Best Practices On Set

Before every shot, it's important to follow production protocol in calling a shot so everyone's on the same page, and there's no disruptions later. The first step in calling a shot is asking to lock up the set, which the AD will call out. This ensures that no one accidentally enters the hot set, because it could ruin the shot and force everyone to start over. From there, the AD calls that the "picture is up" and asks everyone to be quiet, a message that the Production Assistants will usually relay to their location. To check that both the sound department and cameras are ready, the AD will call "roll sound" and "roll camera", which is a cue for each department to start rolling and respond with "sound speed" and "camera speed". From there, the 2nd Assistant Camera slates the shot and calls out the roll, shot, and take number, so post-production has an easier time identifying the footage. Next, the camera operator refocuses the camera and calls "set", and if there's people that'll be in the background, the AD asks them to start moving by calling "action background". When all that is done, the Director can call "action", and the actors can start the scene.