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There is so much in the world that a film director can point a camera at. So much to slip into the final cut of a film. Even though a film director can add anything they want, there are good reasons not to. The limitations and relationship of each and every piece in every frame will work to make the whole. Some guidelines are helpful for directors in deciding not only what to film, but what makes it into the final cut of the movie.

Tell Story

If these frames are essential to the story then they ought to be included. There is no definite line of what is necessary and what isn't, which is where the director enters. You need to find the balance between exposition and action, rhythm and pacing. Not every frame will simply be what happened, often we need to know some background for it to make sense. Worse still this often changes depending on the audience. Socially and filmmically experienced individuals might not need much extra information, but younger people may need things a bit more obvious.

Sense Of Place

Some of the things that might be included in a film besides story are those that define where the story takes place. An event is nothing if not connected to the location of it. That's something a film can do vividly in minimum time. Again the balance needs to be struck between how much scenery and how much story. This will a big factor in how the story is received and what the director's style will become. Luckily, a few seconds of footage showing landscapes or exteriors of buildings are much more efficient ways to richly convey setting than a novel which may take tens of pages to do the same.

Develop Character

There are lots of moments in a movie where action is happening but we could also communicate others things at the same time. An inching along the corridor of a house could include cutaways to family pictures or the artwork of the character's daughter hanging on the wall. A character frantically searching their room for money could be filled with cutaways of items they throw in their search. These are simple and elegant ways to more fully reveal who these people in your film really are and great use of screen time.

Establish Mood

Nothing happens in a vacuum, there is always a feeling of some sort attached. A definite emotional atmosphere can go a long way to ensuring the story seems authentic. You could do this with cutaways of rain falling down in a downbeat story or insert shots of flowers and sunshine in a happy one. Since we only have the characters' actions to draw from, you can make things more clear with subtle additions of things that convey the mood you want to set.

Point Of View

No movie can be made objectively. Not only will the director have an opinion, but so should the production. No story can be told from everybody's point of view even though it may be told from more than one. One of the great ways to limit what kind of shots you include will be point of view. What is shown should be seen mostly from the perspective of the person or people the story is about. It need not be directly motivated, a blind person can't see anything, sometimes it can be a way to metaphorically express the way they see things.

Theme

Every story has a conflict and with that can come thematic ways to express it. A conflict of two opposite characters might include cutaways of dogs and cats fighting. A story about two people that are alike on the surface but quite different below might bring about a motif of mirror images like twins, matching socks, or pairs of shoes. There are so many ways to tell a story, so many aspects a film can tell about a world. A film needs something to hold it together and a theme can do this elegantly.

Making films is full of pitfalls and opportunities. There are so many options that it's easy to use that as an excuse to do as much of what you want as possible. A film will turn out best when you give it more of what IT wants. A film should be a balance between what an audience wants and what you want. It should also be a balance between the story and the other expositional elements. Instead of worrying about your own artistic gratification, do your best to be the shepherd rather than a runaway sheep.