A skill that makes Claude work as the producer on your shoot day. You tell it what the pictures are for, the date, the city and who will be in front of the camera. It counts the finished files the day has to produce, scans for anything with a deadline, such as a city film permit or an insurance certificate, and times your shot list into setups with real turnovers, a meal break and a cut list. Then it writes the crew list with staggered call times, the kit and prop lists, the location notes, the releases to collect, a plan B for each risk, the wrap list and the call sheet.
Inside are the numbers a producer carries in their head: how long a natural make-up look takes against a beauty look, what a change of set costs, how many e-commerce looks fit in a day, how much a hair dryer draws from a 15 amp circuit. A reference file holds the permit rules for New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco, national parks and forests, drones, minors and model releases, each with its source and the date it was checked. Claude quotes them from the file and never fills in a name, phone number, address or permit number it was not given.
Claude is not a lawyer and does not pretend to be one. It tells you what to arrange and by when, and your releases still belong on your lawyer's or your agency's form. The permit figures are for the US and change without notice, so confirm with the office before you rely on one. It cannot visit your location, so send photos and a floor plan, and give it your own crew's times where you know them. With code execution on it makes a PDF call sheet and a spreadsheet; with web search on it can read the film office page for a city it does not know.
Claude skill · version 1.0
Shoot day planner
Checking your access.
In the download · 6 files
- SKILL.mdThe method Claude follows, stage by stage, with an output template and one closing question for each of the seven stages.
- README.mdHow to install it in claude.ai or Claude Code, how to start, and the licence.
- references/permits-and-releases.mdLead times, city film permits for New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco, national parks and forests, drones, model and location releases, minors, digital replicas, insurance, heat and lightning rules, each with its source and the date checked.
- references/schedule-math.mdTiming figures for hair and make-up, lighting, turnovers and output per day, the rules for ordering a day and setting call times, meal-break rules, light windows and weather rules.
- references/checklists.mdCamera, data, lighting and grip, power, styling, props, production box, safety, location scout and wrap lists, with the power and data sums.
- references/worked-example.mdA full shoot day for a fictional ceramics brand in Los Angeles, with each stage's output and the finished call sheet.
Install it and begin
01Install it in Claude CodeTerminal mkdir -p ~/.claude/skillsunzip ~/Downloads/shoot-day-planner.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/# Start it with /shoot-day-planner. If this is your first skill, type /reload-skills once.On claude.ai there is nothing to unzip: upload the zip as it is. Every step is on Install and use a Claude skill.
02Your first message to ClaudeText Use the shoot day planner skill. I'm shooting [WHAT THE PICTURES ARE FOR] on [DATE] in [CITY], at [KIND OF PLACE, FOR EXAMPLE A RENTED STUDIO]. In front of the camera: [WHO, FOR EXAMPLE ONE ADULT MODEL]. Crew so far: [ROLES YOU HAVE BOOKED]. My shot list is attached. Start with the lead-time scan and tell me what is missing.Attach your shot list or brief and a few photos of the location. If you know the location's coordinates, add them and Claude can work out the sun times.
Common mistakes
Where shoot days go wrong
Instead ofTiming a setup by its shooting time alone, so the schedule says "S3, 30 minutes".
Do thisCount the turnover, the test frames and the client's review as well. The same setup is closer to 90 minutes.
Instead ofCalling the model at general crew call to be safe.
Do thisWork back from first shot: make-up, wardrobe and ten minutes to walk to set. Anyone called earlier is paid to wait.
Instead ofLeaving the model release until wrap, when everyone is tired and someone has already gone home.
Do thisCollect releases at check-in, before hair and make-up, with two printed copies per person or a signing app ready.
Instead ofAssuming a private house needs no permit because it is private.
Do thisRead the city's own rule. Los Angeles wants a permit for commercial shoots on private property; San Francisco does not if nothing happens outside.
Instead ofPlugging the hair dryer and the lights into the same wall.
Do thisDo the power sum. A 15 amp circuit carries about 1,440 watts for hours and a dryer alone draws up to 1,875, so make-up gets its own circuit.
Instead ofWriting a sunset time or a hospital address onto the call sheet from memory.
Do thisLeave a marked gap, then fill it from a weather app, a calculation from the coordinates or a search, labelled for someone to confirm.
Instead ofKeeping all the spare time for the end of the day.
Do thisSplit 10 to 15 per cent of the shooting time into two pieces, one before lunch and one before the last light window.
Instead ofFormatting cards on set once the files are on the laptop.
Do thisTwo copies on two drives, file counts checked, before anyone leaves. Cards stay untouched until the client has the files.
What to do it with
- ClaudeFree tier, paid above it
A language model that writes, edits, reads long documents and runs tools, including agents that work inside a codebase.
Bad at It is agreeable by default, so it will improve a bad idea instead of telling you it is bad. Ask it to argue against you and the quality of the answer changes.
- Claude CodeSubscription
An agent that reads a whole repository, edits files, runs the tests and explains what it changed.
Bad at It is fast enough to make a large mistake quickly. Work on a branch, read the diff, and never let it push. Watch the starting mode: on Pro, Max and Team plans it opens in auto mode, which Anthropic's own list says may read a .env file and send the key in it to the API that key belongs to. Switch it off.
- Sun SeekerSubscription
Shows where the sun will be at any hour on any date at a location, on the phone, in the place.
Bad at It tells you where the light will come from and nothing about the weather.
Why it matters
Ask a chat for a call sheet and it fills the gaps with plausible addresses, a hospital that may not exist and a schedule that gives a lighting change ten minutes. On the day those guesses cost an hour, or a fine. This skill makes Claude leave marked gaps, time every turnover, put the meal break where the law puts it and raise the permit deadline in its first reply, while there is still time to file.
- Type
- technique
- Period
- ongoing