Load In Load Out On Your Film Efficiently & Effectively

How to load in and out without falling behind schedule in film production? I don’t know about you, but I hate missing my schedule. This is our complete guide to how to load in and load out on a film set, with minimal stress and maximum efficiency.

Film production is as much about planning as it is execution – if not more.

After all, the plan is what sets the tone for the day and if you fall behind schedule then you risk having to shoot a scene multiple times, which can throw off your entire day.

On top of that, there are so many factors that can go wrong when you’re shooting a film.

For example, if you get behind schedule then:

• How is your crew going to manage their time?
• Are they going to be able to get everything else done on time?
• What about the actors? Will they need to stick around? Or will they have to leave before filming is complete?
• And what about weather delays or any other unexpected issues…

What Is Load in Load Out in Filmmaking

What Is A film shooting schedule?

A film shooting schedule is a form of pre-production planning that is essential to the success of any film project. When done properly, a film shooting schedule can streamline production and save time and money.

A well-prepared production schedule will also reduce confusion and allow everyone involved in the film project to know exactly what they need to do when.

A film shooting schedule is important because it shows everyone how long certain parts of the filmmaking process will take.

A good film production shooting schedule includes everything from:

• securing locations,
• scheduling set construction,
• hiring crew members,
• casting actors and extras,
• buying props and costumes,
• preparing sets and equipment,
• and so on.

The more detailed your shooting plan is, the better you will be able to predict how much money you will need for every aspect of your film.

A good film shooting schedule also helps with overall communication among all members of the cast and crew.

It allows everyone to know what their role in the movie will be (including actors, extras, producers, directors, editors, and more).

To prevent costly mistakes or oversights during filming, all members must adhere to the detailed plans laid out in the shooting schedule.

How To Load In & Out Without Falling Behind Schedule

One of the best ways you can ensure that your film production goes as smoothly as possible is by making sure that you are prepared for everything and anything. This includes being prepared for every possible scenario. And one of those scenarios might be getting behind schedule. So let’s talk about how you can load in and out without falling behind schedule in film production.

When a crew packs out of one location (load out), travels, then unloads and rebuilds at the next (load in), that is a company move. Build realistic move time into the shooting schedule—not just drive time, but wrap, pack, park, unload, and re-rig. As a rough rule of thumb, a small crew with light gear may need about 30 minutes per location plus travel; a larger indie feature crew often needs roughly double that.

Start With Scene Chronology In Film Scheduling

Scheduling a web series or feature film can be a daunting task. There are so many factors to consider, from budget to location to the availability of actors and crew. But one of the most important elements is often overlooked: scene chronology.

Just because you have all the money and time in the world doesn’t mean you can do it all at once. Shooting out of story order is normal—and often necessary for locations and actor availability—but you still need a clear map of where each character starts and ends at every story beat. Without that, continuity, wardrobe, and emotional arcs get scrambled when company moves force you to jump around the script.

Group scenes by location first so you reduce moves, then check that the resulting order still protects story chronology, day/night continuity, and actor turnaround. That dual view—geography for the trucks, chronology for the story—is what keeps load-in and load-out from quietly breaking the narrative.

Filming Locations

Filming locations are the settings in which a film or television program is shot. Locations used for interior scenes (i.e., studios) are often called sets. A location where dialogue is actually recorded is called a sound stage.

A production will typically have several base locations, often the same ones for different projects, so that they can build temporary structures for exterior filming, like large walls of ice or rock to stand in for the northern regions of Westeros in Game of Thrones or a full-size model of an English manor house to represent Downton Abbey.

Some productions use several different countries—or even continents—as backdrops during certain periods of filming. For example, Game of Thrones filmed extensively in Iceland (for frozen northern terrain) and Croatia (notably Dubrovnik for King’s Landing), among other countries, to stand in for parts of its fictional world.

Location shooting can offer savings over building everything on a stage, but only if you budget the real cost of load-in and load-out: transport, parking, access, and rebuilding temporary sets or lighting at each stop. Skipping that time on the stripboard is a common way to fall behind schedule.

What Will The Workload Be For Your Film Production?

Before you lock a day with one or more company moves, estimate the workload with your department heads. Ask grip, electric, camera, sound, and transportation how long wrap, pack, drive, park, unload, and first-setup will take at the hour the trucks will actually travel.

Treatment and briefing still matter for the day: everyone needs a clear picture of which scenes land at which address, who must be camera-ready first after the move, and which departments send a breakout or pre-rig crew ahead. A small advance team that confirms keys, power, and parking—and starts dressing or pre-lighting the next set—turns a dead convoy into usable prep time.

