Josh and I drove up to Rome, Georgia today to one of our major locations so we could do a storyboard/shot list. We like to be really prepared when we get on set and the best way to do that is with a detailed shot list.

Now, we understand that once we get on set, the actors or DP (or anyone) could have a brilliant idea that could change the way we shoot a scene and we’re totally cool with that. To quote Captain Barbosa, the shot list is more what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rules. Generally everyone that crews one of our films comes away impressed with how organized we are on set. And we attribute most of that to a detailed shot list.

Now as for the “storyboard” part of what we do — we usually either draw stick figures or take photos of me being every character. These storyboards are actually quite funny to look at. Maybe one day, we’ll post some. Maybe.

But as for working with a storyboard artist, we’ve never done that before. And we both suck at drawing. Really bad. I honesty don’t know how to work with a storyboard artist. I’m sure there are several ways of working with one with varying degrees of involvement. For now, the way we do it works so if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Now, to give you some perspective on the amount of work it takes to make the shot list. We spent almost 4 hours at the location and did the shot list for about 20 scenes. (Some of them we just put “COVERAGE” because we’ll need to shoot a TON of angles. That’s generally for huge dialogue scenes.) So 20 down, 130 to go. That’s right, there are about 150 scenes in our film ranging from 1/8th of a page to 3 and a half pages long. We still have a lot of work to do.

Making a film is a daunting task and sometimes the amount of work needed makes it seem insurmountable.  But on days like today, when we take it one scene at a time, it almost seems possible.  We know how to make a short film.  So we’re just dividing this film up into scenes, just like we do with our shorts and it doesn’t seem like such a bear.  One step at a time, one day at a time.   It’s all good.

Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself.