Al Lock Photography wrote:
I shot a job on Sunday with one model that will be used as an online calendar to illustrate "12 dates with a Thai girl". Shot one extra concept in case one didn't work out.

The concepts (in the order that they were shot):

1. Walk in a park
2. Art Gallery
3. Swimming Pool
4. Aquarium
5. Bowling
6. Movies
7. Lunch riverside
8. Visit the Royal Palace/Emerald Buddha
9. Temple of the Dawn (Wat Arun)
10. Dinner at The China House
11. River cruise
12. Night club
13. Live music venue (jazz club).

The last two were shot in the same place and Photoshop will be used to make the shots that are intended to look like they are in a nightclub look that way (it was a long enough day without waiting for a nightclub in Bangkok). The rest? A lot of traveling - crew did great (MUA, assistant, client, model), fast setups and break-downs. Pre-planning was essential, of course.

What is the most locations you've done in a day?

Very impressive Al.  Either you did a superb job improvising or you had an incredible team or your planning/logistics/setup was impressive.  Or all three.

My example isn't really comparable b/c it was a Presidential campaign.  So while I did multiple locations in one day (11 I think) they were really "photo-ops" in which I had to do some anticipation but no setup, I had no control over the timing or event, and I wasn't dealing with models.  Basically the motorcade had a stop at a venue with a bunch of events (shaking hands at a pancake breakfast, stop at a VFW hall and nearby cemetery to lay a wreath, than shake hands of vets, then give a speech in a hall, then drive a short distance to a Chamber lunch to speak and greet, then drive to meet with the mayor, then to a small rally...and you get the idea).  Superb planning by the advance staff, unlike most campaigns we didn't spend much time waiting around or in cars/buses and it was all very close together.  But doing 12 (13 actually) location shoots in one day would be mind blowing.

Ed

afplcc wrote:
Either you did a superb job improvising or you had an incredible team or your planning/logistics/setup was impressive.  Or all three.

Actually didn't have to improvise that much... I do put in the time planning out how everything should go, make sure my team is well-informed (and put together teams that work well together) and modify as we go. This one went pretty close to plan actually. 6 am start, 9 pm finish.

Client has made their choices from the options I provided them and is very happy. So, it worked out.

afplcc wrote:
You know, content like this ("how I planned 13 shoots in one day") is the sort of stuff that (especially with more details) could make the forums even more beneficial (rather than an often snark-fest).  It was good of you to share this and I wouldn't be surprised if you get a message from someone down the road about "how'd you plan that calendar?" or "what logistical problems did you run in to?"

Frankly, I suspect you found it pretty similar to planning for an insertion (minus the ammunition and MRE's of course)!

Ed

You are correct in that the planning process the Army taught me (the "backward-planning process") and the skill set of creating a warning order/operations order  and all the detail that goes into that is exactly the same skills that are needed to plan a shoot like this.

First step is to decide what you want to accomplish - what is the goal?

For this shoot, that was determining what the 12 ideas were (in fact, came up with about 15 - we dropped the ones that were logistically/location too difficult to fit into the day).

Give a "warning order" to your team. Give them a head's up on what is going on and get their input on their part of the process.

Next, envision you have accomplished the goal - what happened just before - plan backwards from the completion. In this case, planned backwards from the final shot at the jazz club, putting shots in the order that would take advantage  of light and location (reduce criss-crossing the city) in a logical order.

Now, sort out the logistics. What wardrobe is needed for each shot? Where will the model change? How do we get from location to location? What equipment is required for the shoot? How will the equipment and wardrobe be secured? Where will makeup be done? How many changes of makeup? Hair style changes?

Layout the plan. I do shot layout sketches. Brief the team on the plan. Everyone in the team (in this case, that included model, assistant, MUA, client and driver) so everyone knows what's going on at every step and what's coming next.

Go for it, be able to modify on the fly.