If you are trying to get people at different distances from the lens to look like they are all in focus it depends on a lot of factors because you are talking about depth of field. If you are shooting 35mm or a similar sized frame (i.e. Panavision Genesis or Arri D-20) you are limited to using the smallest aperture possible which means you need huge amounts of light or a fast film stock or both. However, if you are using a smaller capture medium like 16mm or a 1/3" or 2/3" digital sensor your depth of field increases quite a bit. The smaller frame sizes will also be helped by the small aperture setting as well but the frame size helps to increase DOF.
May be you are looking for the hyperfocal distance:
Is a focus setting where you have focus from half the focus mark (i.e. you have the focus set in 10 feet, then you have focus from 5 feet) to infinite, so your characters can move freely (in this case) from 5 feet to infinite.
The hyperfocal depends from format (35, S16, 2/3 video etc.), lens, and aperture.
You can find the hyperfocal for each case in the focus tables.
Basically, you are talking about controlling your depth of field: the distance in front of and behind the point at which the camera's focus is set. To maximise this distance use a small aperture and / or a wide angle (short focal length) lens. Check out the depth of field using tables or a Kelly calculator and just make sure that all your actors are within this range and they will all be sharp. If they're moving around then you'll have to think about pulling focus as well.
Unfortunately you are limiting your depth of field by using a telephoto lens... but you can increase the depth of field by closing down the aperture which means more light. This sometimes can be very hard on the actors so hopefully you don't have a very slow film or you will need a lot of light.
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