Great shoot days are won in pre-production. By the time the camera rolls, roughly eighty percent of your commercial's fate is already decided — by the brief, the schedule, the casting, and a hundred small confirmations that either happened or did not. Chaotic sets are almost never caused by bad luck; they are caused by skipped prep. Use this checklist to walk onto set with everything handled, whether you are shooting at a Charlotte studio or on location.

4 to 6 weeks out: lock the creative

Lock the creative brief and key message. One spot, one message — commercials fail most often by trying to say three things and landing none. Approve the script and storyboards with every stakeholder who can say no later. This is the single most important line on this list: a stakeholder who first sees the concept in the edit is a stakeholder who will ask for a reshoot. Storyboards do not need to be beautiful; they need to be signed. If boarding is new to your team, our guide on how to storyboard a commercial walks through a fast, practical method.

Set the budget with a 10 percent contingency. Not because you plan to spend it, but because the production that has no contingency spends it anyway — just with more panic.

3 to 4 weeks out: book the big pieces

Book your studio or lock locations and start permits now; the good stages and the cooperative permit offices both reward early movers. If you are still deciding between the two, weigh it honestly using our studio versus location comparison — sound-critical spots almost always favor the stage.

Attach your director, DP, and producer. Open casting if you need talent, and get wardrobe direction approved early — wardrobe approvals are a notorious late-stage bottleneck because they touch brand guidelines, legal, and personal taste all at once. If you are casting in the Charlotte market, start with local talent; the pool is deeper than out-of-town producers expect.

2 weeks out: make the schedule tell the truth

Finalize the shot list against the schedule — if the math says 40 setups in 10 hours, cut now, not on set. A realistic commercial pace is three to five setups per hour for simple coverage and far fewer for anything involving art department resets, talent changes, or camera movement. Every setup you cut in a conference room is painless; every setup you cut at 6 p.m. on set costs morale and usually the wrong shot.

Reserve gear, confirm crew in writing, and arrange insurance certificates for the venue. Studios and locations alike will ask for a COI, and the underwriter always takes longer than you think. Confirm the studio's power, grid, and included equipment so you are not renting what the house already provides.

1 week out: tech scout and call sheets

Do a tech scout at the studio or location with your DP and gaffer. Confirm power capacity, load-in route, parking, staging areas, and where clients will sit — a comfortable client area away from the monitor cluster saves more takes than any lens. At Imagicomm Studios we walk every production through load-in, grid access, and green room logistics before shoot day, because surprises belong in the spot, not in the schedule.

Distribute call sheets 48 hours ahead: call times, address, parking instructions, contact numbers, the schedule, and a weather plan if any portion is outdoors. A call sheet that answers questions before they are asked is the difference between a crew that arrives ready and a phone that will not stop buzzing at 6 a.m.

Day before: charge, check, print

Charge everything — camera batteries, wireless kits, monitors, the director's tablet. Check camera and audio kits physically; open the cases, do not just count them. Format and label media cards. Confirm talent and client arrival times with a personal message, not just the call sheet. Print sides, shot lists, and the schedule — phones die, paper does not.

Shoot day: protect the first hour

Arrive before your crew, walk the space, and run a safety meeting. Protect your first hour; it sets the pace of the whole day. If load-in drifts, the schedule drifts, and the last setup of the day — often the client's favorite — is the one that gets squeezed.

Shoot the hardest or widest setup first while energy and light discipline are high.
Batch setups by lighting, not by script order.
Keep a running list of pickups rather than chasing perfection shot by shot.
Call lunch on time. Hungry crews slow down more than a break ever will.
Before wrap, review the shot list out loud with the director and client. Missing frames cost nothing now and a reshoot later.

Common pre-production mistakes

Three failures account for most bad shoot days: unsigned creative (stakeholders seeing the concept too late), fantasy schedules (setup counts no crew can hit), and untested logistics (nobody checked the load-in door height until the truck arrived). Every item on this checklist exists to kill one of those three.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a commercial shoot day be?

Most single-day commercials run 10 to 12 hours including load-in and wrap. Interview-driven spots fit in 6 to 8. If your shot list demands more, split the day rather than planning overtime from the start.

Do I need a tech scout for a studio shoot?

Yes — it is shorter than a location scout, but confirming power, grid points, load-in, and staging in person still saves your first hour on shoot day.

When should call sheets go out?

48 hours before call, with a same-day reminder. Any later and travel plans, childcare, and gear prep start to suffer.

What insurance does a commercial shoot need?

At minimum, general liability naming the studio or location as additional insured, plus gear coverage for owned and rented equipment. Short-term production policies are inexpensive and fast to arrange — but start the certificate request at least a week out, because the paperwork never moves at shoot-week speed.

Shooting in Charlotte? Our stages come production-ready — grid, power, sound treatment, green room, and drive-in load access to Studio A — so your checklist gets shorter. See the spaces or talk through your production with our team.

The Complete Pre-Production Checklist for a Commercial Shoot