Pre-production documents to have before the shoot

Three groups of documents, three standards

Seeing pre-production documents as three groups makes the trade-offs much clearer.

• For thinking things through: the project brief, visual references and the director's statement. Only you and the key creatives read them, so the format can be loose, but the content must be honest. If these are vague, every document after them will be vague too.
• For the team to work from: the script, breakdown, stripboard, call sheets, recce reports, storyboard and equipment list. The test is whether they can be acted on: can the person who receives one act on it without asking you three more questions?
• For outsiders to review: the budget, proof of insurance, location agreements, filming permits, contracts and licences. The test is completeness and consistency: the other side usually checks only whether the document is there and whether it matches, and pays no attention to how well it is written.

The most common mistake new directors make is preparing documents in the third group to the standard of the first. A venue owner only wants to see the dates, headcount, equipment and insurance policy.

The document sequence from concept to shoot day

1. Concept stage

The project brief: one page setting out genre, length, target audience, core concept and approximate scale. You will use this page again and again: finding crew, negotiating locations, applying for funding and persuading cast all start with it. At the same time, gather visual references and write the director's statement, turning a "feeling" into something other people can understand.

2. Script and breakdown

Once the script is locked, make three breakdown sheets: a scene list (time, set, characters and space needed for each scene), a character list (the scenes each character appears in, look requirements, availability), and a props and art list (the props, wardrobe and special effects each scene needs). These three are the data source for all later scheduling and quotes. Without them, the budget can only be guessed.

3. Budget

Break it down by department: personnel, equipment, locations, art and wardrobe, transport, catering, post-production, insurance, miscellaneous and contingency. Do not leave out the contingency line. Its existence is itself a judgement about how much uncertainty the project carries.

4. Stripboard and daily call sheets

The stripboard is the schedule overview for the whole film, grouped by location and cast availability, out of script order. Daily call sheets are taken from the stripboard and sent out day by day. Keep the two in sync: when the stripboard changes, call sheets not yet sent must change with it, and ones already sent need a revised version.

5. Recce reports

One per location: address and entrances, light direction and how it changes through the day, power points and available load, ambient noise, circulation and equipment routes, toilets and base, who holds management responsibility, and any time limits. Attach photos and note the time of day on the shoot date, so you can compare the light.

6. Visual documents

Storyboards, camera plans or blocking diagrams. A low-budget production may have to skip a full storyboard; key scenes (complex blocking, effects, action, locations charged by the hour) must still have one, or discussion time on set will far exceed the time it would have taken to draw.

7. Crew and equipment

The crew list (role, name, contact, availability, fee) and the equipment list (model, quantity, rental period, pick-up and return times, who is responsible). The equipment list also serves as an attachment to the insurance application and rental contract, so its format should be ready to hand over as it is.

8. Compliance and licensing documents

Proof of insurance, location agreements or leases, filming permits, cast contracts and image-use consent, and music and footage licences. What this batch has in common is that each needs someone else's signature or approval, so each carries time costs you cannot control. Start them first and expect them to finish last.

Crews that employ staff should note: the Labour Department's A Guide to Employees' Compensation Insurance states that, under section 40 of the Employees' Compensation Ordinance (Cap. 282), all employers must take out employees' compensation insurance. For the forms that match each filming permit, start with the Film Promotion and Facilitation Section's list of permits and application forms.

The minimum set by scale

The following are common trade-offs; in practice, what funders, venue owners and clients require still decides.

"Recommended" in the student short column means a formal document may not be needed; the thinking behind it still has to happen. A scene breakdown can be a handwritten sheet, but that sheet has to exist. If the work may later go to festivals, be uploaded or be used commercially, treat image consent and footage licences as essential from the start: getting signatures afterwards is far harder than on the day.

The documents others will ask you for

If time is short, do these first, because they are other people's gates.

• Equipment rental houses: a comprehensive equipment insurance policy (usually listing the rented equipment and rental period), proof of the hirer's identity or company, the equipment list and rental period, and deposit arrangements.
• Venue owners or landlords: proof of insurance, a description of what is being filmed and its use, headcount and equipment list, arrival and clear-out times, and contact details for the person in charge on site.
• Government departments: the relevant application form, the exact location and full time window, headcount, equipment scale, the impact on the surroundings and passages, and insurance details. Requirements differ by department; follow each department's own announcements.
• Funders or schools: the budget, stripboard, script, key creative and crew lists, and completion and delivery deadlines.
• Cast or their agents: the script or relevant scenes, shoot dates and locations, contract terms, and the scope of image and publicity use.

These documents share one feature: their contents must match each other. Policy dates that do not match the stripboard, an equipment list that does not match the rental order, a headcount on the application form that does not match the call sheet: all are common reasons for rejection. Rather than writing each document separately, generate them all from the same base data (scenes, dates, headcount, equipment, crew), so that changing one place changes everything.

Versions and delivery

Every external document should have a date and version, and one person should be responsible for sending it out. The thing most likely to go wrong in pre-production is three versions of the same document circulating among different people. A week before the shoot, reconcile everything: lay out every external document and check that the dates, locations, headcounts and amounts agree. That one hour usually saves half a day on shoot day.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum set of documents for a student short?

Going by the table in this note, the locked script, daily call sheets, equipment list, and location agreement or lease are essential; most of the rest are recommended, or depend on what the location requires.

Which documents should be started first?

Compliance and licensing documents: proof of insurance, location agreements or leases, filming permits, cast contracts and image-use consent, and music and footage licences. Each needs someone else's signature or approval, so the timing is out of your hands.

Why do external documents most often get rejected?

Because their contents do not match each other: policy dates that do not match the stripboard, an equipment list that does not match the rental order, or a headcount on the application form that does not match the call sheet.

References

1. Film Promotion and Facilitation Section, Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency, permits and application forms: fpf.ccidahk.gov.hk/en/forms/index.php
2. Labour Department, A Guide to Employees' Compensation Insurance (April 2017 edition, PDF): www.labour.gov.hk/eng/public/ecd/geci.pdf

The pages above were accessed on 31 October 2026.

Published May 2026. Last updated: 31 October 2026.