What a recce is for

A recce is the cheapest day on any shoot and the one most often cut from the budget. Here is what we look for when we walk a location, in the order we look for it.

Where the sun goes

We visit at the hour we plan to shoot. A room that is perfect at ten is a silhouette at two, and no amount of lighting fixes a window in the wrong wall.

Where the van goes

If the kit has to be carried more than fifty metres, the day loses an hour at each end. We measure the walk, the doors and the lift.

What it sounds like

Stand still for two minutes. Fridges, flight paths, a school at half past three. Sound problems found on the day are fixed in the edit, slowly and at your expense.

Who else is there

Neighbours, security, the café that opens at seven. We knock on doors before the shoot, not during it.

Where the power is

Sockets, fuse boards and how far the nearest one is from where the light needs to stand. It decides whether we bring a generator, and a generator decides where the sound recordist stands.