VERTIBLOG Film School VII - THE $1,000 MOVIE, Part 6

PRE PRODUCTION (continued)

STEP 1. BREAK DOWN YOUR SCRIPT (cont.)
STEP 1b: The Production Board (cont.)
III. Shooting Schedule (post 2)

So, you're going to be shooting weekends and nights, days off and holidays. That's OK. You have no choice.

Now, you've got to determine exactly what scenes you shoot on which day. Below find a list of things to keep in mind.

******************MONEY / TIME SAVING HINT*******************

People will only take you as seriously as you take yourself.. DO NOT be wishy-washy when it comes to getting people to commit to your project. Get a firm answer -- yes or no. If the answer's 'maybe', then find someone else. You cannot be left without what you need on the day you need to shoot.

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-DAY VS. NIGHT

Clearly it's easier to shoot daytime scenes in the daytime and night time scenes in the night time. So, schedule them appropriately. Sometimes, you'll have a night scene in the script that immediately, or soon after, follows a day scene (or vice-versa; same actors/same wardrobe/same props/same location). If so, schedule the day shoot in the late afternoon, and get the night stuff after the sun goes down.

Also, unless it's IMPERATIVE, don't write scenes that tale place at dawn or dusk. It's an absolute nightmare trying to beat the sun to get your coverage. If you're shooting a vampire flick, then sure... I see the importance. Otherwise, don't make your life any harder than it has to be.

Another good idea is to not have early call times the day after a night shoot. You never know what's going to happen on set/location, and you don't want to be looking at a 7:00am call time when you're still shooting at 3:00am the night before.

-LOCATION SHOOTS

Try not to schedule two different locations on the same day.

If that simply doesn't make sense... if you only have actors for one day and you need them in two different locations... OK.

Usually location shoots require a certain amount of logistical organization -- you have to get permission to shoot somewhere, promise to be there by a certain time, get directions to everybody in the cast/crew, and hope nobody breaks down or gets lost.

-EFFICIENT USE OF CAST

You won't need every actor every day, so schedule smartly here. If Jim, Bob and Larry are in seven scenes together and these are the only scenes for Jim, try to schedule them all in one day, and wrap Jim. Of course, take the 'day/night' and 'location' rules into account: If three of the scenes are in a location three hours away, and you have other scenes to shoot there, too. Then screw Jim and make him work an extra day.

-EFFICIENT USE OF CREW

If you have days where there is no dialogue -- you're only gathering B-roll, or shooting cutaways or second-unit type footage, then give your audio guy a day off. He'll appreciate that a hell of a lot more than standing there with nothing to do because you're just gathering reference audio on the camera mic.

BE FLEXIBLE & WATCH THE WEATHER CHANNEL

Earlier I had recommended writing some of your film to take place outdoors. A good idea... but sometimes it rains, sometimes you want sun, sometimes you want clouds. Be flexible. And watch the Weather Channel. Keep an eye on storm fronts as exterior shooting approaches. Don't panic when you see rain in the 10 day forecast, 10 days from now. That's likely to change. And don't put yourself in a position to have to panic when a storm threatens an exterior shoot two days from now. Have a backup plan for every day of shooting. Know that you can shoot Day 11 on Day 8 if it's going to rain.

And let your cast/crew know up front that these things happen.

Creating a shooting schedule, like pretty much all of independent filmmaking, is about being practical and efficient.

So, be practical and efficient.