Shoot Schedule

A Second Chance — Music Video · BlueForest Studios

Day 1 · Sat Aug 22 · Trailblazer · 8 AM–6 PM Prep · Thu Aug 27 · Panic Point · 8 AM–12:30 PM Day 2 · Mon Aug 31 · Panic Point · 3:30 PM–1:30 AM 46 units + 1 optional

Proposed schedule — for review. Individual shots are timed only where a setup is unique. Dance sections are budgeted by song section, not by shot: the section plays back, the performers dance it through, and we cover the whole section from two angles rather than resetting for each storyboard frame.

The two-angle rule for dance. Every dance section gets a minimum of two distinct passes: A-cam gimbal, medium (the primary — this is what the edit lives on) and B-cam slider, wide (the section in full, for scale and cutaways). Sections marked 2 angles below have that time built in. If a section is running long, the wide is the pass to shorten — never the medium.

On this page

Day 1 — Sat Aug 22 · Trailblazer (studio, then coffin) · 8 AM–6 PM
The light — what the built beam does and doesn't depend on
Prep half-day — Thu Aug 27 · Panic Point
Day 2 — Mon Aug 31 · Panic Point (graveyard) · 3:30 PM–1:30 AM
Ten-hour days & the overtime reserve
Where this schedule is tight — and the pressure valves

Day 1 — Sat Aug 22 · Trailblazer Studios, Raleigh8:00 AM call · camera wrap 5:05 PM · out 6:00 PM · studio dance world clean-faced, then the coffin in bones · 15 shots

Two different looks, and the order follows the makeup. Gustav is clean-faced for the entire studio world — hair and makeup only, 60 minutes. The glued-on bones are a graveyard and coffin look, so on this day they go on once, late, purely for the coffin block. Since taking them off can leave red marks on the skin, nothing is scheduled after their removal: coffin last, bones off at wrap.

Splitting the looks makes the day better, not just different. Gustav's studio call drops from three hours to one, so the unit starts shooting at 9:30 instead of 11:00 — an hour and a half of extra shooting time. And because the bones now go on at 12:30 rather than at dawn, the macro ECU wink (S11-03) shoots barely an hour into fresh makeup instead of six hours into a tired one. The tightest shot in the film gets the best version of the prosthetic.

The bones number is measured: 90 minutes or less. The Aug 18 makeup test came back at a tested 90 minutes, not the three hours the schedule was carrying. Gustav wraps the studio at 12:30, is out of the chair by 2:00, and the coffin block starts at 2:30 — the old contingency float now sits banked at the end of the day instead.

