Shot my first short film =)

[Randall_Oelerich]

Shot my first short film this past weekend, went perfect. Cemetery, cloudy overcast (diffuse lighting!), peak autumn foliage in trees. My little Canon VIXIA HF100 performed wonderfully, captured beautiful cinemeatic high definition (1920x1080) footage with wonderful audio (Rode NTG2 shotgun condensor mic on boompole, XLR cables into Beachtek adapter, camera audio gain set almost to zero). $50 suction car mount for camcorder allowed me to also get cool shots inside the car and of moving action wheel well footage, etc.

Took me a total of about 8 hrs to get footage for a five page script. Master shots, medium, close up, car driving sequences, etc. Is that normal? standard for a noob like me? What is average hours of production time on set per page of script? I am thinking I could have drastically cut down on that production time if I had had a second camera running so one camera could do master shot while another does medium or different angle, etc. Three cameras at once would be outstanding in cutting down production time I would think, esp. if shooting an indie feature some day-- am I thinking correctly?

My work now begins-- lots of footage to edit down to 5 minutes, soundtrack, computer CGI for supernatural special effects (going to use Adobe After Effects, products and tutorials from videocopilot.net).

I wish I had the film done to post here, sadly that will be a few months away, but I will have it ready in time for a short shorts film festival in my town for Feb 2009!
Randall

 

[ZazaCast]

Good for you! On "Enchanted Twist" (click on banner below) it took a good 12 hour day to get a 6 page script (3 scene) shot, each scene shot from 3 different angles (one camera).
Having good actors REALLY helps.

Best of luck with the edit....post grabs as soon as you can....and next time get some BTS photos!

Cheers & Congrats on your first film!

 

[Randall_Oelerich]

Good for you! On "Enchanted Twist" (click on banner below) it took a good 12 hour day to get a 6 page script (3 scene) shot, each scene shot from 3 different angles (one camera).
Having good actors REALLY helps. Best of luck with the edit....post grabs as soon as you can....and next time get some BTS photos!
Cheers & Congrats on your first film!

Thanks! Yeah this cemetery has great character, very BTvS'ish! Lots of crypts, big ones, mature trees, hills, woods. True story-- I photographed several hundred tombstones at this cemetery one day, from end to the other. Needed the pics for a lab project I have my students do (life tables). So, I get to the last headstone at the far end of the cemetery, snap the last photo; the tombstone is creepy, has runic symbols on it of no language neither me nor any colleagues could decipher as any known language. Sun was setting, getting dark. Then I look at my digital camera. Guess how much memory remained, how many shots I had had remaining on the memory card? Exactly 666 :zombie_smiley: Needless to say I skooted to my car and got the hell out of there fast.

So ~2 hours per page of script with one camera seems about par, at least for a noob. Good to hear.

 

[HorseFilms]

Congrats!:beer: I can't wait to see it.

 

[murraymile]

What is average hours of production time on set per page of script?

On a real film set, an average shooting day is about 12 hours. Sometimes it will go over, but that is overtime for your crew and talent. Also, after shooting, there is a 12 hour turn-around rule for the industry. Sometimes they fellow it and sometimes they don't. I could be wrong on that one though. It all depends.

As for the hours per page. It all depends on the scene. Action scenes could be longer hours per page. As for the other genera's, it's about 2-3 hours per page. Then again, it also depends on your crew. If you have a kick ass assistant director, you might stay ahead of your shooting schedule.

As for multiple cameras. Well, you're going to need to plan all your shots out carefully then. The DP has to light for multiple cameras, and your "blocking" needs to be on par if the both cameras are moving. There is a lot you have to take in to make sure you come out on top when shooting with multiple cameras.