A typical day's shooting begins with an
assistant director following the shooting
schedule for the day. The film set is
constructed and the props made ready.
The lighting is rigged, the camera and
sound recording equipment are set up.
At the same time the actors are wardrobed
in their costumes and attend the hair
and make-up departments.
The actors rehearse their script and blocking
with the director. The picture and sound
crews then rehearse with the actors. Finally,
the action is shot with as many takes
as the director sees fit.
Each take of a shot follows a slating
procedure and is marked on a clapperboard,
which helps the editor keep track of the
takes in post-production. The clapperboard
records the scene, take, director, director
of photography, date, and name of the
film written on the front, and is displayed
for the camera. The clapperboard also
serves the necessary function of providing
a marker to sync up the film and the sound
take. Sound is recorded on a separate
apparatus from the film and they must
be synched up in post-production.
The director will then check to see if
the shot was good or not. The script supervisor,
sound and camera teams mark every take
as either good (G or a circle around the
take's number) or not good (NG) on their
respective report sheets. Every report
sheet records important facts about each
take.
When shooting is finished for the scene,
the director declares a "wrap."
The crew will "strike," or dismantle,
the set for that scene. The director approves
the next day's shooting schedule and a
daily progress report is sent to the production
office. This includes the report sheets
from continuity, sound, and camera teams.
Call sheets are distributed to the cast
and crew to tell them when and where to
turn up the next shooting day.
For productions using traditional photographic
film, the unprocessed negative of the
day's takes are sent to the film laboratory
for processing overnight. Once processed,
they return from the laboratory as dailies
or rushes (film positives) and are viewed
in the evening by the director, above
the line crew, and sometimes, the cast.
For productions using digital technologies,
shots are downloaded and organized on
a computer for display as dailies.