Time	Block	Shots	Unit / angles	Notes
8:00 AM90 min	Crew call · studio world buildSetup	—	All hands	Light the studio world — window rig, hard shafts, haze, magenta/cyan/gold. Gustav studio HMU 8:00–9:00 — hair and makeup only, no bones. Brianna HMU, then both run choreo to playback from 9:00 while the grip work finishes. Coffin set stays crated.
9:30 AM40 min	Verse 2 — she wakes for real1:58–2:142 angles	S7-02 · S7-03	A: gimbal MS B: slider WS	The re-awakening, then dancing by choice. First block of the day — a take or two of margin while everyone finds the room. Starting here rather than at 11:00 is what the shorter studio call buys.
10:10 AM50 min	Pre-Chorus 2 — full choreo2:15–2:322 angles	S8-01 · S8-02 S8-03 · S8-04	A: gimbal orbit B: slider WS	Faces in saturated colour, the pair hitting the beat, the orbit through window shafts, Mahler at peak charisma. Densest section of the film — four storyboard frames, one continuous section pass.
11:00 AM55 min	Chorus 2 — the peak2:33–3:042 angles	S9-01 · S9-03	A: gimbal WS B: whip / handheld	The biggest dance moment in the video and the longest section (31 sec). Two shots on the board, but it earns the most time on the day — light exploding, then the whip into abstract colour. Do not let this one absorb an earlier overrun.
11:55 AM35 min	Bridge — counter-swirl3:05–3:202 angles	S10-02	A: gimbal orbit B: slider WS	The studio half of the circling bridge — and it now shoots first, so this pass sets the orbit direction and speed. Log both; Day 2 at Panic Point (S10-01/03) has to match this footage. Gustav's last studio setup — he goes straight into the bones at 12:30.
12:30 PM30 min	Meal · Gustav into bones HMU90-minute window opens	—	HMU on Gustav	The bones application starts here and runs to 2:00. Everything below until then is built to happen without him — the unit keeps working while makeup does.
1:00 PM20 min	Verse 2 opener — Brianna solo1:58–2:14	S7-01	A: static wide	The frozen mid-pose establishing wide. Brianna only — the one studio shot that doesn't need Gustav, deliberately held back to here so it covers the makeup window instead of idling the unit.
1:20 PM30 min	Studio cutaways · bufferContingency	—	As needed	Last chance at the studio world before it's struck — retakes on whichever section felt weakest, plus cheap cutaways: hands, feet, trumpet, light through haze. Brianna wraps at the end of this block.
1:50 PM40 min	Relight · build the coffin setSetup	—	Gaffer / grip	Strike what's needed of the studio, build and light the coffin interior. Fully parallel with the makeup — neither is waiting on the other.
2:00 PM30 min	Bones done · coffin rehearsalSetup	—	—	Gustav out of the chair at 2:00 (tested 90-minute application). Rehearse the coffin performance to playback while the set is finished and lit.
2:30 PM45 min	Coffin — Intro + Verse 10:35–0:52 · 0:52–1:08	S2-01 · S3-01 S3-02	A: static, tight	Gustav only, sealed-coffin framing, bones fresh. Fingers tapping, eyes snap open, singing from under the earth. Playback through a single speaker so he can perform to it inside the box.
3:15 PM30 min	Coffin — Pre-Chorus + the wink1:08–1:25 · 3:21–3:53	S4-01 · S11-03	A: locked, high-speed	Lid punching on the beat (high-speed), then the macro ECU wink — the last frame of the film and the tightest shot in it, barely an hour into fresh bones.
3:45 PM20 min	Coffin safety · pickupsContingency	—	A: locked	Extra takes on the wink and the lid punches. Nothing after this needs the bones on.
4:05 PM60 min	Float — banked hourContingency	—	—	The hour the 90-minute bones application gave back. Absorbs any overrun from the whole day; if the day is clean, bones come off here and wrap starts calm.
5:05 PM55 min	Camera wrap · strike	—	All hands	Full 55 minutes to strike the studio and the coffin set and clear Trailblazer. Out at 6:00 — ten hours from call. Phillip out of makeup during strike.

The light — what the built beam does and doesn't depend on

The beam is ours. We're building the sunrise shaft as a lamp rather than waiting on a real one, so the beam itself is on a dimmer, not on a clock. What the sun still controls is the sky behind it — and that's the only part of Day 2 that can't be rescheduled.

Sunset · Aug 31

7:44 PM

Civil twilight ends

8:10 PM

Safety pass

7:15–7:44

★ Primary pass

7:44–8:10

Why civil twilight beats real sunset for a built beam. A shaft of light only reads when it is meaningfully brighter than everything around it. Competing against direct sun, a practical lamp is effectively invisible — you'd be pointing a light at a scene the sun is already lighting. As ambient falls through twilight, the same fixture at the same output gains contrast for free, and the beam separates. Nothing about the rig changes; the background gets out of its way.

The beam also needs something to travel through. Haze or fog has to be running for a shaft to be visible at all — dial the atmosphere in during the safety pass so it's already right when the good light arrives.

8:10 is still a hard out — for the sky, not the beam. Once civil twilight ends the sky goes properly black, and a black sky reads as night, not dawn. Every Chorus 3 shot that shows sky has to be finished by 8:10. The beam could run all night; the dawn cannot.

Blocking rehearsal happens before the light is precious. Neither window is long enough to figure anything out inside it. Gustav is on his marks at 7:00 for a dry run with no camera roll, straight off the meal — the gold-skeleton HMU starts at 3:30 PM, at crew call, and at a tested 90 minutes he's ready with hours to spare.

Prep morning — Thu Aug 27 · Panic Point8:00 – 11:00 AM · Ammon, Andrew, Jamie (+ volunteers, no extra pay) · no camera

The whole ten-hour shape of Day 2 depends on this half-day happening. Arriving on the 31st to an undug grave doesn't cost an hour — it costs the twilight window, and the twilight window is the only thing on the schedule that can't be moved.

