Planning a Studio Shoot Day: From Call Sheet to Wrap

A studio day has one fact that organises everything else: the clock starts when the door opens and stops when the last case is out. At Scope, set-up and pack-down sit inside the booked time. A full day is eight hours, and the rig, the shoot, the lunch and the strike all have to fit inside those eight. Every running order below is built from that fact outwards.

This guide is the schedule, not the budget or the creative: the call sheet, the half day and the full day hour by hour, load-in, lunch, the strike and what runs over. It assumes a small crew in a small stage.

Why set-up inside the hours changes the plan

Rigging and striking cost the same however long you shoot in between, so on a four-hour block they can be a third of what you paid for. So the first planning decision is not what to shoot but how many lighting set-ups the hours can honestly hold. One or two, and a half day works. More than two, or a set change, or a wardrobe change, and the full day is cheaper than the overrun. Studio A is £320 for a half day and £620 for a full; Studio B is £220 and £420. What studio hire actually costs does the per-hour arithmetic.

The shoot is what happens between the rig and the strike. Plan those two first and the middle takes care of itself.

What goes on the call sheet

A studio call sheet is shorter than a location one — no weather, no unit base — but what it carries matters more, because everyone arrives at the same door with the clock already running. Send it the evening before, running order on the first page.

• The address in full: Scope is Block A, Chartwell Business Park, 61-65 Paulet Rd, London SE5 9HW. Say which room, because the building has several.
• Call times by department, staggered. Camera and lighting first; talent, hair and make-up to the dressing and prep room an hour later; client and agency at the first lit set-up, not at the rig.
• Parking. At Scope it is on site in the yard in front of the unit — say so, and say where the van goes relative to the roller door.
• The running order with set-ups numbered, and which room each is in if the day splits across Studio A and Studio B.
• Lunch time and where it is eaten. The kitchen is in the building; who is bringing food is your line, not the studio's.
• Wrap time, which is the end of the booked block, not the last shot. Write the strike into the sheet as its own line.
• Contacts, the nearest A&E, and a note that under-18s must be supervised by a responsible adult at all times.

A half day: four hours

A half day is for one lighting state and one or two set-ups: a headshot session, one product on one background, a single interview. Times below are from the start of the block.

• 0:00 — door opens, van unloads, kit to the floor. Camera builds while lighting rigs the one set-up from a plan drawn before anyone arrived.
• 0:45 — talent called to make-up. Stand-in on the mark; lighting is tuned on the stand-in, not on the talent.
• 1:15 — first frame. Shoot the whole shot list in this set-up, widest first.
• 2:45 — second set-up if there is one, with the smallest possible relight. If it needs a full relight, it should have been a full day.
• 3:20 — pick-ups, then strike begins. Lights down and cased, cables coiled, floor swept.
• 4:00 — last case through the door. Not 4:10.

A full day: eight hours

A full day holds two to four set-ups, a set change or a wardrobe run, and a proper lunch. It is the block for most commercial, corporate and narrative work; shooting a short film or commercial covers why the creative wants it too.

• 0:00 — load-in. Everything off the van and into the room before anyone opens a case.
• 0:30 — build and dress the first set-up; camera and sound build; talent to make-up; client to the lounge with a monitor and the Wi-Fi password.
• 1:30 — first set-up lit on a stand-in. Block, rehearse, then the wide before the coverage.
• 3:30 — second set-up. Group the day by lighting state, not by script order, so each relight happens once.
• 4:15 — lunch, thirty to forty-five minutes, everyone at once.
• 5:00 — third set-up, and the fourth if it is a small move. Dialogue and interview set-ups belong in Studio B, the treated room; product and movement in Studio A.
• 6:45 — pick-ups, inserts, wild sound and room tone. Hold this slot for the shots you discover you need.
• 7:15 — strike. Forty-five minutes is realistic for a lit set; longer if flats have to come down.
• 8:00 — floor clear, cove clean, van loaded, out.

Load-in timing

The van should be in the yard at the minute the block starts, because every late minute comes off the end of your day. At Scope the load-in to Studio A is at ground level through the roller door, with no stairs and no lift, so a well-packed van empties quickly; the method, including what to measure before you arrive, is in planning the van, the yard and the door. Opening hours are not published, so confirm the earliest the door can open on your date when you book rather than assuming.

Lunch

Feed the crew on time. A crew that ate at a sensible hour shoots faster in the afternoon than one that grazed at the monitor. On a full day, put lunch between the second and third set-ups. Scope has a kitchen in the building and a client lounge; bringing the food in is the production's job, and it goes on the budget as its own line, which how to budget a studio shoot covers. On a half day there is no lunch; say so on the call sheet.

The strike

The strike is the part everyone underestimates, because by then the creative is done and the crew is tired. Start it before the last shot: dressing not in frame can be wrapped while the camera is still rolling, and cases staged by the door. Lights come down hot and heavy and slow, so lighting strikes first. Leave the room as you found it and photograph it before you leave. If your day includes a set, set building in a hire studio covers the strike for flats and builds, which is longer than people think.

What runs over, and why

Studio days overrun for a short list of reasons, and they are nearly all decided before the day starts.

• Deciding on the floor. No shot list, or one never squared against the set-up count, and the first hour is spent planning.
• Lighting without a plan. A gaffer arriving to a brief instead of a diagram adds an hour to the first set-up. Ask the studio what it holds before the day; at Scope, lights are quoted separately in every room but the DJ room, so please enquire about our lights and have the quote in hand with your plan.
• Talent late to make-up. Stagger the call so hair and make-up are finished when the first set-up is lit, not starting.
• Set-ups in script order. Shooting the kitchen day scene, then the night scene, then another day scene is three relights where two would do.
• A van that cannot get to the door, or kit that does not fit through it. Measure first and ask for the door and yard specifics, which are not published.
• Forgetting the strike is inside the hours. The schedule that ends on the last shot ends an hour late.

Overtime terms vary between studios and Scope's rate is confirmed when you book, so ask for it with the quote and build a buffer in rather than negotiating at the door — the detail is in deposits, cancellations and lead times. A half day that overruns is the most expensive block on the rate card.