An editorial photoshoot
planned from the story down.

Storyflow was made for this exact job: the story and references, the casting options, the wardrobe pull as a table of pieces and returns, the locations, the run of the day by look, and the credits the magazine needs, all on one board the stylist and the artist open from a link. Calling in samples and handling showroom paperwork is still done off the board.

The difference is who decides and who pays. On a commercial job the client owns the brief, the fee is real and usage is negotiated. On an editorial the idea is usually yours or the editor's, the budget is small, and you are paid in the work, the tear sheet and the credit. Because you cannot spend your way out of a problem, the planning is the budget.

Start with the story in one sentence. Group your references by what they decide: light, colour, attitude, location. Book the stylist and hair and makeup first. Gather casting options, hold a location, start the wardrobe pull, lock looks against locations and light, write the run of day, then shoot, select, retouch and send credits. Storyflow keeps all of it on one board.

Start about eight weeks out for a one day story. Story and references at eight, stylist and hair and makeup at six, casting options at five, cast and location at four, the pull at three, looks locked at two, call sheet and returns plan at one. Two days after the shoot, selects. A week later, retouched files and credits.

An editorial call sheet carries call times for crew and talent with agency numbers, the location and how to get in, the hair and makeup order, the looks in shooting order with their times, kit per setup, lunch, wrap and the returns plan. Editorial days run on looks rather than scenes, which is what makes them different from a film call sheet.

Track the pull as a table with one row per piece: where it came from, which look it is in, when it arrived and when it goes back. Watch the gap between requested and arrived every morning in the fortnight before. Storyflow does not call in samples or handle showroom paperwork; it keeps the list that stops pieces going missing.

With one hair and makeup artist and one changing area, six is a full day. Budget about forty five minutes of shooting and twenty minutes of change and touch up per look, so each one costs about sixty five minutes. Add the first face in the chair at the start, which is usually ninety minutes on its own.

Yes. Describe the story and it proposes looks, a shot list and a schedule, and it reads files you attach if you already have a brief. On Pro and Max it can also draw a frame from your description, which helps when you are pitching an idea that has not been shot yet. You decide what survives.

Yes. Storyflow's view-only link opens in any browser with no account, so the stylist, the artist and the models can read everything. Signing in is only needed to leave a comment, and anyone a paid member invites to a board joins free.

Collect credits on the day, on Storyflow's board, not from memory afterwards. Every garment with its brand, every person with the spelling and the handle they use. Publications have a credits deadline that is earlier than you expect, and a misspelled name is the mistake people remember longer than a soft frame.

Storyflow lets you drag any look or sample row wherever you want it on the board. It does not sort a table for you, so the order is the one you set by hand. Most people keep the pull grouped by showroom, because that is how the returns happen, and keep the looks in shooting order, which a date sort would scramble.

No. Storyflow runs in the browser and there are no native mobile or desktop apps. The team opens the link on a phone on the day, and you export the whole board as a PDF for anyone who wants it on paper or offline.