Schedule and Shoot Days

L

LuckyProducer

Well-known member
Hey guys. I am going to start shooting a feature in July. The casting process is taking longer than I expected and I need to start shooting ASAP. I want to finish before school starts again in the end of August. I plan to shoot Mondays-Thursdays 9am-2pm. Do you guys think this is a good schedule? It's an action film. Do you think I will be able to complete it? I am going to have like 2 weeks of rehearsal and several days of training for the fighting and weapon handling. Do you think I have enough time to shoot this film.

And if I don't finish before school starts (high school), how am I going to find time to shoot this film? Please give me suggestions on what I should do.
 
A feature is a mighty undertaking. Everything takes longer than expected. The trick is not to get frustrated. Don't give up no matter what.
You might want to shoot atleast 12 hour days. A lot of the best stuff gets shot after the crew has been working for a few hours. Plus, if the flow is good you want to keep shooting. Give your self some time to play.
It's best to try to shoot it all at one time. If you start breaking your schedule up, life starts to get in the way. People get hair cuts, individual schedules start to clash, buildings get remodeled or torn down(don't laugh, it happened to us) etc. You name it, it will happen while you are trying to shoot your feature.
You also want to have lots of time to get what you want out of the action scenes. If you rush action, people will get hurt (trust me on that one).
You should be living and breathing this thing right up to the moment you go back to school.

Don't say, "what if I don't finish before school starts", say "this damn movie will be shot before I go back to school."

Be a hard ass. Make it happen.
 
12 hour days would be great if you can do them. Just know that if you are working with amateur actors you might have trouble getting them to do 12 hour days.

I just finished shooting my first feature less than a month ago and I'll tell you that I was never able to get 12 hour days out of people. Some of my actors would literally start bugging me to leave about an hour after they got on set. After maybe 5 hours on the longer days people would start being so frustrated none of their acting was useable.

Problem is that if you're not paying them you have nothing over them so they could really walk out on you and lose nothing. It actually happened to me, I had to replace my lead actor after shooting had already started :(.

Point is, if you can get 12 hour days, do it, but don't let the fate of the movie rest on them. Good luck, doing a feature as you will soon find out is a big project.
 
Nobody356 said:
Just know that if you are working with amateur actors you might have trouble getting them to do 12 hour days.
Click to expand...
Or getting them to show up at all. And if they do, they might turn into prima-donas because... they have a starring role (even though their previous gig was in front of the bathroom mirror).
 
Just make sure the actors feel like it is their project as much as yours. Make sure they believe in your script as much as you do. If all this is the case they will be willing to skip bingo night with their friends to work on your movie.

Make them believe.
 
Wow thanks for your replies!

sad thing is...I can't do 12 hour shoots. I wish I could but I got another life besides filmmaking. I wouldn't be able to work that hard...especially with my company in videography. But I think I might be able to get 5 day shoots...God willing. Alright...keep it coming if you got suggestions or comments.
 
LP,

Remember this about actors; They want to act. They want to be there. Don't let divas or the prima-donas change the shoot or effect it's workings. You run the show. They should extend the same respect to you(and crew) as you do to them. If not, remember that the easiest thing to find for a movie is an actor. Actors can always be replaced.

Am I telling you to be an ass? No. Be a fair, but stern captain.

Again, Good luck
 
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