The Complete Online Filmmaking Reference - Film Distribution ...

Next create a spreadsheet in Excel and label the first column "Date". The next column should be labeled "days".
The next column should be labeled "Scene". The next column should be labeled "Time", the next "location" and
the rest of the columns should be labeled with the names of all the actors who are in your movie.
In the "scene" column list the scene numbers and a couple of words of description going down the column for
every scene in the screenplay from first to last. Then put in how many days it will take to film the scene in the
"days" column. If the scene is 3 pages long and you believe you will film 6 pages a day then the scene is .5 days
of filming. You will enter a lot of little fractions of number in this column.
In the next column put a "N" or "D" if the scene is Night or Day, then put in the location number from your
handwritten list in the location column.
Now in the columns for the actors put a "X" for each scene depending on whether the actor is needed in that
scene.
Triple check your work and save the file.
Now use Excel to sort the entire spreadsheet by the "location" column, followed by the "time" column. You are
tying to get to where you have a schedule that lumps the locations and actors together such that you waste the
minimum amount of everyone's time. Save the file under different file names so you can go back easily to
different versions of the schedule.
You may decide to try sorting different ways until you have the most logical schedule you can come up with. If
you have an actor that can only film on one day then you need to sort on that actor's column so they're scenes
get grouped together.
Next step is the start at the first row and count up the fractions of days for each scene until you have a full day
and put a real starting date in the "date" column. Start counting again until you have another full day and put in
the next filming date. Eventually you will have a date next to each group of scenes. This is your first draft
schedule. Save the file under a different name than all the other versions.
Now you will need to contact every person involved in the film to find out about their availability. This is where
you start to really appreciate having a small cast and crew. Everyone will have conflicts with some date. Getting
everyone together in one room at some point will often speed things up a lot.
You need to be developing the ability to convince people that this film is the most important thing in their lives.
Your male lead must believe it is fine to skip the birth of his first child if it falls on the same day as one he is
needed on the set.
Eventually you will have a schedule. You will also understand why it is so important to stay on schedule. Slipping
even one day will mess up everyone's personal schedule and require a recalculation of the entire effort.
Another option for making your film
What I've just explained seems like a lot of work and you're wondering why
you just can't take you friends out this weekend and get started. If your
film is short and simple enough, you can do exactly that.
If your project is more complicated you seriously risk going way over your
budget, way over your projected time, risk losing your actors and crew as
other things interfere and risk never finishing your film after spending a lot
of money. A schedule represents disipline and being a successful filmmaker
requires discipline.
The now well known director, Christopher Nolan (Momento, Insomnia,
Batman Begins) took a different approach when he did his first feature film:
Following. He had only three actor friends do the speaking roles (plus his
father plays a police detective in a final scene). Of course he had a truly
Great Script to start with.
He only filmed on days when the actors were not working, usually weekend
days. He did his own filming with a crew of one or two others who did
sound and minimal lighting. Depending on which actors were available he
would do whatever scenes they were all in and use whatever friends
apartments or businesses were available.
When one actor had to get a short haircut for a play he was in, Chris
rewrote some lines to make that make sense. It took months to finally get
everything shot but the result is a minor masterpiece. While it's not a perfect film it was good enough to get
financing for Momento. After that brilliant piece of filmmaking he has been in high demand.