ShotPlots

Guides · Guide 07

Location recce checklist: what to measure and photograph

You usually get one visit to a location before the shoot. This is what to bring home from it, so that every plan you draw afterwards is based on facts instead of memory.

Written by Richard Jones, film producer, Australia · Updated 13 October 2026

Before you go

Bring a tape or laser measure, a phone with a charged battery, a notebook, and a compass app. Ask the owner or location manager for any floor plan they already have. Even a rough one saves ten minutes. Check the time of day you will shoot and visit at the same time if you can, because the light is the one thing you cannot measure later.

Measure these

  • The room. Both wall lengths and the ceiling height. Note any alcoves, bays or chimney breasts.
  • Every door and window. Width, height, and position along the wall. Which way the door swings.
  • Furniture you cannot move. Anything fixed or heavy, with its size and place.
  • Camera room. The longest clear distance in the room, because that sets your widest and longest lens options.
  • Power. Where the sockets are and which are on the same circuit. Ask what the circuit can carry.

Photograph these

  • Each wall, straight on. Stand in the middle of the room and shoot all four.
  • Each corner. It shows how the walls meet and what is behind a door.
  • Windows from inside and out. The view out matters for the daylight, and what is outside matters for placing lights.
  • The ceiling. For rigging points, fittings and low beams.
  • The route in. Parking, the door, any stairs or lifts, because the gear has to get from the van to the set.

Keep the photos in the order you took them and name them by room and wall. A dozen unlabelled images is not a record.

Note the light

Write down which way each window faces, using the compass. Note the time you visited and what the sky was doing. If it is a day interior, ask yourself where the sun will be at the time of your shot. A window that gives a lovely side light at ten may be a blown-out rectangle at two.

Listen to the room

Stand still for a minute and listen. A fridge, a main road, an air conditioner or a clock will all end up on your sound recording. The sound recordist will thank you for flagging it.

Ask these

  • Can furniture be moved, and put back?
  • Can we mark floors, use gaffer tape, or put anything on the walls?
  • Where can we put cases, a holding area and a place to eat?
  • What are the neighbours and the access hours?
  • Are there any rooms we must stay out of?
A kitchen floor plan with recce notes written on it: ceiling height, which way the window faces, where the door swings, two sockets and a noisy fridge.
Screenshot of the app canvas · recce notes on the plan Text notes print with the plan

Then draw it up the same day

Do not leave it for later. Memory fades faster than you expect. Draw the floor plan while the room is still clear in your head, and add your notes and photos to it. Everything else in your prep, the lighting plot, the blocking and the shot order, sits on top of that drawing.

A 6.5 by 4.5 metre living room with a window in the top wall, a door and its swing on the left, a sofa, coffee table, armchair, TV and bookshelf, plus a camera and two actors.
Screenshot of the app canvas · living room The plan drawn from the recce
Try it

ShotPlots lets you keep notes and up to four location photos with each scene, and prints them under the key, so the recce travels with the plan. Draw one free, no account, nothing to install, or see a finished sheet and its PDF.

Related

How to make a floor plan for a short film, and Lighting a night interior.