How to Film Dialogue | Shot List & Camera Angles

The shot list needed to shoot a side-by-side dialogue scene can be simple; just make sure you get all the coverage and camera angles you need. Here is a breakdown of shots and how they were used to accentuate emotions and story elements.
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[@todrapayne]

These are great. You're wonderful at teaching.

[@TheNerdyFilmmaker]

Wow thank you so much! Really hope you found it useful

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Good video, informative , useful , thx!!!

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[@TheNerdyFilmmaker]

Thanks! Hope it was helpful

[@Boas306]

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Hope it was helpful!

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So understandable! Thanks!

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[@TAJ_DM]

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Thanks for the kind words. Hope it was helpful!

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[@TheNerdyFilmmaker]

Heyyy thanks! And thanks for the support :)

[@uncleben1586]

Really helpful!

[@TheNerdyFilmmaker]

Thanks so much! People really seemed to enjoy this one so thinking of doing a follow up with another scene / different layout.

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This looks great.

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Thanks so much!

[@ashoksindhe2135]

Nice video with knowledge

[@TheNerdyFilmmaker]

Haha thanks! Hope it was helpful

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Subscribed.. dude, KZbin should have suggested your video earlier...good for nothing but I'm glad I found your channel though...better late than never

[@TheNerdyFilmmaker]

Oh snap! Thank you for that :P that means a lot. Will be back to videos super soon, just been busy wrapping up some projects here. Hope you enjoy and find these helpful

[@ihassan1001]

@@TheNerdyFilmmaker can't wait and yes your videos are very helpful..thanks so much!

[@thesolid9091]

Thanks a lot for your work. BUT i have a question. do u ask actors to repeat the whole dialogue whenever you change the angle????????

[@TheNerdyFilmmaker]

Thanks for the question! It's case by case. If I know how I want to edit it from the start, I'll definitely have it broken down much more into smaller sections, and we'll do 3ish takes per angle. For this project, a large chunk of it I was not 100% sure how I wanted to cut it together. It was also a very emotionally charging scene, and I didnt want them to constantly start and stop, breaking them in and out of the energy. So instead, we did 1 to 2 max takes per angle, with like a solid 4-5mins of dialogue. But make sure this works, you gotta really make sure you have good rehearsals, where you all feel on the same page about character intensions and choices, so that you can be efficient with those long takes and get what you need on the day. For again, using this project as an example, I knew I didnt need the over-the-shoulder shots for the full scene; I just needed it for the portion I ended up using it for (as its a very emotionally guarded angle, where they're really diving into the difficult moment of their interaction). Hope that help! Lemme know if I can offer anything else.

[@theonering9876]

Hi, if I have two characters talking in my scene and I will be cutting between the two talking using MS, do I need to enter each cut (when there would be a new line of dialogue) into a new shot line in the shot list/ production schedule? Or since the entire scene can be shot in two shots (one filming each person) do I need only need two shots on the shot list? Thank you in advance.

[@TheNerdyFilmmaker]

Heyo! Great question. Each "shot" in your shot list is every time you reframe the camera. So if you're filming the full scene from two angles (a close up for each character), that's only 2 shots in your shot list. You don't do the "editing" in your shot list, if ya know what I mean. Especially because sometimes the most interesting performance isn't the person delivering the line, it's the person listening and receiving the line, and how it affects them. Good luck with your shoot, let me know if you have any other questions!

[@theonering9876]

@@TheNerdyFilmmaker Fantastic advice! So very helpful thank you. Another thought just occurred to me. What about if I want a MS on a Tripod to capture different things in a scene for example a MS will be used for character dialogue and another would be used to show them climbing a ladder. Do I need to lines in the shot list for this or can it be one as it will require the same camera setup?

[@TheNerdyFilmmaker]

@@theonering9876 Think of it this way. If you do not require calling "cut" on set because its the same setup, it can be written as the same shot. If you WOULD like to separate them, lets say you for whatever reason you want those two moments as separate files, you can call one of them "Shot B1" and the second "Shot B2", since its the same setup but jumping forward in time or something. In the end, while there are "official" ways of doing things, I think you should at this point be doing whatever works best for you on set in terms of maintaining a good schedule, and what works best for your editor in terms of clear organization of footage.

