Large-Scale Photo Shoot Logistics

[kdthomas]

Yes, this is a vague, nebulous question with lots of answers ... I'm really wanting to start a conversation and get thoughts from experienced people.

OK, let's say I have a vision for a location shoot. Let's say it's a picnic in a wheat field with a bunch of first-graders, while in the center of the scene there's a rockabilly couple dancing, and some people jumping on a trampoline in the background. That's just a wild guess. I have a scene in mind that's a lot less than that, just wondering about doing it.

How do these kinds of shoots get organized?
Are there books for doing this kind of thing?

Can you give me examples of large shoots you've done that required pulling a lot of stuff together? Things like casting. Finding costumes. How time consuming it was. Surprises. Property owners. Permits. How it wound up being more complicated than you accounted for.

Sorry to be vague

 

[W.Y.Photo]

Did a large production shoot for a band with 4 or so other photographers a few years ago.. We had to organize, conceptualize, and shoot a group portrait for a class assignment. We got the idea from the band that we finally settled on after a few meetings. their name was Khat House so we decided to do some studio shots of the group surrounded by cats. We decided that getting all of the cats in ideal positions for a single shot would be the embodiment of hell on earth so we instead shot the cats separately but during the same shoot and composited them in in post. Getting a hold of so many different cats was a logistical nightmare and took a lot of time and energy but other than that the actual shoot went swimmingly. The post-processing must have taken a good 7 hours total but the final product was worth it.

Here's what we came up with:

I guess the best advice I can give is if you can't get everyone together at once, compositing is always an option

Take a look at some of Gregory Crewdson's videos to see how he pulls those shots off.

 

[The_Traveler]

Another kind of large scale shoot.
Every year in April I organize a one day shoot for a local charitable org that refurbishes about 30 houses in our county.

In advance:
Recruit photographers (8+)
I get all the addresses and plot them out on a map so that I can make individual assignments as close together as possible.
Since there are always photog no-shows, I never schedule myself so that I can fill in.

Each photographer gets an address list, an equipment list, a shot list and a general how to about 10 days in advance.
There are also requirements on how the jpegs are named, sized and submitted.
(I get from 1500 to 2500 shots so strict file naming is required)
They must reply with their mobile number, that they've gotten the list, that they understand requirements or I don't schedule them.

We have a pre-shoot meeting the morning of the event and any questions and changes to assignments get resolved.
I hand out paper copies of assignment addresses and shot list.
We all check date and time on our cameras so when someone forgets to make a shot of the sign at the site (and they always do) I can figure out where they were more easily.
Each photog is responsible for before and after shots of his/her houses and must call me when they are done for the day.
I get the shots in zipfiles by Tuesday, import them keyworded into LR and provide CDs with photos at viewable size to the client, usually by Thursday.
Then I work with the org web person and pr firm to provide chosen images for sponsors, webshows, publicity and grant reports.