Daily shot breakdown — scene, take, camera, lens, movement. Coordinates set setup and locks continuity across the shoot day.
On set, a lineup sheet functions like a run sheet for the camera — without it, chaos reigns. For each shot of the day, you record: scene number, shot size (wide shot, medium shot, close-up), lens, camera movement (zoom, pan, tracking), lighting notes, and if necessary, the planned take sequence. The script supervisor or a set manager maintains the sheet, but the camera department must read and carry it — otherwise, you lose continuity between shots in a scene.
In practice, this is how it works: The 1st Assistant Camera (Focus Puller) creates a draft in the morning or the day before, based on discussions with the director and DP. It is then continuously updated throughout the shooting day. Every change — a different lens, a spontaneous dolly shot instead of a zoom, a higher/lower camera position — must be entered immediately. This might sound like bureaucracy, but it's memory. During editing or reshoots two weeks later, you won't have to guess which 35mm prime lens was used for the shot-reverse-shot. The color values of the lighting are in there, the depth-of-field settings — everything.
The lineup sheet is closely related to the shot list (editorial, narrative planning) and the exposure sheet (exposure data), but it differs in that it truly lives within the real-time shooting process and is about operational coordination, not just documentation. A good sheet has columns for: Scene No., Shot No., Description, Lens/Aperture, Movement, Light Type (Key Light Position, Temperature if relevant), Actor Positions, Dolly Start/End, Frame Rate (important for VFX), Lens Distortion Info. Some Gaffers and Focus Pullers also use a simplified digital format — a tablet sheet that is filled out live on set and goes directly to the DIT (Digital Imaging Technician).
The biggest mistake is to view the lineup sheet as a purely administrative task. It is a communication infrastructure. If the director suddenly says, "another close-up of the hand," you enter it — otherwise, editorial and VFX won't know if it's a continuation of the previous shot or a new angle. No sheet = no traceability. This costs time and money in post-production.