Pre-production should already have locked location scouting, permits, and parking plans so principal photography days are not spent improvising access. If a day needs two moves, challenge whether scenes can regroup; two full company moves often turn the day into logistics with occasional filming.

Principal photography is where those estimates meet reality. Put each move on the call sheet as its own production event—with ETAs, contacts, and staggered calls—so load-in and load-out are planned work, not leftover whitespace on the schedule.

Your Film Production Calendar

A film production calendar is a schedule or plan of the activities relating to the filming of a movie or television program. While the details of such a calendar will vary with each production, they typically include the principal shooting days, locations, cast and crew call times, equipment rentals, special effects requirements, and other pertinent information.

Use the calendar to flag heavy move days early: extra PAs, truck capacity, generator needs, and cast travel windows belong on the same page as the shoot dates. That way load-in and load-out are visible weeks out, not discovered the morning of.

When you enter events, include both unit base and each shooting address for the day, plus any pre-call for breakout teams. A calendar that only lists “shoot day” without move blocks will not protect your schedule when the company has to relocate mid-day.

Send Upcoming Talent To The Next Location In Film Production

The process of filmmaking is based around a flow, a rhythm with which everyone involved has to be accustomed. Here’s a good example: If you are the Assistant Director (AD) on a film, you are responsible for making sure that everything is running smoothly and in accordance with the schedule.

If you have a smaller crew and don’t have an AD, then it falls to the Producer or the First Assistant Director to make sure that everyone is doing their jobs and getting to their locations on time.

Trouble with production locations can really throw off this flow. You may be in the middle of a scene when one of your actors tells you that they need to leave for another location because they’ve booked another job.

Or perhaps your set or location gets shut down early because you haven’t acquired all of your permits yet. You could even have trouble finding locations in the first place if the area you want to shoot in is not very film friendly or if most of your choices are already taken for other projects.

To keep the flow intact on a company move, send talent who are not needed at the current location ahead to the next one for makeup and wardrobe while the main unit finishes load-out. Stagger calls so grip and electric can begin strike before camera wraps, and so a key PA or transport contact can open unit base at the next address before the trucks arrive.

Recruit More Production Assistants’s To Help With Load In/load Out

If you produce a shoot with a heavy company move, you know how stressful it can be the day of, trying to make sure all the elements come together in time.

From planning and budgeting, to managing vendors and talent – all the way down to load in and load out – move days are usually the most hectic, so it’s imperative that you have the right team in place.

Trying to do it alone however, is a recipe for disaster.

For example: If you are moving gear across a multi-level location or venue with 2-3 floors, you are going to need someone to help with load in/load out for each floor. If one person carries 1 box at a time up or down stairs, it will take about 15 minutes per trip.

So if you have 30 boxes to move from your car up 3 flights of stairs into your venue and vice versa, that’s 90 minutes! And that’s just ONE person! So let’s say we have 30 boxes and 2 people helping with load in/load out on one floor – taking 15 minutes per trip – that would still take 60 minutes. If they did 3 trips each, it would still take 30 minutes and you would still be paying them for labor that more PAs could have cut in half. Hire extra PAs on big move days so departments can load out and load in faster.

Designate A Contact For Navigation Help In Film Production

Designate a contact for navigation help in film production

Film crews and cast need to know who to go to when they have questions about the route or location of a shoot. Make sure you have someone who can give them answers.

TRAVELING TO SHOOT ON LOCATION

Effective travel planning starts with learning about the location. The more you know about the area, the better prepared you and your crew will be for any challenges that may come up. Here are some tips for getting to know the locale: Find out about traffic, if it’s busy in the morning or at lunch, or if rush hour is an issue.

Check weather reports and road conditions from several sources before arrival. Although the sun might be shining when you head out, it could be raining by the time you arrive. Study maps and directions.

Make sure everyone on set knows how to get there, including secret back roads and shortcuts that might save you time. Consider having a map available so people can check their progress along the way but leave it in their pocket until they really need it (maps and GPS are great tools for keeping track of where people are).

Keep papers like maps and directions in one place where everyone can access them without causing too much of a distraction on set. Put that navigation contact’s name and cell number on the call sheet so lost cast and crew have one person to call during the move.

Include Clear Instructions On Your Call Sheet

Nothing jeopardizes a shooting schedule faster than cast and crew getting lost between locations. The call sheet should spell out both addresses, parking, unit base, company-move time, and any staggered department calls.

While it’s possible for a director to communicate needs during downtime (when the camera isn’t rolling), company moves are not the moment for verbal-only directions. Put route notes, map links, and lock-off times in writing on the call sheet so people can prepare before they leave the first location.

Provide detailed descriptions of props and wardrobe so departments know what must travel with the company versus what can go ahead with a breakout team—another way clear paperwork shortens load-in at the next stop.

