how do you do rehearsals?

Get your DP, costume designer, set designer, and First AD at the table so they can make notes about what will look right, work right, and what can be done on your budget.

And ZERO dollars is a budget,

A lousy one, but a budget.

After the intro lean forward and start taking notes while you only glance upward at the actors, and you let them run with the story their way.

You may choke on it, but you need to keep your mouth closed and watch what they do, how they do it, and after the first cold table read the First AD should ask about what the actors feel are the right costumes. The actors voice their opinion, and the costume designer nods helpfully and makes notes. Sometimes those notes get used, sometimes they are discarded, but the costume notes are what the set designer needs to know about the delivered tone and parameters of the sets.

When the First AD asks about anything special that should be on the board the actors will say how they see it. You may think of a generic bedroom, the female lead may want a couple of "play off" points in the room. Guess what? The costume designer is making notes about the potential sets because that might well determine the final costume choice.

It is paradoxical, but when the actor says she sees her character's pivotal and closing scenes in the library as being in a big, well lit room with ten foot tall bookcases full of books that tells you and the costume designer that her looks need to fit that first, pivotal set, so you create a great spoiled girl look for the pivotal library scene and the story can proceed cleanly in lower cost, less modified sets for the story between pivot and climax.

NEVER tell an actor how to do something.

ASK the actor to run it through "this way" so you can see how the other actors react to the change. The actor needs to have final call on the character, not the writer, not the director, just the actor in the persona of the character.

Then you take lunch, and when you get back everyone seems relaxed, you ask the first AD to read location and headers, and start the second table read-- and suddenly the dialog goes from okay, just not quite right to OMG THAT IS GREAT because the actors and now wearing the skin of the character and the character is at the table.

That is the simplest and quickest way to get the story done right, and if the actors all tell you that something doesn't work right, ask for their help and FIX IT.

Give the actors the next day off, talk to the costume and set heads, see what you need to do, figure out how to do it, and listen if the DP says you need a different approach in this scene or that scene.

Don't make the mistake of thinking you are going to the barn and picking out a nice horse for a little trail ride. You are going to be going on a bronc ride and you need everyone on the same page.

If and when the work gets shown at a festival you are going to hear about how it is so much better than anyone could have ever expected. Do not let it go to your head, just buckle down, start over with a new screenplay, and this time it will be your rodeo.

Clowns and all.

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For theatre or for film?

both but at the moment more so theatre

In professional theatre there is usually three weeks. The first week is table reads and blocking, and a bit of scene work. Second week is dedicated to scene work and transitions, and you close it out with full act runs, and full show runs. The Saturday or Sunday before opening there is a tech rehearsal, and the beginning of the week are full tech runs and by Tuesday or Wednesday you have previews in front of an audience so you can open on the Friday.

In community theatre and collegiate, the schedules are slightly longer. As much as six weeks.


For film, there is usually no time set aside for rehearsals prior to shooting, but you can usually sneak in a table read with the actors that are available. This is the last time everyone gets to experience the script from beginning to end in order, so it is very helpful. But usually you start the day with a camera rehearsal with the actors and the DP. Everyone except you, the actors and the DP is usually cleared of the set, and quiet should be observed. No walking around and talking while you all work. You rehearse the scene you are going to shoot, work out the blocking, direct the actors' performances and then when it is about 90% where it needs to be, you have them run the scene and while you and the DP go over the shots that will be needed. You release the actors to makeup and costume and the camera crew lights the set and lays down any track or sets up whatever camera support will be used. Then you shoot.

Each director and production is different, but that's pretty much how it's done in my experience.

The goal of the rehearsals differs from film to theatre. For theatre you are rehearsing so that the actors and crew can perform the show from start to finish without stopping. For film, you are capturing moments that will later be cut together to tell the story.