REHEARSAL
At a minimum, schedule 3 hours for rehearsing line delivery, blocking (where actors will stand and sit) and business (what actors do with hands or props).  Allow additional time to address the challenges posed by intimacy, combat, or chases.  If you cannot rehearse on location, have your Production Designer tape location dimensions onto the floor of the Doucette sound stage.

LOCATION PREP
Consult the Director’s storyboard.  Count the number of camera and lighting set-ups.  Assume that a team of student filmmakers can set up audio and video recording equipment in approximately 40 minutes.  Thus:

15 set-ups x 40 mins each
= 600 mins 

600 mins ÷ 60 mins per hour
= 10 hrs of location prep time

SHOOTING
Estimate your film’s running time by the number of script pages (assuming WGA-format).  A ten-page script will run approximately ten minutes.  Because we record the entire scene from every camera position, multiply the number of pages by the number of set-ups: 

15 set-ups x 10 pages
= 150 minutes

In this example, 150 minutes is the time it will take to record one take of the entire film from all camera positions.

Assuming a 15:1 shooting ratio, your crew will record the film fifteen times.  Your goal should be to achieve multiple usable takes for continuity editing.  Multiply the number of screen-minutes by 15. 

150 screen-minutes x 15 takes
= 2250 minutes

2250 mins of shooting time
÷ 60 mins per hr = 37.5 hrs

Add the rehearsal and shooting time to the prep time.  Divide by the number of hours in a workday.

3 hrs  + 37.5 hrs + 10 hrs = 50.5 hrs

50.5 hrs ÷ 7 hrs per shift*
= 7.214 shooting days. 

A ten-minute film (in one location) with 15 different set-ups will take approximately one week to shoot.  Students who imagine they may do it in less time are to be pitied for their optimism.  They should also have the word “hubris” tattooed to a visible body part.  Edinboro and Erie boast several reputable inking parlors.

CALENDAR
Prepare a MS-Outlook Calendar, accounting for which shots will be recorded on each day of the shoot.  Share the calendar with your professor and other producers in your class for equipment scheduling purposes.  The calendar forms the basis for daily call sheets prepared by the Assistant Director.

*presumes an 8-hour day minus an hour for meals and comfort breaks