The pre-production checklist
Everything that has to exist before the first shoot day, in the order it has to exist. Pick what you are shooting, set the date, and tick it off. Free, printable, no account.
Develop
Every department plans against it. A change after breakdown quietly breaks every document downstream.
The number decides the crew size, the days and the kit before anyone falls in love with a shot.
The approval you get now is the one you point to when the brief drifts on the day.
Moody means a different film to every person in the room. Pictures do not. Storyboards
The rest of prep is decisions, and these are the people who make them.
A date nobody has pencilled in is not a date.
Plan
This is where the budget stops being a guess and scenes that cannot be afforded show up.
Photos at the hour you will shoot tell you where the sun is and where the power is.
A shoot moved on by the police at 10:00 is a day lost, not an hour.
Chasing a signature on set means shooting someone you might not be allowed to use.
Overtime nobody agreed in writing is an argument at wrap.
Board what is expensive, dangerous or non-negotiable. Coverage can stay coverage. Storyboard template maker
The AD schedules from it. If it is not on the list it does not get shot. Shot list template
The gaffer prelights from a diagram, not from a conversation at call time. Lighting diagram maker
The room decides the lens. Check the frame fits before you rent the glass. Field of view calculator
The kit that is available in your week is not always the kit on the list.
Anything built, bought or borrowed has a lead time.
Rental houses and most locations will not release anything without the certificate.
A fridge you did not hear on the scout is the fridge you hear in the edit.
Lock
Durations summed per scene tell you the day is too long while it is still cheap to fix. Shooting schedules
Every approval in one room, signed off, before anyone is on the clock.
Power, access and where the trucks park get decided here, not at call time.
The LUT, the skin tones and the lens you picked, checked before it counts.
Two copies before a card is formatted, and a name next to the job.
Nobody signs a PDF on their phone at 18:00 after a twelve-hour day.
A crew that cannot park or eat loses the first hour and the last.
An exterior with no plan B is a day of rain and a full crew rate.
Prep day at the rental house finds the missing cable while the counter is still open.
The only document everybody reads. Draft it from the plan, not from memory. Call sheet maker
The day before
A sheet nobody replied to is a sheet somebody did not open.
The first shot waits for whatever you did not do tonight.
Missing kit found at 22:00 is a phone call. Found at call time it is the morning.
It will not be needed, and when it is, nobody should have to search for it.
One link the whole crew can open. Six inboxes is not a plan.
In the order things actually break
Pre-production is not a mood. It is a short list of documents, each one due before the next can start, and each with a specific disaster attached to its absence. The list above is in dependency order, sized for the jobs most people actually shoot: spots, shorts, music videos, interviews and stills.
Lock the script before you break it down
Everything in prep is derived from the script or the brief. The breakdown reads it scene by scene, the boards picture it, the shot list schedules it. An unlocked script is the most expensive document on a production: every revision after breakdown quietly invalidates work in four other places. Lock it, or at least version it, so everyone can say which draft they planned against.
Agree the look with pictures
References are the only reliable way to agree on photography before any exists, because adjectives do not survive the trip between heads. When the DP and the director have argued about references in prep, they do not argue about the monitor on the day.
Board the money, list everything
Storyboarding every shot of a small production is prep theatre. Board what is expensive, dangerous or non-negotiable. The shot list is the document that has to be complete, because the schedule is built from it. Not on the list means not scheduled, and not scheduled means not shot.
Duration is the honest column
Put an estimated duration on every shot and sum it per scene. It will be wrong shot by shot and right in the aggregate, and it is the earliest warning that the plan does not fit the daylight.
Hand over one thing
A crew that gets the script by email, the boards by link and the shot list by screenshot rebuilds a slightly different production per person. One pack, one link. The last document out of prep is the call sheet, and it is the one everybody reads.
- Storyboard
- What the key shots look like, agreed before anyone rents a lens. Storyboard template maker
- Shot list
- Every shot, numbered, with size and duration. The schedule is built from it. Shot list template
- Lighting plan
- Where each lamp stands, so the gaffer can prelight from a drawing. Lighting diagram maker
- Shooting schedule
- The order of the day, with times that add up to a wrap. Shooting schedules
- Call sheet
- The one page everybody reads the night before. Call sheet maker
- Lens choices
- Which focal length fits the frame in the room you actually have. Field of view calculator
What is pre-production?
Everything that happens between a green light and the first shoot day: locking the script or brief, breaking it down, finding locations, casting, booking crew and kit, and turning all of it into a shot list, a schedule and a call sheet. It is where a production gets cheap to change.
How long should pre-production take?
For a one or two day shoot, two to four weeks is comfortable and one week is possible if the script is locked. A short film usually wants four to eight. The rule that holds at every size: prep should be longer than the shoot, and cutting it is paid for on the day.
What documents do you need in pre-production?
A locked script or brief, a breakdown, references, storyboards for the key shots, a numbered shot list, lighting plans for the hard set-ups, a shooting schedule, releases and permits, and finally the call sheet. Each one is built from the one before it.
What is the difference between pre-production, production and post-production?
Pre-production is planning, production is the shoot itself, and post-production is everything after wrap: the edit, colour, sound and delivery. Decisions made in pre-production are the cheapest ones on the job.
Can I print this pre-production checklist?
Yes. Download it as an A4 PDF with a box for every item, or copy it as plain text for a notes app or the crew chat. Ticked items come out ticked.
Is it free?
Yes, with no account and no email. Your ticks, dates and extra items are saved in your own browser.
Or keep the whole list in one place
Frameboard holds the references, boards, shot list, lighting plans and schedule for a production on one canvas, and writes the call sheet from them. The crew gets one read-only link.