Good actors come prepared, and good actors pick up on direction and blocking quickly. Obviously not every actor in the industry (at any budget) runs at the same performance levels...
Even good actors are not psychic, so I want to rehearse and make sure we're all happy with performance when it could start costing me more money with crew and everything else involved with a shoot.
Truly good actors will make it real and feel it every single time, at least that's been my experience. A great actor will never lose the spontaneity because they can feel something real every single time. That's what I learned from this cast.
Let's also not forget, the RED is a digital camera...you're not spending any more money on a second or third take then you would on one take (to a degree). Especially if you're not renting it (which I'm confused as to how your budget was so low if you didn't). I'm not sure why it had to be crammed into one day...as far as I know, I didn't know RED has one-day rental deals...usually they are week long or whatnot...did you guys get a one day package on the grip truck, equipment, and camera? And if it was a friend's camera, then even more an opportunity to take your time. That's a lot of setups to bank on getting in one day...what if there was a problem?
The camera (and even on celluloid film shoots I've done) is NOT the most expensive thing in a production.
We shot 6 pages in 1 day. It didn't
have to be 1 day, but it saved me money on food and booking people as a favor instead of for pay (and it's even MORE true when you are paying them), you want to shoot as much as possible to save $$$. That's just logical producing.
As I said, the D.P. owns the RED, so we didn't have a special rate since it was a trade for some web work I did for his site. He also owns the grip truck and all the gear, so it was all a combo package to promote him having a RED and his wanting to get rentals out of it. I help promote Sabostudios and their equipment with posts like this! Greg knew that going in, so it's a WIN-WIN for everyone.
We made up setups as the day went on because we had the time and created shots on the spot. It was a very collaborative effort and a lot of fun. We had my minimum shotlist, and we had time to play so we made up a bunch of new shots and added more movement.
I like working with a D.P. who brings their "A" game and wants to create something as opposed to just being told what to do.
