How to track crew hours on a shoot day
By Jide Odukoya, Founder
The short answer
Write down start and end times per person, per session, on the shoot day itself. Record the crew member, the session, the planned hours and the real hours. Have each crew member confirm their own times. Hours rebuilt from memory days later are a frequent cause of pay disputes. For employees, the U.S. Department of Labor requires a record of hours worked each day and each workweek.
You had five people on set across two sessions. Now you need hours for each of them that will stand up. The group chat is not it.
Step by step
- 1
Name the sessions before the day
Split the shoot into named sessions. For a wedding: getting ready, ceremony, reception. Hours logged against a session can be checked. Hours logged against a whole day are one number nobody can check.
- 2
Write down the planned hours for each crew slot
Each role on the shoot should carry its planned hours before anyone arrives. Without a planned figure, you have nothing to compare the real hours against. Then overtime stays invisible until it is an invoice.
- 3
Each person clocks in and out
Each crew member records their own start and end time for each session, on the day. Times people log themselves, and can see, are easy to trust.
- 4
Say yes to overtime on the day, and write down why
When a session runs over, grant the extra hours as a recorded decision with a reason. Overtime agreed on set is a chat. Overtime found at pay time is a dispute. For most employees, overtime pay is also the law. Federal law sets time and a half past 40 hours in a week. California adds it past 8 hours in a day, and double time past 12. Check your state.
- 5
Check planned hours against real hours before you pay
Compare the two figures per person before anything is paid. A big gap means the plan was wrong or the day ran long. Both are worth knowing before you quote the same shoot again.
Where this goes wrong
One set of hours for the whole crew
The second shooter left after the ceremony. The editor stayed to wrap. They did not work the same day. One figure overpays one and underpays the other.
Times written down by someone other than the crew
Times someone else wrote down are easy to challenge, even when they are right. Let each person log their own.
No record of who approved overtime
If nobody owns the decision, it gets argued again at pay time. Attach a name and a reason when the hours are granted.
Questions people ask
Do I need to track hours if I pay a flat day rate?
Yes. A day rate covers a set number of hours, so real hours show when a day ran over. For employees, tracking hours is also the law. A day-rate employee still earns overtime past 40 hours in a week. Their hourly rate is the week’s day pay divided by the hours worked. Each hour past 40 earns half that rate extra.
What is the minimum I should record per crew member?
The person, the session, the planned hours, the real start and end times, and any overtime granted with the reason. That is enough to work out pay nobody argues with. For employees, waiting and short breaks count as work. Standing by while the bride gets ready is being "engaged to wait", says the U.S. Department of Labor. A real meal break, typically 30 minutes or more, generally need not be paid.
Can I use a spreadsheet?
Yes. For employee hours, the U.S. Department of Labor says "any timekeeping plan is acceptable as long as it is complete and accurate". A spreadsheet works for one or two shoots a month. It gets hard when several shoots overlap, because every check is by hand.