Film Locations Glossary
Weather cover
What is weather cover?
Also called rain cover.
Weather cover is the plan for what the unit shoots if weather makes the scheduled exterior impossible, usually an interior cover set held ready for the purpose.
Real cover means dressed, lit, permitted, and reachable within the day, not simply a location on the list. Productions in unpredictable seasons budget it as a cost of shooting exteriors at all.
Example
A rained-out exterior moves to a cover set that is already dressed, lit, permitted, and twenty minutes away. Cover that is none of those things is a location on a list, and the day is lost anyway.
Figures are illustrative, chosen to show the mechanics rather than to quote market rates.
Where you'll see it
Held in the schedule and budgeted as a real location for the whole exterior block.
Common mistake
Naming a cover set that is not dressed, lit, or permitted. Cover in name only means the rained-out day is lost anyway, having also paid for the cover.
Related questions
- Is weather cover budgeted even if it is never used?
- Yes. It is held, dressed, and often permitted for the whole exterior block, which is what makes it insurance against lost days rather than a wasted location.
- Does weather cover have to be permitted in advance?
- Yes, and dressed and lit. Anything requiring a permit application on the morning it is needed is not cover.