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.
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.
