What is a recce actually for?
A recce is for making decisions before they get expensive: whether the location serves the brief, what it will really cost, who controls access, and where the day's risks hide. Photographs matter, but the recce's real output is answers: the contact's number, the parking plan, the power situation and the permit path.
The test for every item below is the same: does capturing this now remove a problem from the shoot day? A recce that comes home with sixty photos and no answers has documented the location and scouted nothing.
The checklist: nine things to capture at every location
Capture the wides and details, the sun path, power, parking and access, noise, the on-site contact's name and number, every cost, the permit path, and the shot ideas you have while standing there. Each step below leads with the outcome it buys you on the day, because that is the test of whether it is worth capturing.
- Shoot the wides first, then the details: 3 to 5 wides and 6 to 10 details per location. Wides from the corners, shooting across the space, so anyone who was not there understands it: the director choosing angles, the producer judging what fits in the day. Then the details that answer questions before they are asked: doorways, stairs, power points, floor surfaces, ceiling height, the load-in path. Every detail photo is a phone call you will not have to make later.
- Record the sun path so the schedule can be built around the light. Note where the sun rises and falls relative to your key positions, and shoot the same aspect twice if you can be there at different times. The golden-hour shot sets its own time and the rest of the day bends around it; the recce is where you learn what that time is.
- Know the power situation before the day, not on it. Find the power points, ask what you may draw, and photograph the board if the contact allows it. The answer decides whether you bring batteries, run cables or hire a generator, and each of those is a different budget line.
- Leave with a parking and access plan every vehicle can follow. Where the trucks stop, where the crew park, the gate code, the load-in route, and how early access opens. Write the arrival note the crew will actually read: "park behind the kiosk, gate code 4412" saves more time on the day than any other line on the run sheet.
- Listen for two minutes and write down what you hear. Traffic, flight paths, air conditioning, a school across the road, cockatoos at dusk. Sound problems are invisible in photos and expensive in the edit, and two quiet minutes on the recce is all it takes to find them.
- Save the on-site contact's name and mobile number at the source. The person who unlocks the gate, controls the power and knows the neighbours is worth more on the day than every document in the folder. Get the name, the number and the role, and confirm they are reachable on the shoot dates.
- Log every cost while the number is being said. Hire fee, bond, cleaning, power, overtime rate, and what each one covers. A quote that lives only in a conversation becomes a dispute; a quote written at the source becomes a budget line.
- Ask the permit question before you leave. Who has to say yes, what it costs, and the lead time. The on-site contact usually knows, and the recce is the cheapest moment on the whole production to find out.
- Speak the shot ideas while you are standing in them. "Wide from the ridge at golden hour, 50mm walking shots on the boardwalk, drone the cable car." The ideas you have on site are sharper than anything you will reconstruct at a desk, and they become the shot list the run sheet is built from.
How many photos is enough?
Between 14 and 22 photos per location is the working set: 3 to 5 wides, 6 to 10 details, a sun-direction pair, 2 or 3 access and parking frames, and 1 or 2 of the power board and any hazards. Fewer than that and the day will ask questions your camera roll cannot answer.
| What | How many | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Wides, from the corners | 3 to 5 | Does the space serve the brief, and what fits in the day |
| Details | 6 to 10 | Doorways, stairs, power points, surfaces, the load-in path |
| Sun-direction pair | 2 | Where the light is, and when the hero shot has to happen |
| Access and parking | 2 to 3 | Where every vehicle stops and how the gear gets in |
| Power board and hazards | 1 to 2 | Batteries, cables or a generator; what needs taping or flagging |
| The working set | 14 to 22 | The day asks nothing your camera roll cannot answer |
Where does a recce go wrong?
Five failures cover almost every recce that lets a shoot down: photos with no notes attached, costs quoted verbally and never written down, no contact number, the permit discovered late, and shot ideas that evaporated on the drive home. None of them are capture failures; all of them are structure failures, and the fix for each is the same.
- The camera roll with no notes. Sixty photos across three locations and, two weeks later, no idea which power board belongs to which address. A photo without its context is half a capture; attach the note to the location while you are standing in it.
- The verbal quote. The owner named a figure in the car park and nobody wrote it down. By the budget meeting it is a memory, and by the invoice it is a disagreement.
- The missing contact. On the day the gate is locked and the only number anyone has is a booking office that opens at nine. The crew call was seven.
- The late permit. Discovered after the schedule is locked, when the approval lead time is longer than the runway. One question on the recce would have surfaced it.
- The evaporated shots. The ideas were real, standing on the ridge; at the desk three days later they are gone, and the shot list gets rebuilt from memory instead of from the moment.
Doing this with Runner Runner
The whole checklist above is one capture flow in Runner Runner: photograph the location, then type or speak the note, and it is structured on the spot into address, on-site contact, cost and shot list, with the raw note always kept. Nothing waits for the desk, and nothing it cannot read is guessed.
Standing at the location, you snap the photo and speak the brief the way you would say it to a colleague: the spot, who runs it, what it costs, the shots you can see. Voice here is the browser's dictation into a typed note, which you can read and correct before it is structured, so what gets saved is what you actually said. The contact's name and number are saved at the source, one tap away on the shoot day. The cost is logged against the location the moment you hear it, so you know what the shoot will cost before the first frame. And anything the capture cannot read comes back blank and flagged, never guessed, so a half-heard phone number is a visible gap instead of a confident error.
The recce captures become the raw material for the rest of the production: the locations, contacts, costs and shot ideas you structure on site are what the per-day plan and the run sheet are built from later.
Frequently asked
What photos should you take on a location recce?
Take 3 to 5 wides that show the whole space from the corners, then 6 to 10 details: doorways, stairs, power points, floor surfaces, ceiling height, the load-in path, and anything that could block a trolley or a light stand. Add a parking photo and a sun-direction pair. Around 14 to 22 photos per location is the working set; fewer means questions on the day.
How do you record location costs during scouting?
Write the number down the moment it is spoken, with who said it and what it covers: hire fee, bond, cleaning, power access, overtime rate. A verbal quote remembered a week later is a guess, and guessed numbers break budgets. In Runner Runner you speak or type the cost as part of the location capture and it is logged against that location on the spot, so you know what the shoot will cost before the first frame.
Do you need a permit to film at a location?
Often, yes, for commercial work: councils, national parks and private land managers commonly require one, and lead times vary from days to weeks depending on the authority. The recce job is not to hold the permit, it is to leave knowing exactly who has to say yes, what it costs, and how long they take, so the answer arrives before the crew does.
What should you ask the on-site contact during a recce?
Their name and mobile number first, then the practical five: who unlocks and when, where the crew can park, which power you may use, what is off limits, and who to call if something breaks. Save the number at the source; the on-site contact solves more shoot-day problems than any document you carry.
How long should a location recce take?
Budget 30 to 45 minutes per location for a working recce: enough for the full photo set, the sun and noise checks, the conversation with the contact and the costs. Ten minutes gets you pictures; it does not get you the parking answer or the permit lead time, and those are the details that decide the day.
What is the difference between a recce and a tech scout?
The recce is the first pass: is this location right for the brief, what does it cost, and who controls it. The tech scout comes later, usually with heads of department, to answer department questions: where lights rig, where video village sits, where cables run. On small commercial and tourism shoots the two collapse into one visit, which is exactly why the checklist matters.