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The actors haven’t arrived at the right shooting location in the morning.
The camera has been positioned but the set isn’t going to be ready for another 2 hours. The lunches are going cold and there are at least 3 more shots to grab before the crew starves to death. These are some of the easier problems you’ll face if you don’t get your schedule bang on the money before you start rolling camera.
The schedule is the unsung hero of production. No one likes doing them (except for the odd sadistic 1st AD) but they are the lifeblood of a successful shoot. It’s a part of pre-production that will future proof your big investment and give everyone a full picture of what can be expected on the day. A production is essentially a large machine, made up of many different moving parts that can at any stage seize up and stop everyone in their tracks. If you’ve greased the cogs and oiled the engine beforehand, you’ll have a better chance of avoiding any unforeseen stoppages.
Hope for the best and schedule for the worst
There was a point deep into the epic ‘Fitzcarraldo’ shoot that infamous German director Werner Herzog thought he’d lose his mind. His lead actor had contracted dysentery and been sent back to the US only 6 weeks into production, meaning he had to start again with a new actor. The second lead, Mick Jagger, had to leave production due to touring commitments with The Rolling Stones, leaving reams of film unusable. And this was just the beginning.
Set on a Victorian steamship in the depths of the Peruvian jungle, the mostly indeginous crew were tasked with transporting a ‘to scale’ replica of the ship, up the side of a mud slick hill in the worst conditions known to man. The crew were threatening mutiny, the new lead actor was so unpopular that the tribal elder offered to have him murdered and one of the three replica ships lost control in the Chirimagua Rapids and crashed into the river rocks injuring the cinematographer. In the end, Herzog completed his film 4 years after pre-production with his ambitious spirit broken by one of the most arduous productions in film history.
Not every shoot needs to resemble these extreme levels of human endurance. The ambition and scale of any production should be met with an equal amount of planning and preparation to ensure that it can be achieved without fault. The key to any well prepared schedule are the experienced people who are putting it together. This stage of the pre-production process will often involve the producer, director and 1st AD banging their heads together to envision the production ahead. It’s where the real work starts on making ideas a reality.
The actual scheduling process starts with a line by line breakdown of the script, highlighting the main elements of the production. This will include how many actors, locations, props, costumes and any other physical items that need to be sourced for the shoot. Once you’ve listed all the elements of the script, you’ll be able to map out your timeline and input the details into a breakdown sheet. Again this is about communication with a large number of people, so it can be as detailed as it needs to be, giving all the information needed for each day of the production. The way it’s organised will depend on various factors ranging from whether it’s shooting during the day or night, weather conditions, location changes and anything in between. It’s all about getting the most out of whatever time you have available.
Information, communication and execution
There can never be enough information available for any production. The schedule is itself an organising form that will give all the people involved the knowledge they need to achieve the goals of the production. Building a schedule that will get the most from the crew and cast can be a delicate balance. Taking into account the innumerable pressures of a shooting day and creating a realistic schedule that will work for the crew and cast alike can be a tricky endeavour.
The key elements that you’ll need are information, communication and execution. The amount of info you pack in will be relevant to the shoot itself. If it’s a hectic action packed stunt day with hundreds of extras, then the information you present will need to be much more detailed than a simple studio day with a skeleton cast and crew. The schedule is also a conduit for the communication that will happen on the day. People need to know when and where they will be at any given moment of the day, what they’ll be doing and who they’re doing it with. A well designed set of production documents will answer all their questions at a glance and can also be referred to the whole way through the day.
This level of communication can then be backed up with all the other production documents needed for the day, like the call sheet, movement order (from locations) and even storyboards and shot lists. When the people involved are up to date and informed, the day will run much smoother, which leads directly to the execution of the shoot. The various departments in film are often concentrating on their own individual tasks, from makeup styling all the talent to art department dressing the set. With the right level of communication, they’ll be able to execute these tasks in the most efficient way possible.
Plan with the professionals
There is nothing more valuable than experience. It really shows when you’re on set. If the activity is steady and never rushed, the slightest problems are dealt with in a calm fashion and the timings all slot into place as the day unfolds. As production specialists, who’ve been in the trenches enough times to know what can and can’t happen, the pre-production planning process is an area where we excel.
The overarching knowledge needed to plan a successful shoot.
The experience and foresight to reveal problems before they arise.
The ability to set out a timeframe that is realistic but gets all the footage needed for a killer ad.
