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How
much "prep" time should I allow for my film?
by Dr. Hollywood
There is not a rule of how much "preparation
time" you should have for your project. It depends on many different
things. If you're doing a short film, and you are using your credit cards
to pay for it, you should allow yourself as much time as possible. I personally
recommend you between eight and twelve weeks. You might ask yourself, why
so much "prep" time, if I'm only shooting a 25 page script on a
10 day schedule? Well, the answer is very simple. Prep time = less headaches
on the set.
Take this for example. I was line producing a movie for PM entertainment.
A story about a kid and two dogs lost in an amusement park, being chased by
two bad guys, it was like "Home Alone" meets "Look Who's Talking".
The big difference was that we had only about a million dollars to make the
movie. The first step was to make a budget to see what was the dollar amount
we needed to make it happen and a breakdown to find out if the 6 weeks of
shooting the executive producer was suggesting was realistic at all.
Whenever you shoot with kids or animals it becomes a much harder task, since
you have no idea how a dog will act, specially after 8 hours on the set. Or
how the mood of a kid will affect his or her performance, a combination of
kids and animals means double headache, a bigger challenge.
I requested 12 weeks of prep and 8 weeks of shooting. I got 6 weeks of prep
and 5 weeks of shooting. Well, that's the way it goes in the "Indie world".
Now, the trick was to take those 6 weeks of prep and try to anticipate every
single problem we could encounter during shooting. Because that's what "prep
time" is. Anticipation to the problems, without forgetting of your budget
limitations.
Prep time will allow you to play different scenarios and basically determine
if you have enough time to shoot it and money to get what you need. Bringing
your AD ahead of time it is always a smart move, he/she will advise the production
of small details that can fall through the cracks.
Having a professional Line Producer or UPM to prepare a budget it is also
a smart investment. Do not create budgets just to please your investors, remember
that it becomes a lot more expensive to solve problems on the set.
For instance, if you are shooting a scene with 200 extras, you need to prepare
an area to hold them, additional meals, heaters and bathrooms, enough water
and craft service, and a person to handle your extras. If you forget or don't
plan ahead for this small details, you may end up having one of these people
get mad and run to their union and complain. Meal penalties and over time
for 200 people can become very expensive and bring you over budget right away.
You can avoid situations like this by allowing yourself enough pre production
time, by bringing your key people (DP, AD, Production Designer, Costume Designer,
Gaffer, etc.) to do their own breakdowns and give you their imput of what
can and can not be done and give you alternatives to accomplish what you want.
For comments write to: doctor@hollywoodnewsnetwork.com
