A shot list is a document that lays out every shot a video needs before filming starts, in order, each one described well enough that whoever is holding the camera knows what to get without guessing.
It turns a plan into something that can actually be executed on the day: nothing about the idea gets decided on set, which is where a scenario stops being an idea and starts being a finished video.
A shot list is also what makes a scenario reusable by someone other than the person who thought of it — the idea and the instructions to execute it are two different documents.
A shot list written before filming also makes a video's actual cost predictable — how long the shoot will take, how many setups it needs — which is most of what separates a plan that survives a busy week from one that gets skipped.
A common mistake is writing a shot list so detailed it takes longer to plan than to film, or so sparse it leaves the actual decisions to the day — the useful middle is a list specific enough that someone else could hold the camera and get what the scenario needs without asking.
A shot list is also where a scenario's hook gets tested before anyone is on set: writing down exactly how the opening shot is framed and what it shows forces a decision that is much cheaper to change on paper than after the video is already cut.
Where it comes from
StudioBinder's own explainer defines it this way.
A shot list is a document that maps out everything that will happen in a scene of a film, or video, by describing each shot within that film or video.
Read the source: StudioBinder — What is a Shot List?.
What Rankfield reads
The landing page answers this directly, in its own words:
Your account end to end, your competitors, and the wider market around you: posts, videos, captions, comments, rhythm, what you offer. It watches the videos, not just the numbers under them.