How Fast Is a DP Really Expected to Be? Scheduling a Realistic Shooting Day

[Sridhar Kak]

Hi everyone,

I often hear people described simply as being “fast” or “slow,” and sometimes I feel that doesn’t account for what a particular shot actually involves. I increasingly see schedules where production wants to cover a very large number of shots in a single shift (12 hrs), sometimes working towards an expectation of roughly 5–7 pages/minutes or even more. Of course, the actual time varies enormously depending on the shots and the way scene is being planned and executed.

Sometimes it is doable, but what I find surprising sometimes is that even when certain challenges are flagged during scheduling whether they are lighting changes, complex blocking, camera movement, multiple setups /company moves, or simply the amount of coverage ( all the other small things that accumulate during a shooting day),the conversation can sometimes become less about “Can we realistically achieve this within the available time?” and more about “We have to achieve it regardless.”

I’d especially love to hear how Roger, David, and the other experienced members approach this. I’m trying to develop a realistic internal sense of how much work can actually fit into a shooting day.

Thanks!

Topic

[dmullenasc]

The schedule is often tied to the budget whether or not the script and the chosen style work with that schedule. If the budget is inflexible then ideally the script and style will be adjusted to become more doable but often that never happens — the director is in a tug-of-war with the producers and doesn’t want to give in or compromise too readily. To some degree a lot of the best directors are challenging from a time & budget standpoint — and their dedication to excellence and lack of interest in compromise can yield a better movie artistically… but every day will be tough. It’s a balancing act.

At some point you look at a schedule with a lot of challenges and flag some days as undoable within a normal-length day. You also flag the potential of a snowball effect of either too many excessively long days in a row or too many days of incomplete work. Usually the AD will come to the same conclusion. Because of turnaround issues with the cast and time-of-day issues (if all your work has to be in daylight, for example, you can’t keep having later and later call times due to turnaround), some days have to be flagged as requiring a realistic solution other than “we’ll just have to work faster.” I’ve always hated schedules based on “best-case scenarios” because hardly any day of a shoot doesn’t have a problem that slows you down.

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