What matters in practice
The most common surprise on a shooting day is not technical but temporal: it starts earlier and runs longer than most people expect. The early start has practical reasons: building sites work early anyway, interiors are still empty before visitors arrive, and morning light beats two o’clock light.
What you should prepare
- One contact on site who is allowed to decide, reachable all day. This is the most important item on the list. Having to phone someone to find out whether a door may be opened costs half an hour.
- Access and arrival: gate registration, keys, parking close to the location. Kit gets carried.
- Power near the filming positions.
- A quiet room for interviews. No open-plan office, no loud ventilation, no coffee machine, phones off. Sound cannot be repaired later.
- Briefed contributors. Anyone going on camera should have known for days, not for ten minutes. Agree clothing beforehand, avoid third-party logos. Anyone who would rather not appear should say so in advance.
- Tidy areas and prepared material, plus the required protective equipment, for the crew as well.
Where the time goes
Set-up and derig, every change of position, every lighting change. An interview that ends up thirty seconds long takes a good hour including rigging and conversation. In between come retakes because a lorry is reversing or an angle grinder starts up. Adding a walk-round with the management adds another item to the schedule, not a break.
If it rains
Rain does not automatically stop everything: interiors, workshop, interviews and detail shots can be brought forward. What does not work is aerial footage and exteriors that were approved on the basis of sunshine. The call is made together the evening before. That is why the fallback date is already in the diary before anyone checks the forecast.