A shoot day is the most expensive hour-for-hour part of content production, and most of what determines its output happens before anyone arrives. This is the preparation we walk clients through before a monthly content day.
Start from where the content will be published
Do not start with 'we need photos'. Start with the four or five placements you actually fill each month: Instagram reels, story sequences, a website hero, a Google Business profile, a paid ad. Each of those has an aspect ratio, a length and a job. Working backwards from them turns a vague shoot into a shot list.
Build the shot list in three buckets
- Hero: a small number of considered frames — the space, the team, the signature product or service.
- Volume: repeatable content you will post weekly. Process clips, hands at work, before and after, details.
- Voice: talking-head content where you or your specialists answer real customer questions on camera.
For a half-day, a workable target is 12–20 short videos and 15–25 photographs. That only happens if the list is agreed before the day, not invented on it.
Prepare the space
- Clear clutter from every surface that will be in frame — cables, boxes, personal items, mismatched signage.
- Clean glass, mirrors and screens. They show everything under lights.
- Replace dead bulbs and mismatched colour temperatures, or tell us in advance so we bring lighting.
- Reserve a quiet corner for talking-head audio, away from air conditioning and traffic.
- Restock anything that appears in frame: products, tools, fresh towels, fresh flowers.
Prepare the people
- Confirm who is on camera and tell them the day before, not on the morning.
- Bring two or three wardrobe options in brand-neutral colours; avoid tight patterns and visible logos you do not own.
- For talking-head content, prepare the questions but not the script — bullet points sound human, memorised paragraphs do not.
- Assign one decision-maker on the day who can approve a frame in seconds.
Schedule the day realistically
| Block | Time | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | 30–45 min | Lighting, audio, walkthrough of the space |
| Hero frames | 60 min | The considered images, while everyone is fresh |
| Volume content | 90–120 min | Process, details, repeatable clips |
| Talking head | 45–60 min | Quiet corner, one topic at a time |
| Wrap | 20 min | Backup, check-off against the shot list |
The five most common time-wasters
- No shot list, so the first hour is spent deciding what to shoot.
- Tidying the room after the crew arrives.
- Waiting for a person who was never confirmed.
- Booking a shoot during your busiest trading hours.
- Trying to cover three unrelated campaigns in a single half-day.
An hour of preparation reliably buys back two hours of shooting.
After the shoot
Agree the posting plan while the content is fresh: what goes out in week one, what is held for the campaign, what is repurposed into ads. Content that sits in a folder does not perform, however well it was shot.
We run monthly content days for local businesses and experts — one half-day, a full library out the other side.
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