A product shoot starts when the samples arrive, not when the studio is booked. If the box is late, incomplete, or missing the brief, the day is already shorter.
This is the list to finish before you ship.
The units
Send more than the hero. One unit is a risk. A scuff, a bad seal, a label that lifts, and the shot is gone.
- Two of the hero, at minimum. Three if the product can be opened, poured, worn, or assembled.
- One of each colorway or size that has to appear.
- A spare for anything fragile, reflective, or still in soft tooling.
Mark which unit is the hero and which are backups. Do not make the studio guess.
The condition
Finished product, not a prototype, unless the brief says otherwise. Labels locked. No handwritten notes on the unit. No leftover tape from the last review.
If a bottle has to be poured, send it sealed and send a second filled unit. If a garment has to be worn, send the size the talent was booked for, not the sample size from the last meeting.
What goes in the box besides product
- The brief. Products, claim, channels, what you need back, who approves.
- A one-page shot list if you have one. If you do not, say so. Do not send a 40-page deck and call it a brief.
- Any legal or claims language that cannot be invented on set.
- A packing list. What is in the box, and what is not.
How to pack it
Protect the faces that will be on camera. Corners, labels, and anything that reflects. Do not tape directly to a finished surface. If a unit has to stay pristine, wrap it so it can be unwrapped without a tool.
Ship early enough that a damaged unit can be replaced before the day. A box that arrives the morning of the shoot is a box that cannot be fixed.
What to tell the studio when it leaves
Tracking number. What is inside. What is missing. The date it has to be back, if it does. Some products are one-of-one. Say that before they open the box.
A complete shipment is the difference between a shoot that starts on time and a shoot that spends the first hour waiting.
