Major Project: Creating a shooting schedule and updated shot list

What is a shooting schedule? 

"A shooting schedule is a project plan of each day's shooting for a film production" - Wikipedia, 201

I knew it was extremely important for me to be organised and be fully prepared for the shoot. My actors needed to know the exact start times and wrap times. The rest of my crew needed to know as well so I wanted to take the time to create a document that was as clear as possible and easy for everyone to understand. I was looking online to see examples and noticed there was a trend for using Excel to create a shooting schedule document but I did not like the layout of the ones I saw because there was something a  little messy about them. (example below) 

It was important for me to know what information is needed for the shooting schedule as well so I got some tips online. It became evident to me the importance of knowing HOW you want to shoot your film BEFORE creating a shooting schedule because you need to have a greater idea about what elements each scene will consist of because that affects the initial time needed to be given to that scene. For example, if you know you're going to be using the jib, you must allow time for the initial set up for that Jib. All these extra details can greatly impact your shoot time so it was important for me to make sure I was realistic when creating the schedule.

Another aspect that I had to consider which greatly impacted the schedule was budget. My limited funds meant that I needed to schedule as much scenes as I could with the actors since I decided to pay them for their service. This proved to be a challenge at times because I didn't want to create super long working days. My aim was to never go over 8 hours and have adequate breaks in between. Below is the collection of my 4 production dates.

My schedule; 

As you can see, on day one I decided to utilise the day and night by scheduling the bonfire scene as well as all the riverside scenes. This meant that I wouldn't have to schedule an extra day just to have a night scene. The daytime scene was meant to be the least challenging so I thought it would be a good idea to add the bonfire scene onto that day. That is just an example of my decision making when it came to making my schedule.

Another thing to note was I wanted to clearly detail who would be the crew on the day too. as well as adding images of the location so everyone could have an idea about the working environments that we would be in. The schedules were sent to all crew and cast at least 2 weeks before

The shot list and story board

One important quote that made me think about the importance of "visualising" was Katz' take that "visualising isn't a strictly cerebral process, but rather the merging of the physical act of making or doing with several different mental processes that together we call imagination." - (Katz, 1991: p4) . What I got from this quote was the idea that when imagining an idea and thinking about forming it in real life, it requires more than just thinking about the final product. You have to consider all the avenues and put into practice those steps it will take to get there. The "how" it will be done and not just the "what" will be created in the end. He claims that our creative energy isn't fully engaged until "our visions emerge in a raw state like drawing, writing and editing...". (Katz,1991:4) This enlightened me a little because it made me think about how important it is to actually sit down and visualise. Up until now, I have so far only written the script and given a basic shot list which I felt didn't quite do the story justice. To fully engage my creativity I wanted to spend a good amount of time on the story board and shot list. Remembering how helpful a shot list was for me during my Fiction Adaptation unit, I used this as motivation to really think about the best ways I could tell my story.

I decided to create my shooting schedule alongside the creation of my updated shot list/ story board so that I knew everything would be accounted for and shoot times would be accurate. I knew I wanted to make a clear and concise shot list so my camera operator Sam could understand it better. I was worried about how time consuming it became once I sat down with story board templates and decided to hand draw the story boards. I found that it took too long and my mind would often change once I started draŵing. So, I decided to utilise my iPad Pro by downloading appropriate shot list templates and I was therefore able to digitally draw my story boards.

After making this decision, I wanted to make sure the images I draw would be easily understandable to anyone. I didn't have time to draw really detailed images so with the use of Shot by Shot by Steven D. Katz, I managed to get some really helpful tips on ways I could coherently establish my shot ideas without spending too long on tonnes of individual images.

As pictured below,

(Katz, 1991: 42)

This example illustrates how you can establish camera movement with the use of starting shots and finishing shots. This really helped me create my story board.

(Examples pictured below)

When comparing the example image from the book to my own, it’s safe to say it really helped minimise the amount of sketches I needed to do to get my point across.

To make it easier for me and Sam to follow along with the shots on the day, I decided to format the document in a way that would would have the exact shots needed right under it.Having a visual representation of the shots as well as extra written shots will really help stay on track during the shoot. These shot list/ story boards where given to the camera op a few days before the shoot date begun. I initially wanted to give it to him way before that but I found that it became so time consuming and took longer than I expected. Overall I am happy at the quality of these documents and I am proud to say that I created them all from scratch. Its a very difficult thing trying to think about the best ways you can tell a story and I am happy with the choices I have made so far. However, I understand that there are some things that may not work and I will just have to see on the day .

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