The Pre-Production Checklist That Saves the Shoot
A location shoot lives or dies before the camera is unpacked. The crews that finish on time and on budget aren't faster on the day — they planned harder the week before. Here's the checklist we run for every field production.
Scout the location twice
Once for the story, once for the logistics. Where's the power? The bathrooms? The parking? At what time does the sun clear that building? Photograph everything and note the times — your shot list depends on it.
Plan around natural light
On location you rarely control the sun, so schedule with it. Golden hour for the beauty shots, open shade for interviews, midday for anything you can keep indoors. A simple sun-path app turns light from a gamble into a schedule.
Build a realistic shot list
- Group shots by location and lens to minimize moves.
- Mark the must-haves vs. the nice-to-haves.
- Flag any shot that's risky to capture in the field — weather, access, timing — so you have a plan B. Increasingly, that plan B is generating the shot later rather than forcing it on the day.
Gear and redundancy
Two cards, two batteries' worth of margin, a backup audio source. The cheapest insurance in production is a second copy of the thing that can't be re-recorded.
Have a contingency for the shots you'll miss
You will miss something — every shoot does. Decide in advance how you'll cover it: a reshoot, stock, or a generated insert. We keep a short list of "fixable in post" shots so the field team doesn't burn daylight chasing a cutaway we can generate cleanly afterward. Knowing what you can fix later is what lets you move fast on what you can't.
Do the boring work up front and the shoot day takes care of itself.