Easy Film Production Cost Saving Tips p.1

The decision to shoot with a second unit requires taking many aspects into consideration. The impact of shooting with a second unit can have tremendous cost saving or cost creating effects on your film budget.

When deciding to shoot with a second unit, you need to consider whether a second unit would speed-up your shooting schedule or bring it to a grinding halt. A second unit has the ability to cover multiple shots simultaneously. Consequently, the amount of time it takes to film a shot could be reduced. This could result in weeks being shaved off your shoot schedule. However, you must realize that if the crew is not experienced enough, a second unit will get in the way of the first and slow down production. Orchestrating a second camera requires experience and planning to capture what the film shoot needs and avoid "crossing cameras". "Crossing cameras" is a term that means that a camera is in the shooting sight or picture frame of another camera.

If a DP is not good at orchestrating a two camera shoot, then production could grind to a halt and negate any time savings. In theory, shooting with two cameras should have no effect on the amount of film used since the second camera would have been used to shoot the scene even if there was only one camera. There is also a cost increase to your camera package that needs to be taken into account.

One more benefit to a second camera unit is that towards the end of production, if the scene does not require two cameras, the second camera unit can work on insert shots and pick-up shots.

This decision should involve the input of the producer, director, DP, UPM and 1st AD. The bigger the movie budget, the more probable that it would benefit from multiple camera units.