A video production checklist
from the brief to the archive.

Pre-production, production and post-production. Pre-production is everything decided before a camera rolls: brief, script, shot list, recce, crew, kit, schedule, budget and paperwork. Production is the shoot, mostly a problem of time. Post covers ingest, edit, colour, sound, graphics, captions and delivery. Post's problems are usually created on the shoot day, so whoever edits should help write the shoot day list. Storyflow's checklist splits client work into six stages, from brief and quote to archive.

Start with the first hour: sound checked before picture, exposure and white balance set, cards formatted, and a slate for sync when audio records separately. During the day, check setups against the shot list and back up cards at every break. For post, record room tone at every location, run a backup audio source, and shoot more B-roll than feels necessary. Before wrap, check the shot list line by line, verify both footage copies play, and get client approval.

Ingest first: footage backed up in two places, a naming convention a second editor can follow, and selects marked while the shoot is fresh. Then a rough cut for structure before grading, the agreed review rounds with notes in one place, colour, mix, graphics, captions and licensed music. Delivery is its own list: one row per export with platform, aspect ratio, length, captions and format. In Storyflow the post checklist and deliverables table sit beside the shoot plan.

Five items that each take seconds or minutes on the day. Room tone at each location, which an editor needs to patch audio. A backup audio source, because one failed radio mic means a reshoot. Enough B-roll, since what feels like plenty is often short of covering the cut. A slate or clap for sync when audio records separately. And client approval before wrap on anything that cannot be reshot.

Seven things, in writing: the objective, the audience, the deliverables with platforms and aspect ratios, the approver, the budget, the dates, and the number of revision rounds. The approver and the rounds go missing most: an unnamed approver means conflicting notes late in post, and unnamed rounds turn a fourth round into an argument about money. In Storyflow the brief sits on the board beside a dates table and a budget table with a sum.

Decide them in pre-production, because deliverables decide how you frame. A widescreen hero cut, a square social version and a vertical version are a framing constraint on every setup: shoot without the vertical crop in mind and the social cuts lose the subject's head. Captions and sound-off viewing change what the picture must carry. Put a deliverables table on the board before the shot list, and mark which setups must survive a crop.

Archive the week the job delivers, while everyone still knows what everything is. Keep camera originals in two places, with the project file and its media, fonts, music and stock licences, graphics sources, final exports, releases, location agreements and written approvals. Name the top folder with client, job and date. In Storyflow the finished board keeps the brief, checklist and deliverables table, with links to where the footage lives.

Not yet. Storyflow is paid-only during early access, with plans from $7.99 a month billed annually ($9.99 monthly). A free plan launches before the end of 2026, and anyone a paid member invites to a board joins free. Clients or crew who only read the checklist open a view-only link with no account. For something free this minute, a printed checklist in the camera case works, even on a location with no signal.

Yes, and the scaling matters more than the content, because a list mostly irrelevant to a two-person interview shoot does not get read. Describe the crew size, locations, setups and deliverables, and Storyflow's AI builds a list sized to that job. Ask it whether the shot list covers every deliverable, or which post requirement has no shoot day item behind it. Whether the schedule is achievable with your crew stays the producer's call.

Yes. Storyflow runs in a phone's browser, so the shoot day and wrap items open on set and can be worked through while the crew packs. For locations with no signal, export the board as a PDF beforehand and print the pages you need, because paper is more reliable in a basement or a field. Before the shoot the board holds pre-production; after it, the board confirms the post handoff before anyone drives away.

A pre-production checklist covers the preparation for a film shoot in depth, from script lock and breakdown to permits, the tech scout and call sheets. A video production checklist covers a commercial or brand video's whole life: brief and quote, pre-production, shoot day, post, delivery and archive. It is shorter per stage and longer overall, and its value is in the handoffs, such as room tone being a shoot day item that exists for the edit.