Cinematic Arias

The shoot was a success. We got a lot of good coverage with plenty for the editor to work with. It’s a 2-minute scene and we shot 80 minutes; if they can’t dig something out of a 40:1 ratio, I don’t know what.

Still, there’s always room for improvement. Next time I’d insist on walking through set with the actors and DP to nail down our shots and angles so we don’t waste that time on set. Also, we really could have used a few more qualified hands.

As I said before, I’m not editing. If the editor is reading this, you should know that we shot:

I can’t wait to see what the final product looks like.

Now on to something new. I think it’s time to start writing a new feature script.

List, list, list. A film’s prep, no matter how long or short, is dominated by lists. Today I made a couple.

First, I made a shot list from my crude storyboards. It breaks down like this: each actor gets 4 shots pointed in their direction, plus there’s the wide and at least 2 inserts. Total number of shots = eleven.

Second, I made a schedule (which is just a list arranged by time). I call us at 8 a.m. and wrap us by 2 p.m., taillights by 3p.m. I give us two hours from call to unload gear, walk through the scene with the cast & crew, light the set, dress the set and rehearse.

I then have roughly 90 minutes to shoot out each actor. Following the math, that gives us 22.5 minutes per shot on an actor. That’s 22.5 minutes to set up the camera, adjust lights, rehearse the shot, shoot a take, give an adjustment, tweak the lights, shoot, and so on.

I then leave 45 minutes to shoot the wide and inserts; this is also a buffer in case we’re running late (it shouldn’t take that long to shoot a wide and two inserts).

I feel confident that this is a doable schedule. We’ll hustle but it won’t be insanity.

So here’s the question of the day: is it better to shoot the wide at the start of the day or at the end? If we shoot at the start, it can lock us into a particular blocking, blocking we might grow out of. If we shoot at the end, we adjust the wide to the blocking we like but then we have to recall which takes we like. I know, it’s sorta a “chicken, egg” question when all you care about is eating your chicken omelet but these are the things you agonize about during prep.

Thoughts?

Today was our first (and only) rehearsal before shooting. We got the script into good shape but didn’t fine tune the beats; I find it’s best to save that for when we’re on set, especially since we have half a day to shoot a 2-page scene.

So how do I prep and run a rehearsal? I’ll answer the second part first.

In this instance I knew I’d first want to read the script and fix any dialog that sounds good in my head but doesn’t work when spoken. After a second table read, I like to get a scene up on its feet and start physicalizing. I’ll run through a scene once, starting and stopping at each beat so the actors and I can discuss motivations, actions and physicalization. We’ll then go over that beat again to see if our choices work dramatically. Once we feel that we understand a particular beat, we move on to the next one.

I think it took us over an hour before we got to the end of the scene. We then ran the whole scene from start to finish to see if the collection of beats added up to a unified dramatic whole. It didn’t; it never does. So then we repeat this process to refine our understanding of the work. The second time took less than 40 minutes.

As for prep, it’s best if I point you towards some very good books.

All three are great but I must mention that Delia was my directing instructor and I once saw her make Alexander Payne sweat for misquoting her so she holds a special place in my heart.