Shot reference · Cinematography craft
The reference room for people who make the cut.
Tools and guides for videographers, independent filmmakers and virtual cinematographers. Find the frame, decide what stays, and build the brief.
A finished film is what survived the trim — so the reference behind it should be just as deliberate.
Who it's for
Videographers
Event, commercial and brand work where the next shot can't wait for a reshoot. Reference that travels from brief to set.
Independent filmmakers
Short and feature work on a real budget. Build the visual argument before the camera rolls, then defend every choice.
Virtual cinematographers
LED volumes and in-camera VFX. Plan the frame the engine has to render — coverage, lensing and look, decided up front.
The craft
All guidesNine clusters, equally weighted
Image-rich and example-driven, by and for working filmmakers. No single topic is the centrepiece — the craft is.
- 01 / SHOT TYPES
Shot types
Wide to extreme close-up, OTS to insert — the named vocabulary every shot list is written in, and when each one earns its place.
Read - 02 / LENSES
Lenses
Anamorphic vs. spherical, focal length and compression, fast glass and breathing. The optical decisions that read on screen.
Read - 03 / LIGHTING
Lighting
Practical recipes — night interiors, hard vs. soft, motivated sources, the single-key look. How a frame is shaped before color.
Read - 04 / COLOR & LOOK
Color & look
Grade breakdowns, LUTs and looks, palette as authorship. Reading the color decision out of a finished still.
Read - 05 / PREVIZ
Previz
Storyboards, animatics, shot planning. Deciding the cut before the camera rolls so the day on set is execution, not invention.
Read - 06 / VIRTUAL PRODUCTION
Virtual production
LED volumes, in-camera VFX, real-time backdrops. One topic among the craft — covered the way a working operator needs it.
Read - 07 / AI CINEMATOGRAPHY
AI cinematography
Where generative tools fit a real shoot — prompts as coverage, the model as a department, and the limits worth knowing now.
Read - 08 / STYLE STUDIES
Style studies
How a DP, a film, or a movement actually frames. Pulling the repeatable rules out of the work you keep rewatching.
Read - 09 / SHOT REFERENCE
Shot reference
The reference habit itself — finding the frame, tagging it, and turning a wall of stills into a brief you can hand to a crew.
Read
Reference in practice
All guides
The doctrine
Most reference is hoarding. Ours is an argument — every frame kept because it earns the cut, the rest left behind.
The flagship tool
Gobeau — your shot reference, tagged and decisive
A filterable shot-reference library where every still is tagged by the decisions that made it — shot size, lens, light, colour, aspect. Keep the frames that earn it, cut the rest, and assemble boards you can hand to a crew.
In build — library opens soon
Find the exact frame
Filter a tagged library by shot size, lens, lighting setup, color, aspect ratio and era. Search the way you actually brief — by the decision, not by the title.
Keep or cut
Every frame is a verdict. Keep the ones that earn it onto a board; the rest stay on the dimmed field of what you cut. Curation is editing.
Build the lookbook
Group kept frames into boards and lookbooks, annotate the why, and hand a crew a brief that reads like a finished cut — not a mood-board of vibes.
Find the frame. Decide what stays. Build the brief.
Every frame you save is a verdict, not a vibe. We build the tools to keep what earns it — starting with the Gobeau library — and the guides to back every decision with craft.