Scheduling Your Film Shoot: Tips from an Indie Film Producer

Scheduling a film is the art of determining what scenes will be shot when and in what order. There are many factors to consider that will affect your budget. Getting good at scheduling takes some time, and for that reason I highly suggest that if you are making your first film, and you can afford to, hire a professional, or at least someone with some experience. The assistant director is generally the one who will map out the schedule, working with the producers. If however you are attempting to do it with out an experienced assistant director, here are a couple factors to keep in mind.

The first is location. Locations cost money. In fact, everything in film making costs money. Let's say you fork over a couple hundred dollars (lucky you) for the privilege of shooting in a park. You will want to shoot all the scenes that take place in that park in as few days as possible. You may also want to consider finding areas in that park that look like other areas you need to shoot at. Maybe there is a parking lot that you could use, or a bathroom. Try to get the most out of every location, so that you have to pay for as few as possible.

Next is talent, your actors. You need to know which actors are needed for which scenes. Then schedule the scenes so that you need each actor for as few days as possible. What you don't want is to shoot all the scenes with your leading lady, send her on her way, and then have to try to get her back for one more day at the end because you forgot that she's in a scene you didn't shoot while she was there. This gets even more important if you are working with actors that have other projects. If you tell an actress that you will be done with her after four days, she may very well book another project, and not be able to come back to shoot that last scene. Or, you may end up having to pay her a lot more money. Either way, you want the actors to work in blocks of days.

There are programs that can help you organize all of this information. I have used, and highly recommend EP Scheduling. Though it too costs money, it is a lot cheaper than trying to fix mistakes on set. Always keep in mind that being on set is burning money. Figure out as many details as you can before you start shooting. You're life will be a lot easier for it.