Filming speed, in your experience

Two people talking will take less time than a fight scene
or a dinner scene with eight people talking.

I can shoot 10 to 15 pages a day. I have shot 30. I prefer
to shoot 5. I'm often a 2nd Unit director. I have shot 3/8
pages in four days.

So depending on the needs of the scene and the experience
of the crew and actors you can expect to get anywhere from
three/five pages a day to close to ten.

How long is a day for you? I tend to average a little less that a page an hour, but there's obviously quite a bit of variation depending on whether it's indoors or out, if the scene is emotional or logistically difficult, how much lighting there is etc.

I just shot my 1st full-length this past summer and the main things I've come way with were to
Make sure you build ALL transition times into your schedule. I remembered big things like location changes and lighting setups, but I wasn't organized when it came to stuff like "where do the costumes go during scene changes in the same locale. Also plan for burnout. I scheduled some important scenes and long days at the end of my shooting span and it was a HUGE mistake. If possible, leave stuff that could be cut for last.

Just my 2 cents, i'm sure moe seasoned vets here will have a LOT more to say

directorik said:

Two people talking will take less time than a fight scene
or a dinner scene with eight people talking.

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Is this mainly because of setup time, or time to re-direct people, once shooting has begun?

directorik said:

I can shoot 10 to 15 pages a day. I have shot 30. I prefer
to shoot 5. I'm often a 2nd Unit director. I have shot 3/8
pages in four days.

Click to expand...

So what's your secret? How do you manage to be more efficient than many others?

H.Z. said:

How long is a day for you?

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I plan to do an 8-hour day, efficiently.


Thanks for your input!
Anyone else want to share their experience? I'd love to know how fast you can film, and why.
Are there things that you ignore in order to beat the clock?

Euling said:

Is this mainly because of setup time, or time to re-direct people, once shooting has begun?

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Both.

With two people talking you need three to five setups. With three
you need seven to eight. With eight you need over 15. With a
walk and talk more prep is needed. With a fight scene there is more
prep. I make mostly horror and action - the set up time and
shooting of efx and stunts takes longer than a conversation.

No secret. And I don’t think I manage to be more efficient than
many others. In the low budget arena I simply don’t have eight to
ten weeks others have. I must make a feature in six to twelve
days. We all face that, so I must be as efficient as everyone
else. Several times I have been hired to make a feature in two
and a half days. Efficiency comes from necessity.

Typically I shoot 12 hours. On some really low budget shows with
fewer than 12 days I will shoot 14 with a 16 or even 18 hour day
in there.

directorik said:

Both.


Several times I have been hired to make a feature in two
and a half days. Efficiency comes from necessity.
.

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Rik, thanks for all of the advice.

In your experience, what has to go/what do you give up when the time is so extremely short like this?


Also if anyone else has experience (I should hope so!) please chime in!!

^ don't give stuff up.

shoot your master and twopops. then your reactions, then your coverage, then your closeups.
give yourself six minutes to light each shot. give the actors four minutes to rehearse in the space, with the costumes. then shoot.

Shooting 15 pages in one day? I wanna see and listen to that result...
I don't question that you can do that - but I question the quality of the result.

If you plan to do it correctly and get quality shots, then better calculate with an average of 3-4 film minutes per 8-10 h day. That means professional sound recording & lighting, and some camera moves on a dolly.

We shot 36 minutes of film for a short in 10 days (16 h per day) on the RED ONE.
(Have a look at some stills here.).

First you need an experienced crew and have done several rehearsals with your actors, you should have planned out all your setups and fixed all locations.
The more you are prepared the faster you can shoot.
Know what you want to get out of a scene so you can cut down the number of takes. 3-5 should be enough in average. If you are gonna have another take better have a good reason for the actors, the crew, and yourself. Don't shoot too much coverage, that is a real time killer.

@ DarkAngelFilm
Six minutes to light the shot? Sorry - somehow I don't buy that (if you are going for professional results).
It often takes longer to lay the cables for the power supply. If you have to rig lights above heads it takes a lot of time because you have to work safe.
I normally plan 30 min. per setup for the lighting, an easy setup can be done in 15 min. and a complicated one can take hours (e.g. a steady cam move through the location).

As everyone else said, it depends on the production, but I'll give some expamples.

On an average 12 hour shoot day,
Indie - 5-7 pages is average
Pro - 2-4 pages.

My sets are usually 5-6 a day, although I've done 11 in a 12 hour day.

Law & order in NYC is said to shoot 11 pages a day.