Checklist: what you bring to the shoot

Four things decide whether your shoot day starts at all: a valid identity card or passport, a current test result, your signed limits list and the bank details for the billing. If one of those is missing, there is no shooting, and goodwill changes nothing about that. Everything else in your bag makes the day more pleasant, but not possible. This checklist is sorted exactly in that order: first what is mandatory, then what helps, and last what you leave at home because the production supplies it. Anyone who goes through it once no longer has to think on the morning of the shoot day.

The four things without which there is no shooting

These points are not a recommendation, but the condition for a production being able to work legally and pay you.

• Valid identity card or passport. The original, not the copy and not the photo on the phone. A driving licence is not enough: it is not provided as age verification for the legally required documentation. Check the expiry date before you leave. An expired ID is the most common avoidable reason why a shoot day collapses.
• Current STI test result. Printed or as a file you can open without a network. Usual is a panel that on the shoot day is no older than 14 to 30 days. Which deadline applies stands in the booking confirmation, and the costs are borne by the production. Recalculate the date beforehand instead of hoping it still holds.
• Signed limits list. Your Yes-No-Maybe list is part of the contract and not a slip. Bring it, even if you sent it in advance. On set it is the paper you can point to if an arrangement is remembered differently from how you made it.
• Bank details. IBAN and account holder, written down instead of from memory. Payment is by transfer within 14 days against a statement, not in cash on set. Anyone who bills as a self-employed person brings tax number and invoice address as well; then the invoice is written in the evening.

How the billing runs in detail and what remains of the fee is on the pay page. For the bag the account number is enough.

What makes the day clearly more pleasant

A shoot day with travel, preparation and waiting time often lasts ten to twelve hours, and the larger part of that is waiting. The following list is packed for the waiting, not for the camera.

• Your own care products. Shower gel, deodorant, toothbrush, brush, hair bands, lip care. Something usually stands on set, but rarely what your skin knows.
• A second towel. Towels are supplied by the production. One that belongs only to you and stays in the rucksack is still one of the small things that make a long day more bearable.
• Comfortable clothing for the waiting time. Loose top, loose trousers, socks. Tight cuffs leave marks on the skin, and those are clearly visible under studio light.
• Slippers or thick socks. Studios are either too cool or too warm, and floors that cables run over are rarely clean.
• Charger and power bank. The sockets on set are occupied by technique, and your phone is empty after eight hours of waiting.
• Food and water. Food is supplied, but not in your rhythm. Bars, fruit, nuts and your own bottle make you independent of the break planning.
• Your own cosmetics if you have sensitive skin. If you react to certain products, bring yours and say so in makeup before they start, not after.
• Something to pass the time. Headphones, a book, cards. Do not underestimate how long you sit on set without being needed.

What you can leave at home

Costumes, lingerie for the scene, props, bed linen, condoms and lubricant are brought by the production. That is not courtesy but a division of labour: what is seen in front of the camera has to fit the concept, the lighting and the other people involved. If you are meant to bring something, it stands in the booking confirmation.

On condoms the matter is clear. They are mandatory for vaginal and anal intercourse, without exception and independently of tests presented, and the production supplies them in sufficient quantity and in different sizes. Which protection rules apply beyond that is under safety on set.

Also not to bring: alcohol. And companions only by arrangement. At the casting a trusted person may come without prior notice; on the shoot day that is a question of the place and of the discretion of everyone involved. Ask beforehand, then nobody stands in front of a locked door.

The note that ends discussions

Write the key facts of the booking on a sheet of paper and put it in the bag: fee, planned shoot time, what is being shot, with whom, which usage rights are agreed, who your contact is and which word stops the shoot at once.

The note sounds exaggerated until you need it. On set your phone sits in the changing room, you are under lights, half without makeup, and someone says a sentence that diverges from the arrangement. Then it is easier to point to a line than to argue from memory.

If while writing you notice that you cannot fill in a point, you already have the actual insight of the day before you leave: an arrangement is missing. Call before you set off.

When you pack

The evening before, not in the morning. Shoot days start early, and what you throw together at six o’clock in five minutes is half of what you need. Put ID, test result, limits list and note on top, so you do not have to shake them out of the bag when you check in.

What has proved itself in practice is to split everything into two bags: papers and valuables in a small one that stays with you, everything else in the large one that sits in the changing room. How the day after that runs you can read in our report on a complete shoot day.

If something is still missing

Say so at once and to production management, not only when you are asked. Some things can be solved: care products, clothing, food, a charging cable can be organised on set.

Two things cannot be solved. Without a valid ID document there is no shooting, because the documentation duty is otherwise not met. And an expired test means at best a postponement, at worse a cancelled shoot day for everyone involved. Both are annoying, but both are a question of two minutes of preparation.

That is exactly why the list is worth it. The path from application to contract is well plannable, and the shoot day itself becomes the calmer the less you have to improvise on it.