Scheduling is a tricky thing. It can give the scheduler a headache and nervous breakdown.
I do television dramas and where I'm at, we shoot the entire series in one go. So, we'd like plan for a 54 day shoot to complete a 13 episode drama series.
Which means that the pre-production has to be spot on and accurate and the scripts have to be all in on time.
The first thing you will do is to break down all your scripts according to locations.
Start with the script breakdowns and schedule according to locations. When you're shooting a long form drama like me, that means we will require several location for a couple of days at least because they appear in almost every episode.
Then the other problem with scheduling is how much time to allocate for each scene. Generally, I'd allocate about an hour for a one minute scene and slightly longer for more complicated scenes. Certain scenes take up to three to four hours to shoot, and if I have stunts and explosives, then the whole day will be devoted to that scene. It's quite complicated, but there is generally a formula which individual schedulers come up with, and this comes with knowing your director and crew very well.
The production scheduler I work with knows my directing style and speed very well, so she is able to schedule my scenes pretty accurately in terms of time allocation.
Also, knowing the location also helps in time allocation because you can estimate what kind of camera setup your crew will require. For example, if you are shooting on the fourth storey of a building which has no elevator, then allocate at least 30 minutes to the crew for them to move the equipment up, not including setup time, and another 30 minutes for them to bring it down again, not including strike time.
Factors like these can easily ruin a shooting schedule if you do not anticipate it in the planning stage. So it takes all hands to get the schedule right. The location researcher has to be intelligent about selecting locations.
Once you solve the location problem, you next have to deal with the actors schedule. Getting two persons to be in the same place at the same time is difficult. But wait till you try getting 5 or 6 cast members together at the same time! Stomach ulcers can develop!
Try not to change locations too much. If you're shooting within the city, and each location is about 30 minutes of each other, you will probably only manage at most three to four locations a day for a drama.
On average, you will want to shoot about 7-8 minutes of edited footage a day.
Working like this, I can finish a simple 13 episode television drama in about 40 - 50 days. The fastest I have ever completed shooting a series was 25 days, but that included multi-camera studio shoots.
Hope this helps.
