Rehearsal

It will help you save a lot of time during shooting if you rehearse all of your scenes from start to finish with the camera, lighting and sound team, using the shot list as a guide. This will help speed up the process on shooting days, and identify any likely problems early.

Exercise: Rehearsal

Pull your whole team together for a shooting rehearsal of the whole film on location. Have your Production Assistant / First Assistant Director / Producer make notes of any logistical problems that may come up, so you can avoid them on the shooting days.

Guide the camera team on how to position and move the camera for each shot. This is called ‘blocking’.

Encourage actors to learn how the camera will move around them, and understand what shots are being used at every point in the script.

Final checks

Lay out all the props and costumes in piles, note any props or costumes that still need to be found / brought in ready to start shooting the following day.

Go through this checklist:

• Have you printed the shooting script? (Print x6 for Camera Team, Director, Producer, Assistant Director)

• Have you got all costumes, props, makeup, set dressings ready?

• Is the camera fully charged / on charge?

• Has the SD card got enough space? (Transfer the videos of the exercises you’ve shot to hard drive if you need to clear space)

• Are there spare batteries for the battery powered lights?

• Do the actors know that they should be practicing their lines again tonight?