preproduction week 7: 4 days left to prep

i’ve been working on my floorplans, storyboards, and shot list. i spent a lot of time trying to find the starting positions for all the actors. the opening scene has 4 guys sitting at their desks, and then they get up and gather around one monitor to watch something on youtube. then, the mail clerk shows up and delivers their mail.

i need to find out the best blocking for the actors and for the camera. that will then determine their eye lines, and what screen direction the characters face. i also want the opening shot to establish geography, show the space, show where the characters are relative to each other. then on top of all of those functions, i want it to also show my visual style as a director.

here’s my rough shooting schedule: i have an 8 page script and i’m shooting 2 days on the weekend, so that means i have to shoot 4 pages a day. i estimated that in a 12 hour day including set up and breakdown, i can get in about 8 solid hours of shooting. so that’s half a page i have to shoot every hour. i’m hoping to go much faster than that, but no matter what i can’t let myself fall behind that pace.