Guides · Guide 06
How to make a floor plan for a short film
A floor plan is the first drawing every other plan sits on. Get the room right once, and your lighting plot, your blocking and your camera positions all inherit it.
What a floor plan is for
On a short film you usually get one afternoon to look at a location, and one day to shoot in it. A floor plan lets you decide things in the gap between: where the camera can go, whether a dolly will fit, which wall you can hide a light behind. It is a decision tool first and a handout second.
Step 1: Measure what matters
You do not need a survey. Measure the long wall, the short wall and the ceiling height, and note the position of every door and window along the wall it sits on. A cheap laser measure is worth having. If you only have a tape, measure along the wall at floor level and write the numbers down as you go.
Rooms are often not rectangles. If there is an alcove, a bay window or a chimney breast, measure that too. They change where the camera can stand more than most people expect.
Step 2: Draw the walls as one outline
Draw the room as a single closed shape, not four loose lines. That way, when you change one wall, the others follow, and the corners stay joined. Draw to the inside faces of the walls, because that is the space you can actually use.
Step 3: Cut in the doors and windows
Doors matter because actors come through them and because they swing. A door that opens into the room takes floor space and can block a camera position. Windows matter because they are where daylight comes from, and because on an interior you will often put a light outside one.
Step 4: Add only the furniture that affects the shot
Draw the sofa, the table, the bed, anything an actor sits at or walks around. Leave out the lamps and ornaments unless they are practicals you will use. Use real sizes. A 1.6 m table drawn at 1.6 m is the only way to answer "can the camera get behind it".
Step 5: Place the camera, then the actors, then the lights
This order matters. The camera decides what the audience sees. The actors decide where they will be. Light comes last because it serves both. If you place lights first, you end up lighting a room nobody will see.
Step 6: Check it, then share it
Walk it through in your head as the crew would. Can the actors reach their marks? Is there a place to stand the sound recordist? Then export it and send it. A PDF prints at a fixed scale, so a person reading it on paper can measure from it.
How big should it print?
Pick a paper size first, then a scale that fits. A small room fits A4 at a large scale. A big location or a long exterior might need A3 or a smaller scale. Whatever you choose, print the scale on the page so the reader knows what they are looking at.
Mistakes to avoid
- Drawing to the outside of the walls. You lose the real floor space.
- Skipping the ceiling height. It decides what stands and what rigs are possible.
- Drawing everything in the room. If it does not affect the shot, leave it off.
- Guessing the dimensions. A rough number is fine. An unmarked drawing is not.
ShotPlots starts you on a blank grid. Drag out a room, cut in doors and windows, add furniture at real size, and the plan stays to scale as you add the camera, lights and actors. Draw one free, no account, nothing to install, or see a finished sheet and its PDF.