[HappyCamper]

Good tip from Mr. S!: Have your shots planned out!!

I just finished working on a film, where the director didn't have his shots planned out before filming, and it was a complete nightmare!

For each scene you should have at least the following shots:

Master Shot: a shot that establishes the actors, and their environment for the scene.

Medium shot: a tighter shot of the actors in the same position as the master shot.

# shot (replace # with number of actors in scene): this is basically a close up of the # of actors interacting with each other, the most common is a two shot.

Close Ups: you will need one of these for every actor in the scene, and they need to say everyone of their lines, even if you plan on cutting away from them during their dialogue.

these are just the basic shots, you MUST get on film!

there are others that are good to use such as:

Over the shoulder shots
Point of view shots
Aerial shots (above or below the camera)
Dolly shots


A good rule of thumb is get as much 'coverage' as you possibly can, it's always better to have more action on film, than you think you are going to use, it makes editing easier, and it's ALWAYS easier to cut footage away in editing than it is to have to ADD footage.

hope that was helpful, if I just confused you more, i'm sorry.