to say.

19. A storyboard is only useful if you can draw well.

20. For a simple talking-head interview, a full shot-by-shot storyboard is usually overkill.

21. A schedule with no buffer time is a sign of an efficient, disciplined producer.

22. A shoot that costs no money has no budget.

23. Accessibility and consent are best handled at the end of the project, once the video is done.

Short answer

24. Name the six questions a working treatment answers.

25. Give the decision rule for choosing between a two-column script and an outline script.

26. List the five domains a recce checks.

27. State three of the five scheduling principles from §16.4.

28. Why is the shot list described as "external memory," and what disaster does it prevent?

What's wrong with this plan? (perception & diagnosis)

29. A crew schedules a golden-hour exterior for "sometime in the afternoon, after we finish the interviews." They arrive to shoot it at 2 p.m. under flat, harsh light. What planning error did they make, and which fixed point did they fail to build the day around?

30. A shot list for a 3-minute documentary contains exactly the shots that appear in the final cut and nothing else — no extra angles, no cutaways, no room tone. Predict two specific problems this will cause in the edit, and name the principle violated.

31. A producer plans a talking-head interview in a large, beautiful, empty warehouse with a soaring ceiling and bare concrete walls. The photos look incredible. What did they forget to check, and why will it likely sink the video?

32. A "treatment" for a client reads: "We'll make an exciting, dynamic video that really captures the energy of your brand and engages your audience." What is fundamentally wrong with it as a planning document?

Answer Key

1. B. A treatment is the video described in prose before any script or shot list.
2. B. A logline names the story; a topic only names the subject.
3. B. Left = video (seen), right = audio (heard) — it forces you to plan picture and sound together.
4. C. Real people can't be scripted; you outline the beats, questions, and B-roll and let them supply the words.
5. C. The shot list — the on-set checklist that ensures the edit's coverage gets captured.
6. B. Priorities guarantee the must-have shots if the day runs short.
7. B. Efficient (grouped) order avoids wasteful company moves; story order does not.
8. B. Continuity — matching action and screen direction — lets out-of-order footage reassemble.
9. B. Money, time, and favors; naming all three keeps a "free" shoot honest.
10. B. Feeding people who help you is a real, non-optional cost and a matter of goodwill.
11. B. Buy the daily-use items, rent the specialty item, borrow the occasional one.
12. B. A recce is the pre-shoot location scout across five domains.
13. B. Sound — beginners photograph the picture and never listen, then get an unfixable echoey/noisy room.
14. B. Same time of day — light and sound change by the hour.
15. B. The call sheet is the day's instruction sheet for the whole crew (Chapter 18).
16. B. Solve it where it's cheapest — in planning.
17. False. A treatment describes the experience (what the viewer sees and feels, in order), making real decisions — not the topic.
18. False. Scripted lines make real people sound stiff and false; use an outline script and let them speak naturally.
19. False. Stick figures and boxes are the professional standard; the point is to make framing decisions on paper, not to draw well.
20. True. An outline script plus a shot list usually suffices; you board only the few designed shots (a cold open, a reveal).
21. False. No-buffer schedules fail at the first overrun; padding every block and holding contingency is the disciplined move.
22. False. It still has a budget — just denominated in time and favors instead of money.
23. False. Both are cheapest to plan in pre (on the recce, in the schedule); bolting them on at the end is expensive or impossible.
24. Logline (story), audience, format (length/aspect/where it lives), tone, the "so what" (think/feel/do), and the look.
25. Words written in advance and spoken by you or a narrator → two-column (A/V) script; words coming from a real person you can't script → outline script. (Invented lines performed by actors → screenplay.)
26. Picture, sound, light, power/logistics, and permission/people.
27. Any three of: shoot in efficient (grouped) order, not story order; group by setup/location; build the day around fixed points (light, quiet, people); pad every block with buffer; front-load the must-haves.
28. On set your working memory is overloaded (exposure, sound, the subject, the light), which is exactly when you forget a shot; the list offloads remembering onto paper, preventing the "drove home and never got the cutaway" disaster that starves the edit.
29. They scheduled a movable task around a fixed one backwards — golden hour is a hard, ~20-minute fixed point (Chapter 13) and must be scheduled first, with the movable interviews filling other hours. They failed to build the day around the light.
30. (a) The interview can't be shortened without a jump cut, because there are no cutaways to hide the trims; (b) the cuts will "click" audibly with no room-tone bed underneath. Principle violated: shoot for the edit — the shot list must include coverage, not just the hero shots.
31. They forgot the sound scout. A large room with bare concrete and a high ceiling is an echo chamber; dialogue recorded there will be hollow and reverberant, and you can't un-echo a room in post (Chapter 15). Beautiful and unusable.
32. It makes no decisions. "Exciting, dynamic, energy, engages" are adjectives with no content — the treatment could describe any video for any brand. A real treatment commits to a logline, a first and last image, a length, a specific tone, and a specific viewer action.

Topics to review by question: the treatment (1–2, 17, 24, 32); scripting (3–4, 18, 25); storyboards & shot lists (5–6, 19–20, 28, 30); scheduling (7–8, 21, 27, 29); budgeting (9–11, 22); the recce (12–14, 26, 31); the call sheet & the throughline (15–16, 23). Anything you missed, re-read that section before moving to Chapter 17.