Shooting Ratio

Different genres of programme have different shooting ratios. A tightly controlled and rehearsed drama or commercial may have a very small ratio of around 6 to 1, so that a finished 1 minute sequence would be made from 6 minutes of shot footage or rushes. Natural History, documentary and multi camera shoots have a much higher shooting ratio, often in excess of 20 to 1. Probably the highest ratio of all occurs in observational documentary where a great deal of footage is recorded whilst following action in real time as the story unfolds. Shooting ratio has a significant effect on the production budget not only in terms of the cost of raw stock, but also the time taken to view, digitise and edit the rushes.