How to Prepare for a Video Shoot: The 12-Point Brand Checklist

The shoots that go smoothly aren't lucky — they're prepared. Here's exactly what to have ready before the crew arrives.

Here's a truth from years of shoot days: almost every on-set problem is a pre-production problem wearing a costume. The missing product sample, the exec who wants to change the script at 10 a.m., the location that "should be fine" but isn't cleared — all of it was preventable a week earlier.

Your production company handles the crew, gear, and logistics. But there's a set of things only you — the brand — can prepare. This is that list. Work through it in order and shoot day becomes the easy part.

1. Lock Your Goals and KPIs

Before anything else, write down what this video is supposed to do and how you'll know if it worked. "More brand awareness" is a wish. "Drive traffic to the new product page" or "cut sales-call explanation time" is a goal.

• What action should a viewer take after watching?
• What metric will you actually look at in 90 days?
• Who needs to agree this is the goal? Get them to agree now.

Every creative decision downstream — tone, length, platform, call to action — hangs on this. Lock it first.

2. Approve the Script and Storyboard Early

Approve the script and storyboard before the shoot is scheduled — ideally a week or more out. A script change on paper is a revision. The same change on set costs crew hours. After the shoot, it can cost a reshoot.

Circulate the final version to every stakeholder with a clear deadline for feedback, and treat sign-off as sign-off. "Approved" should not mean "approved until my VP sees the monitor."

3. Assign One Decision-Maker

Shoot days generate questions: Is this framing okay? Can we lose this line? Which label faces camera? Someone from your side needs the authority to answer on the spot.

One person. Not a committee, not "let me check with a few people." Every hour spent waiting for an answer is an hour of crew time you're paying for. Pick the person, tell the production company who it is, and make sure they're on set or reachable all day.

4. Brief the Crew on Brand Guidelines

Send your brand guidelines before the shoot — not the morning of. At minimum:

• Logo files and usage rules
• Color palette and fonts
• Tone of voice and words you do/don't use
• Visual references from past work you liked (and didn't)
• Any legal or regulatory language requirements

A crew that knows your brand shoots for your brand. A crew guessing shoots generic.

5. Prep Products and Props

The camera sees everything. Fingerprints, scuffed packaging, a bent label — flaws you'd never notice in person are glaring at 4K.

• Bring at least two pristine "hero" units of every product
• Bring backups of anything that can spill, break, or wilt
• Check that packaging is the current version, not last quarter's
• Gather any props, signage, or branded items the storyboard calls for

6. Confirm Wardrobe Guidance

Anyone appearing on camera needs wardrobe direction in advance. The usual rules: solid colors over busy patterns, avoid fine stripes and checks (they shimmer on camera), avoid logos you don't own, and bring a backup option. If your brand colors matter on screen, say so. Nothing stalls a morning like discovering the CEO wore the one shirt that strobes on video.

7. Book and Clear Locations

If the shoot is at your office, store, or facility, "we can shoot here" needs to be true in writing. Confirm access times (including early load-in), parking for crew vehicles, permission from building management or landlords, and whether permits are needed. Warn your own team a film crew is coming — and decide in advance which areas are off-limits to cameras.

8. Sort Talent and Release Forms

Every recognizable person on camera — employees included — should sign a release form before cameras roll. Your production company will supply these; your job is making sure the right people are booked, briefed, and confirmed for their call times. If employees are appearing, confirm their managers actually freed their schedules. "He'll pop down when we need him" is how shoots run long.

9. Share a Must-Have Shot List

The production company builds the full shot list, but you know things they don't: the product feature that has to be visible, the team members who must appear, the sign out front that's being replaced next month. Write down your non-negotiables and hand them over before the shoot. On set is too late to remember the shot that mattered most.

10. Plan Behind-the-Scenes and Social Capture

A shoot day is a content goldmine — if you plan for it. Decide in advance:

• Who captures BTS (a crew member, or someone from your team?)
• Which formats you need (vertical for Reels/TikTok, stills, timelapses)
• When it happens, so it never interrupts the main production

An hour of planned social capture often turns into weeks of feed content. Unplanned BTS turns into shaky phone clips nobody uses.

11. Schedule Stakeholder Availability on Shoot Day

If an executive or subject-matter expert is being filmed, block their whole window generously — not squeezed between meetings. On-camera segments rarely run exactly on time, and a stakeholder who has to leave in 20 minutes shows it on camera. For stakeholders who just want to observe, set expectations: watching is welcome, live art direction goes through your single decision-maker (see point 3).

12. Prep for Review Rounds

Post-production goes faster when the review process is decided before the first cut arrives:

• Know how many revision rounds your agreement includes
• Decide who reviews, in what order, and who consolidates feedback
• Send one unified set of notes per round — not five conflicting email threads
• Put review deadlines on stakeholders' calendars now

Most timeline blowouts happen here, not on set. A disciplined review process is the cheapest schedule insurance there is.

The Bottom Line

None of this is complicated — it's just easy to skip when a shoot feels far away. The brands that walk through this checklist get more shots in the can, cleaner footage, faster edits, and a final video that matches what they imagined. The ones that wing it pay for the same crew day and get less out of it.

A good production partner will walk you through most of this anyway. But showing up prepared turns your production company from a vendor managing around you into a team building with you.