Scheduling

[Jon Starr]

Well my shoots are usually very small. No budget, 5 crew members, etc...

But I often find I have trouble scheduling my shoots. Usually I don't give enough time. Or I don't know how to keep on time. I put out a shot list, but because I have no clue how long it'll actually take, I can't give an approximation of time for each shot.

Does anyone have tips for scheduling? Obviously you can't be right on the mark. Lots of things come into play. How fast your crew works, the actors, people being late, eating, breaks, how fast I work as a director, takes, etc...

I've heard a few tips. You know, lighting should have at least an hour, action shots take longer than dialogue scenes, but aside from that I'm really not sure.

But does anyone have any tips for scheduling they use?

 

[capitalP]

What I do John is, I make sure I give myself 2hours of set up time. So me and my crew always arive 2 hours earlier then the cast. That always helps. I have a specific system I use, like a form, I can send you a copy if you wanna see it.

But I don't know if there's a standard thing, it depends on the director and crew. Since we work on no budget, we have to worry about people showing up when ever they want and cancelling, but the method I use works great for me. Also, I feed the cast and crew before we start filming, that way if we do take breaks in the middle of filming it's only to stretch and relax and then right back to work, saves a lot of time.

But that 2hours really does magic. You don't ever want your cast and crew to show up on the same schedule. Actors hate seating around. Hope that helps.

 

[Jon Starr]

Yeah, I've learnt to have my crew arrive at least 1 hour or an hour and a half before we shoot. Made that mistake early on.

Good idea about feeding the cast and crew beforehand.

I sure would like to see a copy if you don't mind.

Yeah, it's really hard to tell. I remember a shoot I did recently as the gaffer. At one point we were doing 10 shots every hour, and another moment it would be 2-3 shots every hour. It was a rough.


Do you guys try and stick to a timeframe though? Like each shot should be no more than 30 minutes?