How long is reasonable for actors to memorize their lines?

I'm working on pre-production of a short film, I'm finishing up casting, hiring, ect. I want to start rehearsals and read-throughs as soon as possible. Obviously I can do read-throughs as soon as the actors know that they've got the roles, but I was wondering how long is reasonable to want to start doing memorized rehearsals. There's no rush, but I don't want to call a memorized rehearsal or worse, start filming without everyone having their lines memorized. So how long is long enough to expect everyone to have their stuff memorized?
 
It's also not like it's a play where people have to run through the entire thing from memory without a script for reference. As long as they can memorize what they need for a particular shot or scene it should be fine, but you may never run fully memorized rehearsals.
 
There's no rush, but I don't want to call a memorized rehearsal or worse, start filming without everyone having their lines memorized.
IDOM nailed it. There is no need for you, as the director, to push the
actors to memorize their lines. I have worked with some name actors,
actors you would know, who never memorize all their lines. They do
it day to day and scene to scene. Allow each actor to follow their own,
preferred method. You don't ever need a full "off book" rehearsal and
you don't need actors to have all their lines memorized when you start
shooting. You aren't doing a play.
 
Okay, thanks. The reason that I asked was that with my first short film we didn't do a memorized rehearsal and, we had problems with actors having their lines memorized; we had to waste time on set making cue cards and waiting for actors to get the scene right. How can I avoid this problem in the future?
 
I made this same mistake on my first short shoot. It's good to do rehearsals. We talked it out at a coffee shop, but never actually did a reshearsal. Two actors nailed it, but the rest of us, including me could have definitely used more rehearsal and I should have made more time for that rather than just the technical side.

On another shoot, an actor had nothing memorized and read of the script, but kept looking down, and you can tell something's up for sure. I was able to edit it, so all those parts were gone, unfortunately, but it was a tough edit lol.
 
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Okay, thanks. The reason that I asked was that with my first short film we didn't do a memorized rehearsal and, we had problems with actors having their lines memorized; we had to waste time on set making cue cards and waiting for actors to get the scene right. How can I avoid this problem in the future?
The glib answer: use better actors.

Okay, it sounds like you must insist the actors memorize the entire
script before your shoot date. So a reasonable amount of time to
expect actors to have all their lines memorized in two weeks. Set
an "off book" rehearsal (like we do in theater) and any actor who
shows up still on book is replaced.

Or...

If you can't replace actors then change your shooting schedule to
accommodate this problem. Not everyone is good at the process of
acting. So you need to work with what you have. Have cue cards
made up ahead of time. In most cases YOU have to change rather
than expect others to change.
 
Definitely do a rehearsal reading from the script, it's critical.

The actors won't have all their lines totally memorized, but at least they'll have a level of familiarity where you can tell them a line or two and they don't need cue cards
 
this is why it is important that you lock in the shooting schedule before starting so that everyone knows what scene is being shot when.

also the call sheet should have the scenes being shot on the next day so that the actors and everyone else on set can be prepared.

there is no point in the actors memorising dialogue for scenes that are being shot weeks ahead.
 
I don't expect my actors to memorise their lines. I expect them to be very familiar with the script, but outside big dialogue scenes (which don't really exist in my films anyway) I'd rather they memorised the line of the day.

The reason for that is that if they are memorising lines, actions, etc, they are no longer acting, but are rather reciting and repeating actions and words. I emphasise understanding character, motivation and the meaning of a scene. If they're focussing on memorising, you run the risk of there only being a superficial understanding. So I use the old rehearsal tactics of running scenes without dialogue, throwing in bits of improv etc.

This achieve a more in depth understanding of the performance. Then they are more able to achieve the character properly, at which point I expect them to memorise their lines and blocking.
 
My films tend to be pretty dialogue driven, and, to be honest, I expect, though don't necessarily require, my actors to have memorised their lines.

If I'm shooting a short, then I think a day is more than enough time to memorise lines. A 6-page script, for example, with 3 characters, say, is going to me about 20 lines per character, at most. That can easily be memorised by actors. That said, I am more than happy to prompt actors and allow them to fudge their lines on-set: sometimes I prefer a flunked version of my line to the actual version.

In London, at least, a lot of the actors who come for a day or so on a film, get their primary acting experience from theatre (and pub theatre) so perhaps that accounts for a greater expectation to have learned your lines. If in doubt, ask your actors to learn them: I've had an actor learn 5 pages of dialogue on the train to the location, so no time is really too short for a reasonably smart actor. But, on the whole, I agree with the others. Unless the lack of memorisation is seriously disrupting your shoot schedule, play it scene-by-scene, page-by-page.
 
I actually prefer that my actors NOT have their lines memorized, before the day of shooting. We rehearse RIGHT BEFORE shooting, and I encourage improv during rehearsals. Once we start shooting, I wanna know what we're shooting, but during rehearsal, there's plenty of room for rewriting of dialog and action.

I do, however, really like it when my actors have read the scene over, and given thought to it, so that they already have an idea of where they'd like to go, before we start rehearsals.
 
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