efficiency

[pete]

I suck at shooting action scenes with a limited time, 'cause I take my time and will demand redos with extremely complicated sequences and camera interactions.  I realize that.  I also realize when I'm doing silent expositions, I tend to omit the most obvious plot points, thinking people will just "get it".  but anyways, those are things I must over come, right now I will just like to fish out for other people's words--what do you do to maximize your efficiency as a shooter?  how closely do you follow your shot list, how tightly is everything scripted, how do you keep on time, how do you figure out how long everything takes, and how many good takes do you require for each shot?  things like that, please just tell me how you don't waste time, to shame myself to death.

[matt35mm]

If you know that you have a limited time, plan like hell.  Over plan.  After that, realize that, as well as you've planned it, it's still going to take longer than you think.  So if you truly only have, say, 3 hours at a location to film something, plan for how to do it in 2 hours, including the clean-up and everything.  I must say though, even when I do this, I usually go over schedule anyway.  Shit just takes longer than you think to do, and you want to make sure you get it right.

With action scenes, I recommend a shot list and probably storyboards.  Make sure everybody knows what they're doing, for efficiency and for safety.  Run the scene over in your head over and over and over.  Maybe the script doesn't have to be too tight, but you've gotta know it in your head backwards and forwards--that's how you'll have the natural authority to make changes and roll with things on the set.  Some directors then want exactly that vision executed, and others are very open and seem to have a "looser" directing style.  But in all cases, they know when it's good and when it's bad, because they've thought it through so much that they can really feel their way through on the set.  Then, with that, really one good take is all you need, but this too is an individual choice.  I'm just saying that if you know you've got it, there's not really any reason to do it again, as long as you're working with people who are sure that there wasn't some technical fuck up.

But, as a sidenote, to make things much easier for the sound person, I'd recommend multiple takes.  Often, there are bits of sounds from other takes that I cut into the take that I'm using.  It just gives you a lot more control over sound.

Then, I'd say, after all of that planning, don't rush.  Rushing won't really save you much time, and it will create a bad atmosphere for filming.  You can panic inside if you want to, but the tone of the set is dictated by you.  Though it is possible that a quicker, probably tenser atmosphere is what you want.  Up to you.  But rushing for the sake of getting things done quicker will generally prove to be counter-productive.