I've read that indies average 10 pages a day and that with digital you might get even more.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

Where did you read this rj? If the average is ten pages a day then the high must be sixteen to eighteen. I'd love to read the article or interview, or what ever it was. And I'd love to see movie where the average is ten pages a day.

I've done three 80 minute movies in two and a half days - that's about 25 pages a day - and I can tell you they looks like crap. Master shot - two close ups and move on!

With a very experienced crew, very good, experienced actors and a very simple scene I've done eight to ten pages in a day. But that wouldn't be my average - that would be my high end.

Add several actors (four or five) or a fight, or one with camera moves, or a suspense scene and the average drops. I'd say, from experience, that six is a fair average

Roger Corman managed a 35mm feature in two days, but he's a genius :). I'd aim for 4-5 pages a day if you want anything that looks half-decent and you don't have much experience... and even then you want to plan everything out beforehand so you won't be wasting time on set.

Thanks guys.

As of now my script is sitting at 28 pages. I really need to trim it down to about 20-22. I'm hoping to shoot everything in 2-3 days so trimming down to 20 would be a big help. I have some scenes that are very basic, people sitting and talking on the phone.

I'll be doing a lot of the one master, one CU, move on, type thing!

certified instigator, It doesn't take many people shooting your 25 pages a day to bump that 6 pages up to a 10 page average. You sort of proved my numbers with that comment. Yeah it may be misleading or unreasonable but that doesn't mean its not realistic.

I would say a lot of it depends upon the type of scenes your shooting. A lot of dialogue could run long, a lot of simple action could go quick. As Robert Rodriguez points out, how many takes do you need for a guy to run from there to there.

The other factor is the Mastershot. You run it from beginning to end but for most of it you probably won't use it because you'll have closeups and midshots and other angles. If the actor flubs on a mastershot you don't necessarily have to do it over and over. You can continue from where they flubbed and make sure that its covered by closeups or coverage.

Then there is scene length. You are more likely to get 10 pages a day shooting a bunch of short scenes on the same location than you are trying to hammer out one long complicated scene. It's less for the actors to keep track of.

Then there is locations. Always try to have a days action at the same location. A second location ensures you won't get 10 pages, you won't even get close. Even if the location is close there is confusion and delays.

I won't even go into fancy camera movements. Any extra factor like that is bound to slow things down. That's a choice. If you must have a really mobile camera you've got to factor that into your page count.

So you should probably trust Certified Investigators 6 pages as a better average but there are a lot of variables. And I did read 10, I'll find the book someday, I've gone through hundreds lately and don't have the energy to find it now.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

quote:

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Originally posted by rjschwarz

certified instigator, It doesn't take many people shooting your 25 pages a day to bump that 6 pages up to a 10 page average. You sort of proved my numbers with that comment. Yeah it may be misleading or unreasonable but that doesn't mean its not realistic.

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Ahh, I see. You were basing that average over all movies made. You are correct if you take the couple of times someone like me has shot 25 pages and average that with someone else shooting 5 or 6 pages.

I was basing the average on one movie being made - the average pages that can realistically be shot on one movie.

I started shooting my pictures this weekend. First day was 6 pages and second day was only 4. Averaging 5 so far.

I thought the second day would go quicker because we were shooting a few scenes without sound but it was away from our base of operations (same building) and it seems like everything you need is back there. That and actor scheduling problems that we won't have later in the shoot. Thirdly a location that was slightly different from the one scripted that required a little rethinking.

Once we had everything set up we were tearing through. So another point is that if you plan a very limited number of angles and setups you'll go a lot faster, but may have a more boring picture in the end. Also when you have the lights and everything set up shoot every scene from that angle. This means the actors have to know all of there scenes in a certain location but its the lighting setups that take so long so you might as well get some shots while you are there. This screws up the page counts though because you might get 30 pages from one angle and then do the same 30 pages again the next day from another angle, then the third day is closeups and inserts and whatever. Same scene on different days opens up the risk of inconsistancies all over the place.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

Ok, Let's also not forget what our friends in TV have taught us. I know most film students view TV as something beneath them, but seeing as how they tend to shoot in a week, well, they're pretty efficient.

So, check it out, in a 12 hour day, you could shoot as many as 25 pages a day. But, the thing I'd suggest is, during Pre-Production (that magic word that we sometimes forget), break your script down into the 8ths. If you don't know how, please dear God, pick up a Script Breakdown book, and learn. It'll save you time in the long run. Of course, the best solution is to work with experienced people, but if you can't, don't worry about it. Learn as you go. You'll sink or swim.

So, to answer your question, realistically, you can shoot as many pages as you want to try. With enough camera setups (CU, M two person, CU), you could shoot half your script in a day. I just wouldn't reccommend it.

Look, experienced companies, average about 3-5 pages a day. If they're pressed, they can double that. That's people who make movies for a living. Why? Because, they take the time to plan out each shot, and make it the best they can. They don't worry about the time factor, they worry about getting it done right. Of course, when we don't have money, we have so many constraints that it's almost ridiculous we're getting anything done.

But, we have the advantage of as much pre-production time as we want.

I know, that probably doesn't help much, but just remember, movies have limitless possibilities.

Six days of shooting done and still averaging 5 a day. Probably could have done more if I could have shot 6 days in a row and kept the gear in place. If I had all of the actors there for the 6 days so I could shoot every scene from one setup before moving onto the next. Still the realities are realities and I've been happy with what the shots look like so I'm not complaining.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

average as many pages necessary to make the movie good.

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Joel Schumacher shot Phonebooth in two weeks. It's an 81 minute movie divide that by 14 days and you get something like 5.7 minutes of film a day. One page of script is roughly (very roughly) one minute on screen. Minus he didnt shoot it on sunday's. so he shot probably 6-7 pages a day and he said that if any young filmmaker can shoot anything that quickly and have it be a decent movie then thats really impressive. because it was tight for him and depending on your opinion it was a decent/good movie. However it was shot in only 2 locations, which makes things a lil easier:NYC (times square) and LA (the street that the movie was shot on was built from scratch). Not to mention he said he had at least three cameras always running on the phone booth at one time. So, a pro shot a 81 minute film in 2 weeks and two locations and he said it was tough. so as indie film makers we obviously dont spend as much time as we should or as much time as pro's do on shots. So i don tknow if any of that helps but take it as you will.

ps. my average is 4

"I believe the cinema is one of our principal forms of art. It is an incredibly powerful way to tell uplifitng stories that can move people to cry with joy and inspire them to reach for the stars."-Wes Craven