Best Laid Plans…
August 14, 2008
Alright party people, I have no idea who’s reading this blog but I’m assuming it’s people interested in actually making movies. With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to get into the nitty-gritty of the process a bit. (It occurred to me that you don’t really see this stuff unless you’re involved in creating it so I hope this is helpful to some fellow filmmakers out there!)
Here’s an early draft of the schedule for my upcoming feature. Of course anything can change but this is where we’ve started our thinking. Basically, it’s a romantic comedy, with six main characters, in New York City, SAG low budget agreement.
You’ll notice anything that can affect the schedule at all is noted – holidays, conflicts, and the festivals we’re aiming for. Some factors that are considered are prep time, festival deadlines, time of year, weather, hours of daylight, tourist season, etc.
Of course you don’t really get to this point until a rough shooting schedule and budget has been done, so this is really the second step, but I think this larger view of the process is more useful to see than strips or day out of days for a script that I can’t really share yet.
I hope this is useful.
(Apologies for the formatting - I couldn’t figure out how to keep the formatting of my document so it’s looking like a list.)
Rough Schedule – 1st Draft
Sept., Oct.
Meet potential HoD’s, begin shot list & overheads
November
Hire HoD’s, complete shot list & overheads
Dec., Jan.
Dead Months - Holidays & Sundance
January
DP - 1-2 weeks only
revise shot list
January 19
Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday
February 9
Casting Director
2 months out
February 9
Storyboard Artist
2 months out (director shot list & overheads due)
TBD
Line Producer/UPM
TBD
Location Scout/Manager
February 16
President’s Day
February 23
Production Designer
5 weeks out
March 2
1st AD
4 weeks out
March 9
DP
3 weeks out
April 2 - May 6
SHOOT
5 weeks (may need 6 weeks - if so shoot 1 wk. earlier)
April 2
Editor & team
cut during shooting
May 13
Assembly Cut
1 week
May 14 - 17
Reshoots/Pick Ups
May 25
Memorial Day
May 19 - May 31
Director’s Wedding? (anywhere within 5/12 - 5/26)
June 1
Editor’s Assembly Cut
+ 3 weeks
June 22
Director’s 1st Rough Cut
+ 5 weeks
July 4
Independence Day
July 6
Director’s 2nd Rough Cut
+ 8 weeks
July 15
Director’s Cut - delivery
+ 10 weeks (July 15)
August 19
Lock Picture
+ 15 weeks
September 7
Labor Day
November
Deliver Picture
3 months audio post
June
Toronto Deadline
June
AFI Early Deadline
July
AFI Regular Deadline
August
Sundance Early Deadline
September
Sundance Regular Deadline
September
Toronto Film Festival
November
Tribeca Early Deadline
November
AFI Film Festival
November
Berlin Deadline
December
Tribeca Regular Deadline
December
SXSW Deadline
January
Sundance Film Festival
February
Berlin Film Festival
February
LA Deadline
March
SXSW Film Festival
May
Tribeca Film Festival
May
Cannes Film Festival
June
LA Film Festival
This is a great timeline - thank you for sharing! Is this with a fully completed script, or are you still in the process of re writing? Looks like you are targeting a 2010 festival run, right?
Hey Alexa! Thanks for the feedback!
Great question too. The script is locked in a sense. The writer is doing a rewrite right now to tweak some stuff, but for the purposes of getting a rough schedule and budget it’s near enough. Of course everything always gets revised as changes happen but you’ve got to start somewhere or you never get going!
Your second question inspires fears of inviting a jinx, but I don’t disagree with your estimate.
Thanks for the blog. Looking forward to other entries.
Thanks for the great blog entry, certainly is good to see the actual details and schedule of an indie film. I dont want to jinx anything, but I did want to ask, when the film is completed will you also be submitting it to other festivals that are not as high profile as the ones you mention?
And is it usual to wait until festivals to get distribution, or can it happen during or before shooting?
Hi Scott,
Yes, we certainly will. But for the purposes of scheduling, these are the ones that we’ll aim to work around. Perhaps I’ll do a blog on festivals, but there is a strategy to the whole thing, especially with features. You want to make sure you get turned down from the big ones before having to accept to smaller ones. Otherwise, you might get turned down from the big ones just because you accepted at smaller ones.
But in terms of scheduling, these are the ones that are powerful enough to light a fire under anyone’s butts in terms of production. So that’s why they’re noted here.
Great post, quite an eye opener to the reality of production timeline. Got one question though, whats the best route to jump starting a career in the industry? short story festival entries or feature entries? Thanks
Hm, well that’s a hard one and may be a blog in and of itself. Check back tomorrow - I’ll write about that.