The most important director tools isn’t camera or lighting equipment, it’s the directors own beat sheet and shot list. Let’s take a look at the differences between a beat sheet and shot list, and how to create a beat sheet.

What is a beat sheet?

A beat sheet is a list of emotional moments to be portrayed by actors, character thoughts and feelings that cannot be communicated via dialogue. A director uses a beat sheet to communicate with their actors what emotional moments need to happen in a scene, to make that scene and overall story work. Any given scene or shot can have a number of emotional beats. These emotional beats often portray emotional subtext that isn’t clearly spoken amongst characters.

A beat sheet is split into two columns, one side has what the actors are actually doing (dialogue and action), while the other side has the emotional beats the actors need to convey.

If you’re a writer as well as a director you can create a beat sheet as a precursor to writing dialogue in your scripts. Often times the best dialogue doesn’t directly communicate what the character wants, it’s the emotional subtext (beat) between the dialogue that communicates the characters wants and needs. For example, Jack (5) wants to go home, does he say “I want to go home!”? He could, but that beat is better communicated by him whining, “I’m tirrrrreeeeddd.” The audience will understand he doesn’t want to be wherever he is, and they know Jack sleeps at home.

What is the difference between a beat sheet and a shot list?