Pre-production timeline advice needed

[RudyPicardo]

Hello fellow users:

I'd like to find out from you professionals out there the length of time for proper pre-production in one of your projects. Here are my general parameters:

1) Script size (assuming its written in proper format using Final Draft or other program) ranges from 30-50 pages. The videos are geared towards training medical students, so obviously there wouldn't be any major action/stunts/special effects.

2) Number of actors needed range from 5-20 people

3) General location is on a "campus" but no specific rooms have been booked.


I was just given a 30 page script less than 36 hours ago. Using the general parameters above I've been asked to shoot NEXT week. I've been told that you can generally shoot 8 pages a day (so I do know that this is a 3-4 day shoot).

I'm going to be communicating with my supervisors (who are Doctors and not filmmakers) of this concern about lack of time for pre-production. I'd like to get some advice from any professionals on what you think would be a better timeline and approach. I will be using your comments as a guide to the report I'm writing on "Professional Pre-production Planning for Medical Training Video Projects"

I'm sure that the parameters above are not enough, so I welcome other questions you would have.

My sincere thanks in advance.

 

[yagfxg33k]

Is your crew skilled? Are you doing double system?

 

[MsManhattan]

Rudy, my partner and I recently shot a medical industry video for a trade show; it was far less complicated than yours -- eg, we didn't have to record audio -- and it took us about five days to get everything together. In our case, finding actors (we couldn't in that short a time period -- we ultimately had to use company employees from the client) and securing the location (again, another compromise because we couldn't get into a real hospital on such short notice) were our biggest challenges.

It sounds like you need to secure quite a few cast members, equipment, locations, voiceover and/or live sound recording... If you have nothing else going on, and the client is helping you with actors and locations, you should be able to pull off the pre-production in about a week, but obviously if they can give you more time, your actual shoot will go more smoothly, and the smoother your shoot goes, the higher the production value and the lower the costs. That's the language you should use with these guys. Additionally, if you have to find the actors yourself, then they should give you another week, or at least several days, to pull that off.

As for shooting eight pages a day -- I'd have to ask the same question as vagfxg33k: how experienced is your crew? How experienced are your actors? How many of each are going to be on set at any given time? I would say that the more actors you have, the longer it wil take, and the amount of time will increase or decrease based on the size and experience of your crew.

In our case, it was just my partner and I and two actors. I made a shoot schedule that grouped all of the shots together by location/set-up. We had no crew, but like I said, we didn't have to record audio. My partner did the lighting and shooting and I worried about the scheduling, continuity, set, props, etc., and we had some assistance from one of the actors. We had no dialogue that required us to get multiple takes, although we did shoot multiple takes. It took us a day to get through about six pages...

I don;t know what it is about corporate clients, but they always wait until the last minute to assign projects like these, and then they have these grandiose ideas about what you can do in the time -- and for the money -- they are giving you. I always think -- really, did it take you a week to develop the design for that medical device? In your case, you could use the analogy "Was that surgical technique developed and perfected in a week?" Hell, most of the time, doctors can't even schedule a simple, non-emergency procedure in a week. Why would they think your work is any different???

OK, hope this helps... Good luck! Keep us posted on what happens.

 

[RudyPicardo]

Is your crew skilled? Are you doing double system?

If you're referring to my production crew shooting that day, I would say yes, as we've done a number of productions for our training videos already. We're also casting non-union actors, which should be slightly better than using our own staff.

If you're referring to our pre-production crew, I would say that we've only been lightly tested so far. Right now the crew is just me and one other person trying to schedule actors/locations/converting scripts. I can give a general workflow of what we currently do if you wish.

Unfortunately, I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "double system" as far as pre-production is concerned. But if you're refering to a double-system in production (where I'm using a wooden clapper for synchronization) then I'd say yes. We're only using 2 cameras (non-Panasonic DVX..sorry), but we're using them to shoot wide and tight angles during productions, which I hope reduces the amount of takes we need.

Please let me know if my interpretation of double system is incorrect. I don't mind being educated on this as I want to learn.

My thanks for taking the time to respond.

 

[RudyPicardo]

Hhow experienced is your crew? How experienced are your actors? How many of each are going to be on set at any given time? I would say that the more actors you have, the longer it wil take, and the amount of time will increase or decrease based on the size and experience of your crew.

MsManhattan:

These are solid questions, so allow me to clarify in hopes that you could help me again.

1) Our scenes are typically 2-3 pages and involve only 3-5 actors at a time. So the difficulty has been that in one day we can have 10-15 different actors. Obviously I know that coordinating a large film shoot with 100+ extras actors would effect this 8 pages/day rule, but I'd like to get a feel for the "threshold number" when I should seriously reconisder this. This question is itself vague, I know. But if you've noticed shooting durations when comparing 3 actors to 10+ I'd like to use that in my report. (i.e. is the relationship between time to shoot and number of actors linear or more exponential)

2) The campus I'm refering to is a hospital of sorts, so for the most part we don't need to travel anyway. The difficulty becomes trying to ask people here to reserve rooms that are supposed to be for residents. I'm sure I can ask these people how much advanced notice they need for room reservations, but I'd like to get a feel for the time issues you and other users have experienced.


I don't like to post long threads, so please feel free to ask more questions or send me a PM.

Thanks to everyone that has responded so far.