There are two ways of getting a reasonably accurate timing of each scene, which you can then add cumulatively to other scenes which have been shot in order to establish
- how much edited footage has been shot, and
- the overall running time of the production, at every stage of shooting.
Timing a Rehearsal
If a scene is rehearsed in its entirety before being broken down into shots, take a timing.
Adding Together the Durations of the Shots
If a scene is not rehearsed in its entirety, then you should add together the duration of each shot. It is important, however, to discount overlaps, otherwise the figure you get for the scene will be a complete nonsense! In order to work out the timing of the overlap you can read it through yourself against a stopwatch.
In the scene shown opposite,
Shot 1, W/A runs for 12”
Shot 2, 2–s John and Ellen runs for 20”
Shot 3, MS Agnes runs for 14”
If you add the duration of all those shots together you will get a total of 46”. Deduct 5” for the overlap of shots 1 and 2. This gives you a total of 41”. Shot 3, the MS of Agnes, overlaps Shot 2 by approximately 9”, so deduct the 9” from your total. This will give you an overall total duration of 32” for the scene.
