How to tech scout with a director's viewfinder

A tech scout is the walk-through where the department heads see the location through the eyes of the camera. The director and DP decide where the camera goes and on which lens; the gaffer, grip, sound mixer, production designer and first AD each take away what that decision means for them. A director's viewfinder is the tool that makes the camera's view concrete, so here is a scout built around one.

Before you leave the office

1. Know the camera and the recording mode. If the DP has not chosen yet, scout in the two candidates. The frame changes with the mode, so a scout on the wrong one can mislead (see sensor size and field of view).
2. Know the lens package. The real list from the rental house, not "a set of primes". If you are still choosing, building a lens package helps.
3. Bring the shot list or the script pages for this location, in shooting order.
4. Set the viewfinder up once. In Cutvey Viewfinder that means camera, mode, delivery aspect and lens kit in Setup, saved as a favorite so it comes back with one tap. Set up a camera, a mode and a lens kit shows the steps.
5. Check the sun for the shoot day before you go, so you know which windows matter at call time. Cutvey Meter's free sun and golden hour tool gives the times for any place and day.

On the location, shot by shot

Walk the scenes in the order you will shoot them. For each setup:

1. Stand where the camera goes, at its height. Seated eye line, standing, low on a hi-hat: the height changes the frame as much as the lens does.
2. Step through the lenses. Use the arrows beside the picture, or the Digital Crown on an Apple Watch when the phone is rigged on a stand. Settle on one and say it out loud.
3. Take a still of the frame you chose. Name the shot and file it under the scene. The still keeps the camera, mode and lens with it, and the location if you allow it.
4. Look at what is in the frame that should not be. Practicals, signs, exit lights, a thermostat on the hero wall. The designer and the art department need this list.
5. Turn around. What is behind the camera is where the crew, the monitors and the lights will live.
6. Ask each department its question (below) before you move on.

The checklist

Print this, or copy it into your notes. Each line is a question one department will ask after the scout if nobody asks it during.

A worked example: will the wide fit?

Say the kitchen scene is shot on an ARRI ALEXA Mini LF in 4.3K LF 16:9, which records 35.64 mm of the sensor's width, on ARRI Signature Primes. The question every scout has: from the doorway, does the wide shot get the whole back wall?

The width a lens covers at a distance is the distance × the mode's width ÷ the focal length. So at 12 feet, a 29 mm sees 12 × 35.64 ÷ 29 = 14.7 feet across. The table runs the same sum for the set:

Horizontal angle in brackets. Figures computed from the recording mode sizes in Cutvey Viewfinder's gear data, counted November 2, 2026, with the app's own rules.

Now the real room. The back wall is 12 feet wide and the camera can back up only 9 feet before it is in the hallway. The longest lens that still covers the wall is 9 × 35.64 ÷ 12 = 26.7 mm. In the Signature set that is the 25 mm, which sees 12.8 feet from the doorway; the 29 mm sees only 11.1 feet and cuts the wall. Ten seconds with a viewfinder in the doorway tells you the same thing, and it shows you what is on the wall too.

Light: the sun and what you bring

For an exterior or a room with big windows, the sun decides the schedule. Cutvey Viewfinder draws the sun's path over the live picture with the hours marked, and its sun panel gives sunrise, solar noon, sunset, golden hour and blue hour for any day of the year, with a time scrubber.

The position of the sun is computed on the phone and is very precise; where the path lands on the screen depends on the phone's compass. A compass can be 5 to 10 degrees off near cars, light stands or rebar, so step away from metal and check the accuracy read-out before you trust the overlay. The sun path looks off from the real sky has the steps. To plan from home, type a latitude and longitude into the sun panel for that place's times; the overlay itself always uses where the phone is.

Photographers count golden hour as the time the sun is between 4 degrees below the horizon and 6 degrees above it, when the light is low and warm. Blue hour is the darker window next to it, with the sun between 8 and 4 degrees below the horizon, when the sky goes deep blue and practicals start to read. In the evening blue hour follows golden hour; in the morning it comes first. Cutvey Viewfinder's sun panel and path use these same bands. For golden hour times by city and day, Cutvey Meter's free tools at cutveymeter.com are built for exactly that.

After the scout: the shot list

A scout is only useful once its decisions reach people who were not there. In Cutvey Viewfinder the stills and takes are already filed by project and scene, so the shot list is an export. The PDF comes in three depths, because three different people read it:

• Frames Only for the director: a contact sheet of pictures, twelve to a page.
• Basic for the camera team: two shots a page with camera, mode, lens and your notes.
• Full for the first AD and the locations team: one shot a page, adding the time, GPS position, the bearing the camera faced and a code that opens the spot in Apple Maps.

Send it from the share sheet the same evening. Send a PDF shot list to the crew has the steps, and if you work on paper, our free shot list template uses the same columns.

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