Shoot day is drawing near and we had the studio reserved for a Monday and Tuesday. Monday was to load in, build sets, and pre-light. Tuesday was for final lighting and of course the shoot and then we needed to strike the sets and wrap out on the same day. But before Monday arrived. A lot of final checks.

We called all of the talent including the animal handler and gave them call times and locations. The schedule was set up something like this; We knew Hair, Make-up & Wardrobe would need some time with the guys as they came in. And we knew that we would still want to finesse the light a bit when we got in on the morning of the shoot, so we planned to shoot individual portraits of each of the models to accompany the main shot and we planned to do those first. That way we could stagger their call times and by the time we were done with the portraits, all of the talent would be there and in costume, and we could proceed to the main shot. It would also give everyone time to get the gist of the shot we were after. So we had the first model come in at 10:00am and then staggered the rest every half hour. We did not have the dog come until mid afternoon, because I thought we would just shoot him separately and drop him in during post production.

Back to our final checks the week before… We called all of the crew and gave them call times and location as well. In addition, the caterers needed the same info and the studio wanted to know what time we were coming in both days. We had a bunch of equipment that we were going to need in addition to all of the stuff we have on hand. A list was developed and we put that equipment on hold about a week before we needed it. So we called to double check that it was all in order and ready to be picked up on Monday morning. We did a once over on the cameras and also took inventory to make sure we had enough “expendables” (i.e. Gaffer’s Tape, FoamCore, etc)

On the Friday before, once we knew everyone had their call times and what was expected of them, there was nothing left to do but sit back, enjoy the weekend and try not to stress about anything. Monday would come soon enough and then the game would be on.