A video shoot day starts an hour earlier than most clients expect and finishes an hour later. Below you will find a realistic video shoot day schedule broken down hour by hour, the list of things we need from you the day before, and the three reasons a shoot day usually slips.
Key takeaways
- A normal corporate shoot day runs 8 to 10 hours including wrap. Only around five of those hours are actual filming, the rest is setup, moves and waiting for people.
- The first lighting and sound setup takes 45 to 90 minutes. Every additional location on the same day costs another 30 to 60 minutes.
- We send the call sheet the evening before. In film practice the standard is to issue it no later than 12 hours before the start of the next work day, as the Wikipedia entry on the daily call sheet describes.
- Under Slovak labour law a shift longer than six hours entitles the employee to a 30 minute break. We build that break into the schedule instead of pretending it will not happen.
- Filmed images of a person may only be recorded with their permission under the Slovak Civil Code. We sign releases on the morning of the shoot, not later in the edit.
- The usual cause of delay is not the gear. It is the speaker who arrived 40 minutes late and the room that was not empty.
What does a video shoot day schedule look like hour by hour?
It looks like a tightly written day where short bursts of filming alternate with longer stretches of building. Here is a typical day at a client who needs two interviews and supporting footage from the shop floor.
- 7:30 arrival and unload. Two cars, four to six cases, tripods. We need door access and to know where the lift is.
- 8:00 building the first setup. Lights, background, sound, camera. It takes 45 to 90 minutes and it looks slow. This is where it gets decided whether the video will look expensive.
- 9:15 camera test. The first speaker sits down, we fit the lav mic and check that a window is not blowing out the frame.
- 9:30 first interview. For two or three usable minutes in the finished film we need 45 to 60 minutes with the person. The first ten of those go into helping them stop being nervous.
- 11:00 second speaker. Same setup, different chair, mic swap. That is exactly why we want both people in one block.
- 12:15 lunch, 30 minutes. Not a perk. It is the reason the afternoon footage is not a class worse than the morning.
- 13:00 move to the second location. Pack, carry, rebuild. Even one floor down that is 40 minutes.
- 13:45 supporting footage. Hands at work, machines, details, someone walking a corridor. This b-roll makes up most of the finished picture and takes the longest to shoot.
- 16:15 safety shots. One more pass on everything the script marks as essential. Discovering a missing shot in the edit costs a whole new shoot day.
- 16:45 wrap. Wrap takes about 45 minutes and cannot be rushed, because that is when you check nothing was left plugged into a socket.
If you compare this with what you expected, the surprise is the ratio: we film for roughly half the day and prepare for the other half. That is normal, and you can see it in the result.
What do we need from you so the schedule holds?
Seven things that cost nothing when we have them a day ahead and cost an hour when we sort them out on the morning.
- One contact person on site with a phone, who can open doors and make decisions. Not an email address, and not someone booked in meetings all day.
- A named list of speakers with times, confirmed by the speakers themselves. Not by their assistant, not by an unanswered calendar invite. This is by far the most common cause of delay.
- A room booked an hour longer than the schedule says, and empty. Desks and chairs usually have to move.
- Power sockets and the option to switch off the air conditioning. Ventilation is audible on the recording long after you have stopped noticing it.
- Signed releases for everyone who appears on camera, including people in the background.
- Parking and lift access. The gear is heavy and it travels in several trips.
- A reception desk and a department that know we are coming. Colleagues who were not told will walk through the frame during the best sentence of the day.
That list is really the call sheet seen from your side. If you want to see what a professional one contains, this short breakdown by a first assistant director from StudioBinder walks through it, and their guide includes a free call sheet template you can copy.
If you are still at the briefing stage, start one step earlier. We wrote down what a good brief contains in our guide on how to prepare a video brief, and the money side is covered in the piece on corporate video cost.
Why does a shoot day usually run late?
For three reasons, and none of them is technical. We have met all three in almost every larger company over the past two years.
People. The managing director has a meeting that overruns. The production supervisor was never told to come. Move one speaker by 40 minutes and the whole rest of the day moves with them, because a lighting change is queued behind them. That is why names have times next to them in the schedule and why we confirm them the day before.
Sound. A room that feels fine for a meeting sounds like a warehouse on the recording. Open plan offices, glass walls, ventilation. Fixing it takes 20 minutes when we know in advance and an hour when we discover it on playback.
Approvals on the day. The client comes to look at the monitor and decides the board in the background is wrong. That is fair, and we can handle it, but it means rebuilding the lighting. So we want references and the storyboard signed off before the shoot day rather than during it. What lighting actually changes is covered in our piece on lighting setups for interviews.
When do we tell clients not to book a shoot day?
When you do not have the capacity to prepare for it. Most studios will not say this, because a shoot day is a billable line.
If you cannot guarantee that your speakers will actually turn up, or if the date collides with an audit, a stocktake or a big delivery, move it. A day spent waiting for people costs exactly the same as a day spent filming and yields a third of the material. We once had eight speakers booked and three showed up, so we came back. The second day was on the client.
We also advise against squeezing three locations into one day to save money. Every move is a rebuild, and after the third one the crew works slower. Two calm days often end up cheaper than one frantic day plus pickups.
One more thing worth planning for: the paperwork. Filming your own employees during working hours brings labour law into it, and filming any recognisable person needs their permission. If you want the industry background on how the day itself is documented, the Wikipedia entry on the daily call sheet is a good short read.
Frequently asked questions about shoot days
How many speakers fit into one day?
Four or five with one location and one setup, assuming people are prepared and arrive on time. If every speaker needs a different background, plan for three. The limit is not the filming, it is the changeover between them.
Do we have to be there the whole day?
No, but someone from your team does. We need a person who opens doors, calls in the next speaker and says whether a particular machine can be in shot. The marketer who approves content is needed for the first interview and then for a check.
What happens if the shoot overruns the agreed time?
The contract states the length of the shoot day and the rate for each additional started hour. Ten hours from arrival to departure is standard. If the day stretches because of something on our side, we do not bill the extra hours.
What should people on camera wear?
Plain colours, no fine patterns, no pure white shirt. Send that to them in one sentence the day before and keep a spare jacket on hand. It is the cheapest quality upgrade in video there is.
If your first shoot day is coming up and you want to walk through the schedule before anything is booked, get in touch through our contact page. We will go through locations and speaker names with you and say plainly if it cannot be done in one day. How we run the whole process from brief to delivery is in the video production section.
