Putting a Camera Plan Down on Paper: A Step-by-Step Guide

Start with the shot list, not the equipment list

Every camera plan that holds up on show day begins with what the audience needs to see. Before anyone mentions bodies or lenses, write down the shots the programme depends on: the wide establishing view, the presenter two-shot, the close on the guest, the cutaway to the demonstration table. I come to this from the audio side, and I have learned that a camera plan written from a shot list is far easier to support with sound, because it tells me where people will stand and where a microphone can sit out of frame.

Keep the list short and ordered by importance. If a shot appears in every episode, it earns a dedicated camera. If it appears once a month, it can be a repositioned camera or a handheld. This single page of writing settles most arguments later, because the team can point to it whenever someone proposes an extra position that nothing in the programme requires.

• List shots by how often the programme needs them
• Mark which shots must be live and which can be recorded
• Note any shot that needs a presenter to move

Draw the floor plan and mark every position

Take a measured plan of the studio or venue and mark each camera position with its height, its distance from the subject and the direction it faces. Paper is fine, though a simple drawing file works equally well. What matters is that the plan shows the real room: pillars, doors, the monitor wall, the area where the floor manager stands. Cameras fail in practice because a pedestal cannot physically reach the mark someone drew in an office.

Walk the room with tape and mark the positions on the floor. Stand a person at each presenter mark and look back through a viewfinder or simply frame with your hands. You will often find that a position is a metre too far left, or that a lighting stand blocks a cable route. Fix these on the floor in minutes, rather than on the day with a full crew waiting.

• Record height, distance and facing direction for each position
• Show cable routes and where operators will stand
• Leave clear walking space for talent and floor crew

Choose lenses from the distances you measured

Once the positions are fixed, lens choice becomes arithmetic rather than opinion. A camera twelve metres from the presenter needs a long reach; a camera at three metres on the desk needs a wide, forgiving lens. Write the focal range each position needs, then check whether one zoom covers it or whether two different cameras are being asked to do the same job with different glass.

Think about depth of field too. A shallow, flattering image is lovely until a presenter leans forward and drifts out of focus. For talk formats with a lot of movement, a slightly smaller image area and a deeper focus zone is the calmer choice. Note the preferred aperture range beside each position so operators know what the plan expects, and so the lighting team knows how much light the lenses will need.

• Match focal range to the measured distance at each position
• Note the aperture range the lighting must support
• Avoid asking two cameras to cover the same shot

Map the signal path from lens to vision mixer

A camera plan is incomplete until it shows how every picture reaches the gallery. For each position, write the route: camera, cable or wireless link, patch point, router input, vision mixer input. Add the return feeds too, such as the programme monitor, the prompter and the talkback. This is the part most often left to improvisation, and it is where a calm morning turns into an hour of searching for a dead cable.

Label inputs consistently and keep the labels identical across the drawing, the patch panel and the vision mixer. If camera two is called Cam 2 on paper and Left Wide on the panel, someone will plug into the wrong place under pressure. I also ask for the audio embedded with each source to be noted, since a clean sync later depends on knowing which feed carries which sound.

• Write the full route for every source, input to input
• Use one set of labels everywhere
• Note any embedded audio carried by each camera feed

Test the plan with a rehearsal before show day

A plan is a hypothesis until it has been run. Schedule a rehearsal with real presenters, real movement and the full signal chain switched on, and watch for the small failures: a camera that loses the presenter on the walk to the demonstration table, a cable that tightens at full pedestal height, a shot that is fine alone but clashes in a sequence.

Keep notes during the run and update the written plan the same day, while the details are fresh. Mark what changed and why. The next producer who inherits the studio will read your final version rather than relying on memory, and the second rehearsal is nearly always shorter than the first because the plan now describes the room as it truly behaves.

• Rehearse with real talent and the full signal chain
• Record every change on the plan the same day
• Check cable slack at the highest and lowest pedestal positions

Keep the plan alive after the first show

The best camera plans are revised. After the first few episodes, sit down with the operators and ask which positions they never use, which ones they wish they had, and where the cable keeps snagging. Small adjustments, such as moving a pedestal mark by half a metre, often remove complaints that would otherwise linger for months.

Store the plan where the whole crew can find it, with a date on each version. When a new guest format arrives or the set changes for a season, you start from a document that already describes how the room works, and you can change one position without questioning all the others. That is the real value of writing it down.