Scheduling a scene and factoring in coverage etc.

Rough figures, if you're not moving locations, a good crew can usually hit about 5 pages in a day.

The key here is doing your setups in the right order. The master will have the most involved lighting setup -- generally. So it's usually best to start there, then the other various coverage tends to only involve small tweaks to lighting. Also, you don't necessarily need to run all the way through each scene from every setup. You can get just the bits you need from those angles. This is where storyboarding would be helpful.

Also, speaking from an editors perspective, please please please remember to get B-roll.. insert shots, reaction shots, etc. These can be invaluable in salvaging an otherwise very hard to edit scene due to flubbed lines, or other reasons a mixture of various shots/takes of actors giving their lines isn't enough. Not to mention, just watching talking heads the whole time makes for a pretty boring film.


Is your next project your "first" project? Or even still a pretty early project in your foray into filmmaking? If so, you should probably shoot for 2-3pages/day, and take your time with it. It's certainly easier to take your time on set and capture everything you need for the edit than to miss things and wish you'd gotten them, or try to get people back together to shoot additional coverage later.

rob2048 said:

But how do you factor in the camera and lighting setup and even planning for more than one take and all that when it comes to scheduling time?

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This comes down to experience. The set up time depends on the experience
of the crew. And how many crew are on set. Those here who have made a
movie with three lights and two or three people who are doing all the jobs
will tell you it takes longer to set up than those of us who have worked with
a full grip/electric crew and a dozen lights/flags/scrims.

It never is as easy as you think it will be. Shooting all the coverage for a 30
second scene will rake much longer than 90 seconds. Using your example
that 30 second scene would take me 30/40 minutes to shoot. Maybe as little
as 15. You only mention three set ups; master, medium shot and a close up.
If there are two people talking that means at the very least a CU on each
actor and that means a camera move and lighting adjustment.

Okay; say you have you half page; two people sitting at a table talking.

You set up your master. A good crew can do that in 15/20 minutes. Both people
at the table, camera getting a head to foot shot of both of them. Shoot the 30
second scene in three takes; 3 minutes.

Adjust the lights, move the camera and shoot Bob’s side of the table. 5/10 minutes

Scene 22A - Close up of Bob.
Scene 22B - Over Mary’s shoulder on Bob.
Scene 22C - A slow dolly push in on Bob - from a full shot into a close up.
Scene 22D - an insert shot of Bob lighting a cigarette.
Scene 22E - a close up on Bob’s hand putting the cigarette in the ash tray.
Scene 22F - a close up of Bob taking the contract, looking at it and signing it (from Mary’s point of view)
Average 3 takes each - 10 minutes

Now move the lights, move the camera and shoot Mary’s side of the table.

Scene 22G - Close up of Mary.
Scene 22H - Over Bob’s shoulder on Mary.
Scene 22J - A slow dolly push in on Mary - from a full shot into a close up.
Scene 22K - an insert shot of Mary putting the contract on the table.
Scene 22L - a close up on Mary’s hand snuffing out the cigarette in the ash tray.
Scene 22M - a close up shot of Mary putting the contract on the table, putting a pen on the contract and pushing
it to the middle of the table.
Scene 22P - a close up of Bob taking the contract, looking at it and signing it (from Bob’s point of view)
Average 3 takes each - 10 minutes

Then you will move the lights and move the camera and shoot a dolly shot - the camera
will move clockwise around the table during the entire 30 second scene.

Scene 22R - a full shot
Scene 22S - "punch in" for a closer shot favoring Bob
Scene 22T -"punch in" for a closer shot favoring Mary

Now you have some coverage. And it's going to take some time. Nope, you don't
need all that coverage - but in the editing room it gives you choices. Many directors
a forced to shoot far less due to time and other factors but this gives you a little
taste of what is often done.

Will - Thank you for your helpful response. This is my first scripted short. I have made two others that were just a concept and mostly improvised. Mainly just learning experiences. This short only involves one actor and is pretty simple. Even though I could film it all in one day I would like to split it up over a couple of Saturdays maybe and was trying to get an idea of how much time it would require each day. Even though it is a small project I am working on storyboards, shot list and floor plans just to get some experience in doing so because I would eventually like to make a feature. I am not so much concerned with the schedule for the short as I am gaining something by this whole process which can be applied to a feature one day

Directorik - That is a very detailed and helpful answer to my question. Thank you very much!

