Round 3- Surviving the 48HFP, during the madness

So, you have your genre, prop and line of dialogue. You're a little shell-shocked, pissed, overjoyed and heading back to your team. Here are some things to keep in mind during production:

SURVIVING YOUR TEAM'S PRODUCTION- DURING THE MADNESS

- Make sure the producer and the director read the script after it’s finished and before everyone goes to sleep. Get the final script written before people sleep. Even if you’re up to 5am. I am not kidding.

- Don’t be superman. Try not to be doing something every day of the project. It can be done, but it’s not a pretty picture.

- Don’t change location more than 3 times if possible. Every location change ends up losing you 1.5 hours of time, usually more. And you eventually want to be done shooting before Sunday hits.

- Schedule lunch breaks. A fed cast and crew is a happy crew.

- PAs are made to get coffee. Coffee keeps you moving. Or very jittery. But shaky-cam is in, right?

- This is just me, but, trust your sound guy only if you trust him with your life. Bad audio, on this short of a shoot, is nearly impossible to fix.

- On that topic, record room tone, nat sound, ambient sound, or whatever else you would like to call it. Just do it. Your editor will love you. At least 10 seconds if inside, at least a minute if outside.

- Consider having your actors do wild lines after any scene in a quiet place. Having ADR as an option is always nice.

- Did you remember to get those batteries as noted in Before the Madness?

- Be prepared for anything. Be zen.

- Ask for anything you want. You’d be surprised what people are willing to do/give/whatever. Now get your mind out of the gutter :P

- Before breaking a location, ask yourself if you’ve gotten a way to get into the scene and to get out of the scene. If not, SHOOT IT. Screw the production schedule.