Filmmaker Tips: How to Plan for a Shoot with Limited Time

As a commercial filmmaker working with brands and businesses, you’ll frequently face the same hurdles: shooting in unfamiliar locations, navigating uncontrollable sound environments, and—like clockwork—having far too little time to capture everything on the client’s wishlist.

With social media becoming a dominant marketing channel for more and more brands, the demands for these shoots have skyrocketed: more content, tighter deadlines, and little room for error.

In this guide, I’ll share strategies that have helped me manage these fast-paced shoots, deliver exceptional results, and ensure clients keep calling us back.

Context

These tips come from years of experience shooting for athletic brands and high-profile athletes, where time is always limited—sometimes as little as one or two hours to capture multiple deliverables. For example, here’s the setup for a recent shoot I tackled:

• Timeframe:
  • 2 hours to work with the athlete.
  • 2.5 hours to set up, but only 1 hour to tear down due to location restrictions.
• Deliverables:
  • 2 talking setups on a clean sweep.
  • 2 talking setups with the basketball court in the background.
  • Action B-roll to supplement the interviews.
  • Flash photography during action shots and on the sweep.
• The Kicker
  • Deliver everything in 9x16 format but capture in 16x9 to allow for repurposing.

At first glance, this type of shoot can seem overwhelming. But with the right preparation and mindset, it’s entirely manageable. The key? Meticulous planning. Let’s break it down.

1. Make a Detailed Run of Show

When time is tight, planning isn’t just helpful—it’s essential. A detailed run of show ensures that every moment is accounted for, every transition is smooth, and nothing gets overlooked. Here's what we do.

• Break it down into increments: We start with the load-in and split the schedule into 5-minute increments. This helps us identify resourcing for our crew and specific deadlines to know if we are keeping on time. For the shooting period, we get even more granular—tracking exactly how long each setup, action, and reset will take.
• Think through every step when you get granular: Include details like:
  • Transition time to move between setups.
  • Hair, makeup, and wardrobe adjustments.
  • Briefing sessions for the talent before each concept.
  • Spillover time for the inevitable delays (trust me, they’ll happen).

If you neglect the time it takes for everything else to happen to achieve the shot, you won't have enough time to capture your shot. For example, on the athlete shoot, we allocated 30 minutes for action. In this action sequence, we had 20 shots. We broke each shot down into how long it would take, around 1 minute a shot. Then added 1 minute a quick briefing, and 30 seconds to transition from framing to framing. Not only did this illuminate how tight everything would be, but it helped informed how many lights we would need and our lighting approach to make sure we had limited lighting adjustments. Without that time built in, we’d have been scrambling to shoot even a fraction of these shots.

Pro Tip: Planning to this level of detail not only keeps you organized but also builds confidence with your crew and client. Everyone knows what to expect, and when things run smoothly, you look like a rock star.

2. Have Enough Gear to Work Smarter, Not Harder

Time is precious, especially when working with high-profile talent. Downtime with the subject makes everyone anxious, even if it is just moving lights in place. The faster you can move between setups, the happier your client and subject will be.

• Set up simultaneous locations: The best way to minimize downtime is to have multiple setups ready to go. This allows the athlete to move seamlessly between setups with no waiting. For example, during our athlete shoot:
  • We pre-lit a clean sweep for interviews and product photos.
  • We also had the basketball court fully lit for action sequences.

This made our transition time seamless as we didn't have to do anything but make small tweaks.

• Plan your lighting: For interviews, we used a simple Kino Flow setup and a book light to create flattering, natural lighting. For the basketball court, we relied on a mix of ambient lights and directional lighting for slow-motion sequences. The trick was to design the lighting so it could serve dual purposes: dramatic for the hero shots, but versatile enough to keep filming during transitions or less dynamic moments. This way, we knew exactly what lighting was needed and where it was needed.
• Manage your gear efficiently: If budget is tight, work smarter with what you have. Strategically design your shots to minimize lighting changes, or explain to the client how a slight budget increase can dramatically improve efficiency. For instance:
  • More gear = faster transitions = more content captured.
  • Happy subject = better results.

Pro Tip: Always communicate the value of efficiency to your client. They’ll be more likely to approve budget increases when they see how it impacts the final product.

3. Previsualize (Pre-Vis) Everything

There’s a difference between planning in theory and practicing in reality. That’s where previsualization (pre-vis) comes in.

• Test your timing: Before the shoot, have the director or DP conduct mock interviews with crew members. How long does it actually take to get through the questions? Does any phrasing sound awkward or unnatural?
• Practice movements: For action shots or complex transitions, physically walk through the steps with your team. For example, on our shoot, we practiced moving the athlete from moment to moment on the court, rehearsing the exact path and timing to ensure no delays.
• Identify hidden challenges: Pre-vis often reveals problems you wouldn’t anticipate on paper. For instance:
  • Do the concepts need anything extra to be complete?
  • Does the talent need extra time to adjust between setups?
  • Are transitions more complicated than expected?

Pre-vis isn’t just about timing; it’s about stress-testing your plan so there are no surprises on set.

4. Run Quick Team Meetings & Rehearsals

Shoots with tight schedules require tight communication. If your crew isn’t aligned, every minor hiccup can snowball into a major delay.

• Start with a team briefing: Dedicate 5–10 minutes at the start of the day to get everyone on the same page. Outline the run of show, emphasize key deadlines, and clarify priorities. Keep the focus on big-picture goals, like:
  • “The sweep setup needs to be ready by 10 AM so we can rehearse Concept A.”
  • Avoid micromanaging individual tasks—let department heads handle the specifics.
• Rehearse critical sequences: For moments that require precision—like action B-roll—run a quick dry rehearsal with the full crew. On our shoot, we rehearsed the sequence of moving lights and cameras during action shots to ensure everyone knew their role and exactly where lights needed to go when.

Pro Tip: Quick rehearsals may seem like a luxury on tight schedules, but they save time in the long run by preventing miscommunication.

5. Know What to Strike Ahead of Time

Even with the best planning, things can go sideways. A subject shows up late, you have to wait for uncontrolled sounds, or the client requests extra takes. That’s why it’s crucial to know your priorities in advance.

• Identify critical vs. non-critical deliverables: Before the shoot, discuss with your client what’s non-negotiable. Which shots absolutely must be captured? Which ones can be sacrificed if time runs out?
• Plan product priorities: If your shoot involves product placement, confirm which items need to be featured most prominently. For instance, instead of photographing every color of a shoe, the client may only care about the top three sellers. Sorting this out beforehand can save hours of decision-making on set.

Pro Tip: Knowing your priorities allows you to adapt on the fly without losing focus on what’s most important to the client.

Final Thoughts

Tight-timeline shoots demand two things: careful planning and strong communication. When everyone on your crew knows the plan, your client feels reassured, and your subject is engaged, you can make the impossible feel effortless.

Plan meticulously, communicate clearly, and execute like a pro. And remember, be the change you want to see in the world — post in 16x9.