Weather contingency plan template

What this is about

The expensive version of bad weather is the slow maybe: crew half-briefed, location half-cancelled, decision postponed until the rain decides instead. A working plan removes the improvisation. It defines triggers — wind limits for the drone and the rigged frames, rain that kills the exterior — a decision time the evening before or at a fixed morning hour, and a cover set: interior scenes prepped well enough to shoot on short notice. Everyone knows the switch exists, who throws it, and what their day looks like after it is thrown.

A template is the starting point, not the goal: once it has been filled in by hand twice, it is worth asking whether the document should come out of the plan instead.

What runs differently here

Where this differs from the general case:

• Triggers as measurable conditions — wind, rain probability at the shooting hour, visibility — instead of the phrase if it looks bad
• One named decision-maker and a fixed decision time, because a committee at 06:30 is not a mechanism
• The cover set: which interior scenes are shootable at short notice, what they require, and what stays prepped for them
• A notification chain with the order of calls — crew, cast, location, catering — and the cost consequences of switching versus postponing

Step by step

This order gets you there fastest:

1. Identify the weather-dependent scenes in the schedule and note for each what specifically breaks it — water, wind, light, cold.
2. Define trigger values with the departments: the drone pilot knows the wind limit, the gaffer knows what the rigged frames take.
3. Choose the cover scenes and prep them for real: releases signed, props ready, location available on short notice.
4. Fix the decision time and the single decision-maker, and write both into the call sheet where everyone reads them.
5. Prepare the notification chain with numbers and order, so the switch takes thirty minutes instead of a chaotic morning.
6. After a switch, re-sort the schedule the same day — the displaced exterior needs a new home before it becomes a problem.

Common pitfalls

What most often goes wrong in practice:

• No decision time, so the production argues with the sky until the crew stands in the rain
• A cover set that exists only as a sentence — no releases, no props, no prepped scenes
• Ignoring what the switch costs, then discovering the cover day burned scenes the exterior week needed

With TillyGen

Because TillyGen keeps schedule, scenes and call sheet connected, throwing the switch is a re-sort instead of a rebuild — the cover day generates its own consistent disposition.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.