Production For Your Independent Film
What is 'production'?
Production is when you go out there and make a movie. It's from the first day of shooting to the last day, and on the final day, the director says, "It's a wrap." Production is the actual nuts and bolts, getting all the material you need to then go to the editing room and into post-production, where you cut the movie and really shape the style and tone of the movie. Production is basically collecting all the images, all the scenes you've planned for in pre-production, and when you're in production mode, it's when you're actually making the movie.
What happens during a typical day of independent film production?
On a typical day of production, you're going to have a few pages of the script being shot. You're going to have all the actors on set. People are going to show up and do the work and get what you need. You're going to pick up shots, things you might need for little edits, you're going to grab and shoot. A typical production day is basically a 12 hour day, usually, for the cast and crew.
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.
What are 'dailies'?
During the production of a movie, you want to watch what it is you're shooting, so after a day or two of shooting, you want to make sure that the director of photography is lighting the film the way you want it to be lit and that the actor is giving the performance you think should be giving. It looks different on the monitor as opposed to when watching the dailies, the actual footage that you shoot every day. Dailies are a way for the financiers to keep tabs on where their money's going. If they put ten million bucks into this independent film, while it's shooting they want to see where their money's going and say, "Hey I like this, I like where this is going." Dailies are a good way to nip problems in the bud before they become really big problems. For example, if I saw on the first two days of dailies that the lead actress kept scratching her nose all the time when she's listening, I could get her to stop that, and she'd stop that for the rest of the movie. Dailies are a way for film-makers to keep tabs on the production.