Updated: September 11, 2026
The part of the plan that decides what time you start shooting
A shoot day does not begin when the first shot is set up. It begins when the grip truck arrives and someone has to decide where it parks, how the cases get from the truck to the set, and where the forty people who are about to arrive will put their cars, eat lunch and wait between setups. In Miami, where street parking downtown is scarce, condo loading docks are booked by the hour and a summer sidewalk is not a place to stage equipment, this is a planning problem in its own right. Get it wrong and the crew is on the clock while the truck circles the block.
This guide covers basecamp, parking and load-in for a Miami shoot: what each term means, how to plan them for the common location types, what they cost, and the paperwork involved.
Three things to plan
- Load-in is the route and the process for getting equipment from vehicles to the set: where the truck stops, how the cases move (dolly, elevator, stairs), how long it takes and who does it.
- Basecamp is where the production lives when it is not on set: trucks, the production office, wardrobe and makeup, talent holding, catering, crew parking. On a small shoot it is one room and a few parking spaces. On a larger one it is a parking lot with a tent.
- Crew parking is the crew's personal vehicles, which need somewhere legal to sit for twelve hours, ideally within a short walk of set or with a shuttle.
By location type
Downtown, Brickell and office buildings
Trucks use the building's loading dock, which must be booked with building management, usually for a fixed window and with a certificate of insurance on file. Freight elevators are booked separately and often padded by the building. Ask for the dock's height clearance and the freight elevator's dimensions; a 5-ton truck and a 12-foot dock are not always compatible. Crew parking is in a public garage, paid per vehicle; budget for it, and put the garage address on the call sheet. Basecamp is usually a conference room or two inside the building. Sidewalk staging is not an option downtown, and the city will enforce it.
Condos and residential buildings
Similar to offices but with tighter rules: fixed load-in hours, often no work before 9 am or after 5 pm, one elevator that is also the residents' elevator, and limited visitor parking. Our guide to filming in condos and HOA communities covers the approvals; for logistics, the practical answer is a small footprint: a cargo van rather than a truck, and crew parked off-site.
Private houses
The driveway takes the truck, the street takes the crew cars, and the neighbours take notice. Check the city or county rules on street parking for production vehicles; many Miami-Dade municipalities require notification of neighbours and prohibit parking on swales. Basecamp is the garage or the back yard with a pop-up tent. In summer, an air-conditioned space for talent holding is not optional.
Beaches and parks
No vehicles on the sand, and public parking lots that fill by mid-morning on weekends. Load-in is by hand cart from the nearest legal parking, which can be several hundred metres; plan the crew and time for it. Basecamp is a reserved section of the parking lot or a nearby rented space. Permit conditions often specify where production vehicles may park; see our guide to shooting on Miami beaches.
Streets and public right of way
Parking production vehicles on a public street in Miami or Miami Beach requires a permit with the specific spaces listed, and the city posts no-parking signs in advance. This is the arrangement for anything with more than a van, and it takes days to arrange, so it belongs in the permit application, not in the plan for the night before. Our overview of Miami film permits explains the process.
Studios
The easy case: a dock, a lot and rooms are part of the rental. Confirm the number of crew parking spaces included and whether the dock is shared with another production that day.
Planning the load-in
On the tech scout, walk the route from where the truck will actually stop to where the first setup will be, with a tape measure and a stopwatch. Note door widths, elevator dimensions and weight limits, stairs, ramps, and the surface (cobbles and carpet both slow a loaded cart). Then estimate: a mid-size commercial package of thirty cases through one freight elevator to a tenth-floor office takes a crew of four about an hour. If the schedule has the first shot at 8 am, the truck arrives at 6.30 and the building has to let it in at 6.30, which may not be its normal hours. Write the load-in time on the call sheet as a separate call for the grip and electric crew.
Plan the load-out too. It is the same job in reverse, at the end of a long day, often against a building's cut-off time. If the dock closes at 6 pm, the last shot is not at 5.45.
Basecamp essentials
- Shade and air conditioning for talent holding and makeup. In Miami from May to October this is a health matter, not a comfort.
- Power for makeup lights, chargers and the production office; a small inverter generator or a run from the building.
- Bathrooms within a short walk, or a rented trailer for exteriors.
- A catering area with tables and chairs, out of the sun. Our guide to catering on a Miami shoot covers the food side.
- A clear walking route from basecamp to set that does not cross the frame or the cable runs.
Costs to budget
Parking and staging are a line in the budget that is easy to forget and painful to discover. Typical items: public garage parking per crew vehicle per day, loading dock and freight elevator fees charged by buildings, street parking permits and the cost of posting no-parking signs, a rented lot or a section of one for basecamp, a tent and tables, and a shuttle if crew parking is remote. Add a contingency for the day the dock is double-booked and the truck has to wait at a meter.
Logistics with Miami Video Production
We plan load-in, basecamp and parking as part of every production schedule: dock and elevator bookings with building management, street parking permits where needed, crew parking on the call sheet with addresses and rates, and a basecamp layout that keeps talent cool and the crew fed. We know which downtown docks take a 5-ton truck and which do not, and we build load-in time into the schedule rather than into the overtime.
If you have a location and are not sure how to get a crew into it, send us the address and we will tell you what it takes. More about our approach is on the about page, and the full set of planning guides is on the blog.