Glad to help. Although I now know it was overkill.

Something you can to get an idea of how much time it would require each
day to set up is have someone time you and your crew. A scripty will do that
on a regular show; from call time to start of work; from start of work until
"picture up". Then from "moving on" until "picture up" for the next set up.
This is useful info to get a feel of how the crew is working. In your case it
will be very useful to get an idea of how much time it takes you. Keep a record
over your next six or so short films so when you're ready for a feature you
will know how to schedule.

Yes, that is a very good idea. I'm sure I will get a little faster with everything with each short as well.

So this makes me wonder...if with some indie films they are able to shoot 5-7 pages a day, why do Hollywood films average about 2 pages? They have more crew, experience etc. It would seem like it should be the other way around.

Hollywood has more time to get several shots in where as indie films do not. It's matter of time. They have more money, therefore more time.

If you watch most Hollywood movies, they are more shots in them compared to indie films. At least this is what I have often noticed. I have worked on a few shorts so far, and the directors did not go for many shots, cause of time. They relied mostly on the master shot to get a scene done. That is, they would rely on the actors to act for the master, the whole way through, and then use that most in the editing.

This isn't always the best way, especially if you are using people who cannot act out a whole scene in it's entirety, compared to giving them more coverage shots. But if you can find people who can do that, it will save a lot of time. Master shots means, you will have to dress your set real nice though, since the audience is going to be seeing more of it, if that makes sense.

rob2048 said:

Yes, that is a very good idea. I'm sure I will get a little faster with everything with each short as well.

So this makes me wonder...if with some indie films they are able to shoot 5-7 pages a day, why do Hollywood films average about 2 pages? They have more crew, experience etc. It would seem like it should be the other way around.

Click to expand...

Some indie films just don't have the budget for a long shoot. They
all wish they did. Shooting 5-7 pages a day is difficult and you cannot
get as much coverage as you can shooting 2/3 pages per day. and
you need to look at the average over the entire show. Many times
"Hollywood films" will snap out 10 pages in a couple of days and then
go down to 1 per day for complicated scenes.

In general "Hollywood films" are more complex than indie films. And
yes, there is a LOT of "bloat" in big budget, union shows. It is not a
perfect system.

Yes, I wasn't thinking of big budget movies taking time for more shots. Probably because I don't watch indie films and never realized that they used fewer. I guess I was just thinking about how I would make mine but I know it probably wouldn't go as expected haha.

Shooting 5-7 pages a day is going to be pretty damn impossible unless you're not doing any kind of lighting, have limited coverage, and are only doing 1-2 takes of everything.

As general advice:

It's hard to put an average on how long things take as it varies wildly depending on a number of factors. Obviously when you're tlalking Hollywood films, there are often a lot of stunts and SFX that need to take place which take a lot of time. In general though, it quite often depends on your shotlist. A crane down, into a Steadicam move and track for a two minute moving scene could take half a day or longer once you factor in set-dressing, setup of crane, steadicam, lighting, rehearsals etc.

A two minute two-hander at a dinner table that you don't light could probably be covered in an hour.

And then there's the amount of crew- even having very experienced crew is sometimes not enough to make things go faster - if you don't have the people to be pre-lighting and setting up dollies etc. at the next location, or don't have the budget to hire the studio for the pre-rig the day before, then that will slow things down on the day as well, because that all has to happen once you get there.

You'll also find that the more experienced the crew, the more complex the setups get. An inexperienced DP might set up one light, or have a bounce board, whereas a more experienced DP might have a number of different lights rigged in numerous locations, plus frames/textiles, blacks, cutters, nets etc. all over the place.

It all varies. The best way to judge is simply from experience on sets, as well as talking with your key HODs about how long things will take - your DP will know that if he has an ext night shoot with a full range of lights, and a bunch of dolly moves that it's going to take al ot longer to setup than an ext. day shoot with bounce cards

Lots of good info above. In my experience 5 or 6 pages a day is about the max possible without a lot of "Screw it, that take was good enough we have to move on". In a perfect world I'd like to shoot about 2 or 3 pages a day.