How A Schedule Can Impact A Film Production?

We all need a schedule. Life is too chaotic and changing so fast that if a schedule is not put in place tasks would take twice as long to complete. When it comes to film production, there’s no difference as each day can potentially cost a pricey amount.

It’s normal for shoot days to run a bit longer than usual due to mishaps, last-minute changes, equipment setup etc. Which is why if a crew member or actor needs to leave at a specific time it’s imperative for them to let either the director, assistant director (AD) or producer know so that accommodations can be made. But what happens when a key crew member decides to do the complete opposite?

It’s day 4 of shooting. We’re back at the house in DC. The crew members are on their A-game. The director, AD, and production designer are deciding how to shoot certain scenes while the DP sets up his equipment. I overhear them discussing their thoughts about cutting a few scenes due to time constraints (reasonable) and one of those scenes I deemed very important to show the personality of the main character.

So, I pull the director to the side to discuss my concerns and asked if there was anyway, we can get at least a few shots from that core scene without any extra equipment set up? After some thought, she agrees. She grabs the camera from the DP and captures the shots handheld.

Whew! Now, I’m satisfied and ready to keep going for the day. We continue the shoot day normally and as we progress; I notice that the energy of one crew member was a little bit abnormal. He was a replacement for my original crew member who was unavailable to make it to the shoot that day. His professionalism towards other crew members wasn’t where it should’ve been, so I made a note to check-in with him as soon as some free time was available.

At the end of the shoot, I pull him aside and professionally ask him to please trust the director and her decisions. She’s been working on the project for months and she needs all of us to back her to get through production. He agrees with my feedback, and we wrap for the day.   

Fast forward, it’s the last full day of production for the entire crew. A rush of enthusiasm increases as the actors begin to fill the room. We get through each scene one by one. Our wrap time was scheduled for 5pm but due to some last-minute changes we all knew that we were going to wrap up after 5pm. Suddenly, the AD tells me that we were going to have to cut out more scenes.

Huh? Why? A crew member informs her that he must leave by at a specific time and judging by the number of scenes we still had to capture I knew we weren’t going to finish by his deadline.

I immediately went to find the crew member and it was the same crew member I gave feedback to the day before. After a few tries of negotiation to see if he could stay a little longer, he refuses to budge. It was here where the lessons of never shooting on a holiday weekend and always having crew members that are dedicated to your story were ingrained in my soul. I mention this issue to the director, and we begin to re-organize the scene schedule.

We move the production along to accommodate the crew member’s departure and we finally wrap for the last day of full production. Two weeks go by, and we have to capture one final shot that involves one of the actors who’d fallen ill. Morgen chooses a parking lot in Pentagon City in Arlington, VA. The director and DP do a bit of white balancing for the camera and the final shot is obtained.

It was an official wrap on the production of Blind Justice! A bittersweet feeling.

Then, four months later, I get a call. I get booked to work on a production that’s being directed by a famous Hollywood actress. OH MY GOSH!

Other posts you may be interested in:

• Is A Gaffer Important On A Film Set?
• The Importance Of “Live” Auditions In Film?
• How Pre-Production Solutions Can Still Cause Chaos In Production?

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: BLIND JUSTICE WILL BE SCREENING LIVE ON 6/21/24!

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