How To Know If You Recorded The Correct Take For Your Independent Film

How do I know if we recorded the correct take?

A director will know when they have the take they need during movie production. Sometimes it doesn't come to them until afterwards, when they're in the editing room and they say, "Okay, that's the one were going to use." Every actor has a different amount of takes for which they like to work. Some like to get it the first time. Frank Sinatra refused to do more takes when he was on the set of films and he can do that because he's Ol' Blue Eyes and he can get away with it. Other actors want to serve the director so they'll do whatever the director says and then the director will say, "Do thirty takes" and they'll do that. Takes cost money in movie production. Every time you're doing a take you're wasting time, you're wasting resources, you're wasting film. On an independent film, sometimes you don't have the luxury of taking an extra take. Sometimes, the sun is setting and you're going to miss it, it's over. You have to be flexible. Every take doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be enough to make everybody comfortable and you move on to the next thing.