Design Maps For Off-the-grid Locations In Film Production

In the past few years, location scouting has gone from a necessary evil to an art form in the film industry. As cinematographers and directors are becoming ever more inventive in their choice of shooting locations, location scouts are doing their best to keep up with them.

Trying to find that one-of-a-kind set piece, but having no idea where it is? That’s where location scouts come in. Their job is to scour the area for a specific style of place or object, which they then pin down on detailed notes and maps that they present to directors.

Location scouts have to be able to visualize what might look good in a scene, and then find it—fast. Using satellite maps, they can scout candidates before the drive, then confirm access, turnarounds for trucks, and parking on the ground.

But when you’re on a deadline—and especially when cell reception is weak—nothing beats a simple paper map that you can touch and hold in your hands, as well as scribble on with a pen.

For remote or poorly signed locations, attach a custom map to the call sheet with clear turns and parking marks, bring hard copies to hand out at the first location, and walk the route with key drivers if the move is especially tricky. That small prep step protects the schedule when GPS fails mid-company-move.

Put Everything In Chronological Order In Film Production

As a director, it is your job to put everything in chronological order in film production. The ability to create an ordered, logical and cohesive story will determine whether your film will be a success or not. If you do not have the story straight in your head before you start filming, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Telling a story in chronological order is an essential part of filmmaking, because every event that happens in the movie has to happen at some point during the movie. If something happened earlier, it wouldn’t make sense for it to appear later in the film.

When shooting a movie, you need to keep the timeline of events straight in your head. This requires a lot of preparation on your part, which is why many directors prefer to have everything planned out before they start filming anything.

Chronological order is not as important when making short films or music videos, but even then you should have your script planned out so that you know what happens when and where before you actually get started. This will allow for more time editing and less time having to reshoot scenes that didn’t go right the first time around.

Use The Chronological Schedule As A Reference In Film Production

Don’t let the name fool you – the chronological schedule is not a specific type of schedule. It’s simply a method of scheduling production tasks in chronological order.

When used correctly, the chronological schedule is your best friend. It can help you to avoid making costly mistakes and get the most out of your time and resources.

The biggest benefit of the chronological schedule is that it helps you to avoid wasting time on tasks that won’t be needed until later in production. This might sound obvious but as anyone who has worked in production will tell you, it’s easy to get distracted by shiny objects.

A good production manager should be constantly asking themselves what they can do next to make their job easier or take pressure off their team in the future. For example, if one of your actors drops out two weeks before shoot you should spend your time looking at how to cast someone else while the team is focussing on getting a plan in place for recasting them and working out what needs to be rescheduled if possible.

Don’t waste valuable time trying to work out who will play which character when there are much more important things that need doing first.

Location Scout In Film Production

In film production, a location scout scouts locations for filming projects. Location scouting might entail anything from visiting potential shooting locations to finding private property owners who are willing to let their land be filmed on. Location scouts can also provide place recommendations for directors and producers to consider during the development process.

The first step in scouting is researching potential filming locations through public records or by calling local businesses, government offices or real estate agents. The next step is to visit those locations in person and draw up a list of places that might work for the movie’s purposes.

Scouts typically work with a production manager or assistant director to compile lists of locations that could work for the film based on their research. On-the-ground visits are crucial to the scouting process, as they help production staff get a sense of whether the location will actually work for the film—including truck access and load-in paths.

Scouts then submit their proposals and notes to filmmakers before final selection of shooting sites occurs. Many scouts also coordinate with local authorities when arranging access to potentially private properties, in order to secure permits and ensure that filming will proceed smoothly.

Scouting should not be confused with casting: while casting seeks out talent from all over, scouting focuses solely on locating appropriate filming sites.

Limit The Number Of Changes In Film Production

One of the biggest challenges facing a film producer is managing a film project from beginning to end. It’s never easy to complete a production, but one of the most difficult aspects of the process is keeping it moving forward. Changes are inevitable, but if you’re not careful, they can derail your production and cost you time and money.

Trying to limit the number of changes in your productions will save you problems down the line. Here are some tips on how to do that: Keep Your Team Informed— The people who are working with you on your project should be kept up-to-date on where you are in the process. This includes everyone from actors to set builders.

If any of them is kept in the dark, they may make decisions that conflict with what you already have in place. This can cause scheduling issues, as well as compromises in quality. Stay Flexible— As with anything in the entertainment industry, things don’t always go according to plan when producing a film project.

You need to be flexible and willing to rethink your plans in order to keep things moving forward smoothly. If something doesn’t work out, try to find ways to work around it instead of trying to change everything at once. Try using it as an opportunity for something new—without rewriting the whole day’s load-in and load-out plan unless the move itself has to change.