[@theonering9876]

@@TheNerdyFilmmaker what fantastic advice! Thank you greatly

[@BlueTorchWeddings]

How did you guys light this scene?

[@TheNerdyFilmmaker]

All natural sun with actually no diffusion. We ordered the shots so that as the sun moved, we were always shooting backlit. Maybe I’ll make one of my next videos detailing it!

[@BlueTorchWeddings]

@@TheNerdyFilmmaker lovely, simple and clean. What did you guys shoot with camera wise? And yes I would love to watch a video of the setup ☺️☺️. The film making process is magic to me

[@boothmedianyc6830]

How many cameras ?

[@TheNerdyFilmmaker]

Just one! Super tight budget on this one, so we could only afford the single RED and the crew to go along with it

[@dandelgado11]

Hi - but what you do with the dialogue-Audio when you shoot coverage with one cam? When you shoot mediums or close ups from different angles, with the same one cam, the audio quality must be exactly the same, and you must not have some atmosphere noise on the mics, or everyone will notice it, that this is the audio from another take. Ok, when you shoot the speaker from over the shoulder or behind, t h e n you can use the audio of the wide shot, when the actors played through the whole scene, but what if you have a cut where the mouth of speaking actor should be visible from another angle? - t h e n you have to record the audio of this angle new, o r the actors speaks e x a c t in the same rhythm and timing so that you can synchronize the white shot audio over the coverage...I'm about to shoot a dialogue short with one cam, that's why I ask...Thanks

[@TheNerdyFilmmaker]

Hey there! What a great question, thank you for this. So the actors are both mic'ed up with lav mics that are hidden in their clothing. Most film is shot with those, and that way the sound is consistent from shot to shot, ESPECIALLY the wides. Then on the closer ones, you can add in the boom mic as safety (plus sometimes the boom just sounds better). And then the sound mixer works to make it sound consistent, and make it sound further away in the wides. This obviously requires gear, and a sound person. If you dont have those, a boom mic is minimum requirement for good sound. And then try to not use the sound from the wide at all if possible (theyll just be too far from the mic, and it wont be clear), or dont have as far as a wide as I showed in this video. Make it closer for better sound. Hope that helps!

[@dandelgado11]

@@TheNerdyFilmmaker Many many thanks for the quick response! - Yes, we shoot with Lavs, there is also a sound man. I've also shot a few things, but never a dialogue film, neither did my DOP. HE said that if we shoot with o n e cam, we couldn't cut in the scene, at least not at an angle where the actor's mouth can be seen, because then we have to take the audio from the coverage, regardless of whether we The actors also have their respective parts spoken completely through during the coverage shots, or do a pickup in the middle, because the actor won't be able to repeat his text with 100% of the same melody, rhythm, style and phonics and you'll notice it when you do takes the respective audio recordings of the scene (wide, mediums, close ups etc) and the sound man then puts them together... I said to him don't believe that, because if you don't synchronize the audio in the studio, that's probably the way the professionals go, right? These the different audios from the different coverage on the coverage shots and the audio from the wide shot on the wide shot, right? Because it is very unlikely that the lav audio of the wide shots can be superimposed on the coverage scenes, because for that to happen the actor would actually have to speak at e x a c t l y the same speed in the coverage shots so that the wide-shot audio can reach them Mouth movements of the coverage shots fit, you know what I mean?

[@TheNerdyFilmmaker]

@@dandelgado11 i think I understand, and I’ll respond like this: when I cut from one angle of an actor to another of the same actor, if it is while the actor is talking, I try not to do it smack in the middle of a sentence. Maybe in a pause between sentences, and I’ll cut on the first or last word or two. For one word, you can easily match up the audio from the new angle over the last word of the old video. So that way you’re not switching audio files in the middle of a sentence, you know what I mean? Yikes this is very hard to explain via text! lol. Maybe I’ll make a video on it one day :P