Which do you do?

New_Zealand

New_Zealand

Veteran
I hope this is the right thread for this subject. This question is for anyone that has shot a feature film; How many days do you plan for on a 90 page / 90 minute film? I know it depends on what kind of film you are doing (tons of special effects etc...) I was thinking that if it was a drama film with very little special effects that you might be able to shoot the 90 page script in 20 days. I wasn't sure if I should shoot 20 days straight or break it up in two 10 days shoot giving everyone a break for a week? I will be editing as I film - shooting during the day edit at night - shooting during the night edit during the day.

So what do you guys do or what rule of thumb do you follow?
 
Factor into the equation,

- experience of crew
- lighting requirements
- locations , how many, the type, needs
- gear - how many vehicles, how much gear, how many moves
- acting, different requirements for each type of film, and who you've
cast, or are potentially casting
- art direction, how much prep, type, time
- are you budgeting for reshoots, additional inserts
- budgeting for second units ?
- camera, different cameras will
add a certain amount of time to your schedule

There's a lot more involved, but if you have access to a good Upm, or line producer, take a meeting, and they'll be able to tell you in more specific detail if it's feasible or not.

Your page count seems okay, but only someone reading your script and going over your cast and crew would be able to tell you with any real specificity.

I'll PM you with our general days.

:-)
 
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If this is your first movie, here's my advice. I agree with everything D and G said, but I'll be a little more subjective here.

1) Shoot 5 weeks - 5 days per week.
2) Cover 2 pages in the morning and 2 pages in the afternoon.

That's 100 minutes of running time. You can trim 10 minutes if you like :)

3) Don't shoot more than 8 hours per day, unless you have to (you're on a roll) ... but don't exceed 12 hours per day. You will throw that footage away anyways, because despite what anybody says, it's garbage -- unless you want to tell the story of exhausted and tormented people dragging themselves around. LOL

4) Don't edit while you're shooting. Finish shooting and let it sit for a week or two. I know it's hard; take a trip somewhere far away.

5) Before you begin editing, take your director's hat and throw it away. Put your editor's hat on and ask yourself seriously, "What do I have here?" It's as if someone else made that movie and gave it to you to edit.

6) And when you're finished, approach it like D and G advised me on my own thread "schleppin' productions". Think like a distributor and ask yourself, "What's my market?"

Good luck and happy shooting.
 
What everyone else said, plus:

* 3 to 4 weeks seems to be a normal shoot, 5 weeks would be fine. Aim for only 5 days a week - 6 if you must -- never a complete week and never 10 days in a row -- the crew morale and work result are directly linked!

* There's 2 good reasons why not to edit at night as you shoot:
a) You'll be stuffed and need a break (even if you don't want one)

and b) You're way too close to the material at that stage to edit it. You really need a long break so you can get in a new frame of mind and start to see the forest for the trees. I've never tried it - but I've thought it would be good to shoot another project before going back to edit the one you've just shot --- you really need a break and a new way of looking at it


Good luck!

Scot
 
About 2 months for me and we have no crew.

I have done 3 features so far, 1 has distribution and the one I am working on now is the LAST movie I'm making without a proper crew. It's just too much and too much causes too many mistakes.
 
Hey, Richard, just wondering why you listed your 2 beautiful babies at the end of you equipment list? LOL

Isn't it too much equipment to be shooting with alone? Just kidding you again.

Tell me about the use of the 35mm adapter. I've been a 35mm filmmaker for so long; I don't fully understand why digital filmmakers want DoF so badly. 35mm movies never had shallow depth in every shot?!

Also, please advise regarding the Magic Bullet -- I want to buy one from eBay. I use a Mac G5 with FCP 5.04 Studio (non-Intel chip), which ones I should buy and which ones are too old?
 
Lots of good information here. I once did a 95 page feature in 10 straight days and don't recommend it. All in all it wasn't that bad and we only had one 14 hour day (the rest clocked in right at 10 mostly). Of course there were no company moves as it was all at one general location so there was minimal load out requirements since the location was secure.

Currently I've got a 19 day shoot schedule for principal (may luck out and trim a day off of that...we've got 15 in the can and possibly can creatively schedule it for only 3 additional days). Unfortunately (and fortunately) our shoot is taking place over the greater part of 8 weeks as crew/cast location restrictions have mandated that pace.

I think 20 days isn't a bad guess assuming there aren't tons of complications as mentioned before and you've got an experienced crew. Ours has tons of experience on low-budget and we do most things extremely efficiently (only one 9 hour day thus far...knock on wood) and the rest being right at 8.

That's just my take...I'd love to have a 24 - 30 day shoot but that was not feasible on our miniscule budget this go round.

I agree that a 5 day week would be the best way to go about it if you're able.

-M
 
five day week sound good to me. I'm going to have a limited crew on this project. I have pulled six weeks aside but one week will be used up for location and casting wrap up leaving me with five weeks.
 
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