Film School Journal.com

Chances are your indie films have little to no budget and must be shot in only days, sometimes only one day. The last thing you want to do is show up at the specified location and not know what you’re going to shoot. First of all, it is very unprofessional to show up at a shoot and try to wing it. Second of all, you waste valuable time that could be used to shoot extra scenes or alternate angles. You are also wasting the time of your actors who are either volunteering their time or charging you. In that case, you’re also losing money.

The way to avoid this is to write an outline, detailing every shot. A good thing to do is to go the location beforehand and plan out possible shots. Taking digital photos of the location is helpful. If you have a screenplay to work from, read it once all the way through and then read it again, this time taking notes.

The key to a successful shoot is to be prepared and organized. I’m not saying going out with no outline is necessarily a bad thing. This sort of “raw” shooting works sometimes. But for a bigger, longer, more involved shoot that involves a lot of people, I would highly recommend outlining.