🎥 Free Tool
Shooting Ratio Planner
Calculate total footage hours, storage requirements and shoot-day estimates based on your script and planned shooting ratio.
🎥 Planner
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Total Footage
hrs
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Shoot Days
days
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Raw Storage
GB
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Drives (2TB)
drives
Reference
Typical Shooting Ratios
| Production Type | Typical Ratio | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Documentary | 20:1 – 50:1 | Large amounts of observational footage |
| Narrative feature (low budget) | 5:1 – 8:1 | Efficient, planned coverage |
| Narrative feature (studio) | 8:1 – 15:1 | Multiple takes, multiple angles |
| TV drama | 6:1 – 10:1 | Tight schedules reduce ratio |
| Music video | 15:1 – 40:1 | Style-driven, many variations |
| Short film (micro-budget) | 3:1 – 6:1 | Limited media budget, planned shots |
Storage tip: Always budget for at least 3 copies of all footage (on-set card, working drive, off-site backup). Multiply your raw storage figure by 3 for a full backup budget. Drives fail, plan for it before it happens.
What is Shooting Ratio?
Shooting ratio describes how much footage you shoot relative to the final cut. An 8:1 ratio means you shoot 8 minutes of footage for every 1 minute of finished film.
This affects: storage costs, DIT time, editing time (more footage = longer edit), and card/media budgets. Higher ratios are not inherently better, they create more work in post.