No shoot is ever completed exactly as planned, but you can minimize the risks by following a few vital procedures.

First, always have Plan B ready. If weather might be a problem, identify indoor scenes with the same cast and have the locations, costumes, and props standing by. If performers are flaky about showing up, know where to find them and how to shoot around them in the meantime. The trick is to identify the vulnerable parts of your plan in advance and have alternatives ready to go.

Second, learn how to adjust plan A. Understand that a simple thing like a dirty shirt can ripple all the way to post production. Take the time and care to work out all the implications of proposed changes.

Next, know when to quit. Nothing is more frustrating than doing all the work of getting a day's shoot together and launched, then sending everyone home again. Your instinct is to say, okay, let's call Fred and Wilma and see if they can go over to the church and shoot their stuff today, and try to rent that '57 Chevy, oh, and phone the church sexton, and....

Uh-uh. This kind of desperate improvisation may keep your crew busy, but the results will be hasty and undercooked. You have to develop the good judgement to know when you're licked for now so that you can live to fight another day.

Finally, review your footage, preferably before you wrap at any one location, but at least at the end of every shooting day. In even the most professional production, you're going to find stuff that's inadequate, wrong, or just plain missing. Before matters go any further, make the notes you need to get pickup shots, to retake bad stuff, to re-think and re-stage sequences that plain don't work. Then plan the reshoot as meticulously as you planned the original. When post production starts, you'll bless yourself.

Speaking of which, tune in for next month's exciting conclusion: Edit the Shoot You Planned.

Contributing Editor Jim Stinson is the author of the book Video Communication and Production.

You know you've reached the big leagues when you can have three key people beside you throughout the shoot.

Continuity. If the script is the basis for the shooting plan, the continuity person is the guardian of that script. Did you get the closeup? Do you have the insert of the pistol in the drawer? Did you overlap the wide shot and the medium shot enough to provide good edit points? A good continuity person will catch every problem and let you know. No matter how creative you're being or what else you're thinking about, listen to continuity!

Production Manager. A good production manager knows who is available, which locations are open, and when the rented '57 Chevy is coming. If you have to change the plan in real time, the production manager can figure out a workable alternative. Never make changes in the plan without consulting the person who is directly responsible for it.

Editor. Continuity can tell you if you have full coverage and matched action; but only the editor can cut things together in his or her head and predict whether the result will be effective. When allowed the luxury, I like to have the editor on the set, making sure the shooting plan is being followed -- and that it was a good plan to begin with.

If you planned the shoot well, editing the plan should be a snap. View now.