First Feature on Film

[Stuart Brereton]

Just found a couple of interesting articles about the shooting ratio on saving private ryan that both quote Spielberg as completing the film on a 4:1 ratio. They shot for 75 days- which at that ratio is just under 10 minutes of film through the camera each day- which seems a little low for a film crew working at Spielberg's speed and effiency.

 

Thoughts?

 

http://articles.latimes.com/1998/may/10/entertainment/ca-48196/2

 

https://www.theasc.com/magazine/aug98/five/pg4.htm

He explains how he was able to work at that ratio in both articles. it's a combination of time for proper rehearsals, great actors, and having the experience to know when you've got the shot.

 

First time feature directors generally only have one of those three, and sometimes none.

[Jon O'Brien]

I'd be interested to learn more about this movie. Does it have a working title and release date? S16 and 2-perf 35mm acquisition for features interests me - a bit like music on vinyl records in some ways.

[Stephen Baldassarre]

I know this is an older post but I often work around a 4:1 shooting ratio, on film or video. I haven't done a feature-length narrative in a long time but what we did was rehearse in advance to work out the kinks and desired performance, do a master take of the whole scene and get coverage in short bits. Sometimes we wouldn't even have a master take, just a few lines from this angle, a few from that angle etc. I find the editing process dreadfully boring any way, so the movie is more or less done in-cam; it's just a matter of sticking the good takes where they belong.

 

I'm also curious of the outcome of the original poster's shoot.

PS I was in Australia (mostly Melbourne) recently and they have a thriving underground film community. I'm glad there's some infrastructure to support film shooters.

Edited January 6, 2017 by Stephen Baldassarre