So I'm shooting my movie out of state. In fact, I'm shooting my FIRST feature out of state. The odds of this changing are about as high as my not making the movie at all, so hopfully everyone can refrain from the more obvious advice of "Shoot in your home town." ?:)?
My question is regarding rehearsals. Has anyone done this before? How long do film actors typically need for rehearsal? Should I plan for a week prior to Principal Photography? Rehearse scenes right before shooting them? (I can hear you all laughing now)
Any advice will be hugely appreciated and compensated with good karma.
I rehearsed for one month (2 days a week) for a 12 minute short film, so for a feature film, I'd give at least 4 months. Any longer would be overkill.
I've read complaints from Hollywood actors at times that they only got a week or less of rehearsals before the movie started shooting, but they probably already know how to act :). A lot will depend on how experienced your actors are and what you're shooting on... if they know what they're doing they can probably give a reasonable performance without a lot of rehearsals, and if you're shooting on film with a ton of lights you'll probably have at least half an hour between shots to run through things in any case (I've seen a film school DoP spend three hours just lighting an over the shoulder shot...)
But if you're trying to shoot cheap and fast, I'd rehearse as much as possible beforehand.
I've also read that some feel that rehearsals take away the spontinaity of the acting. I've also seen that blocking can change drastically if you rehearse in a location different from where you will shoot. It's not all wine and roses for everyone.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