Time	Block	Who	Notes
8:00 AM45 min	Site walk with Andrew Kennedy	Ammon + Andrew	Walk the shooting positions in daylight: hero grave, gravestone line, the woods edge, and where the sunrise beam has to sit. Confirm power drops, vehicle access, and where the unit stages on the 31st. Agree the 1:30 AM out time and what a run to 2:00 AM would cost.
8:45 AM120 min	Dig the grave · seat the coffin	Crew + Andrew	The long pole of the day. Dig to grade, seat the coffin so the lid sits flush with the soil and opens flat onto the ground, and test the lid opening from inside — a person pushing it hard, exactly as it plays on the 31st. Better to find a binding lid now than at 8:45 PM.
10:45 AM45 min	Set the gravestone	Crew	Stone into its base sockets, plumbed, and guy-lined to a stake out of frame. Check the GUSTAV MAHLER inscription reads from the hero camera position — that's the shot the whole intro turns on.
11:30 AM45 min	Kit check · fuel · fog	Crew	Gather and test the fog machines, check the generator for fuel and run it, confirm fluid, spare cans, extension runs and anything that has to be bought before Monday. This is the list you do not want to discover at 4:00 PM on the shoot day.
12:15 PM15 min	Secure the site	Crew	Grave covered or fenced and made properly safe — it now sits open for three nights (Fri–Sun) before the shoot, so this is a real cover, not a tarp. Out by 12:30.

Two things to finish this half-day with: a confirmed Sep 1 return window (the 2-person crew that pulls the coffin and backfills — Day 2's ten hours depend on it), and a short list of anything that has to be bought or fixed before Monday, with the whole weekend to do it in.

Day 2 — Mon Aug 31 · Panic Point3:30 PM call · camera wrap 12:35 AM · out 1:30 AM · night exterior graveyard · every remaining unit shoots tonight, woods path included (seq 9 is off the day — studio intercut covers Chorus 2)

The day is built to a 10-hour clock: 3:30 PM to 1:30 AM. Camera wraps at 12:30 AM and the last hour is teardown, so the crew leaves at ten hours rather than running teardown as overtime on top of a 1:00 AM wrap. That only works because the coffin stays in the grave overnight — a 2-person crew returns Sep 1 to pull it and fill the hole, instead of holding the full unit for the heaviest strike of the night.

Time	Block	Shots	Unit / angles	Notes
3:30 PM30 min	Crew call · unloadSetup	—	All hands	Stage carts, generator, fog units. Makeup does not start at call — Deidre's call is 5:00 PM; the talent pipeline for the evening is makeup 5:00 → wardrobe 6:00 → talent ready 6:30.
4:00 PM75 min	Set dress the graveSetup	—	Art / grip	Grave already open from the Aug 27 prep. Coffin seated to grade, gravestone plumbed and guy-lined to a stake out of frame. No launcher to rig — the lid is pushed open by hand from inside, so this block is shorter than it was.
5:15 PM60 min	Lighting · beam rig · cameraSetup	—	Gaffer / cam	Moonlight key and tree backlight, then build and test the sunrise beam — angle, flare, and haze density all dialled now, in daylight, so nothing is being invented at 7:44. Gimbal (A) and slider (B) both built before the meal.
6:15 PM15 min	Talent ready · final marksSetup	—	All hands	Goal: both talent camera-ready by 6:30. Bones started 5:00 (measured 90 min — lands exactly on the goal, zero margin), wardrobe from 6:00. Company move to the hero grave and set marks.
6:30 PM30 min	Meal	—	—	Eaten early and deliberately — the crew goes into the two light passes fed, and there is no break again until wrap. Deidre works through the meal if the bones run past 6:30 and eats once makeup is done.
7:00 PM30 min	Dawn aftermath — Brianna soloChorus 3 · 3:21–3:53	S12-04 · S12-05 S12-06	A: handheld B: slider WS	Shot first, in the real low sun — story-brightest light for the story's furthest-past-sunrise beats. Sunset light falls while the story's dawn rises, so the post-chorus aftermath shoots in reverse story order and the fade plays as dawn breaking. Gustav isn't in any of these — he walks his marks between resets. S12-06 gets a real sunset sky (its sky replacement is cancelled).
7:30 PM14 min	Safety pass — real sunChorus 3 · 3:21–3:53	S11-01 · S11-02 · S12-01 S12-02 (S12-03 if fast)	A: gimbal MS B: slider WS	One banked take of each. Warm sky is guaranteed here — insurance for the primary pass. S11-01 runs the full Chorus 3 choreography (all lyrics). Use this pass to rehearse S12-03's backward fall into the coffin at full speed at least once while there's plenty of light. Beam is up but fighting the sun; don't chase it yet.
7:44 PM26 min	★ Primary pass — civil twilightChorus 3 · 3:21–3:53Hard out 8:10	S11-02 · S12-01 S12-02 · S12-03 S11-01	A: gimbal MS B: slider WS	The keeper takes as the light dies. S11-02 (the sunrise beam hits Gustav's eyes, on "Conduct me a symphony if you dare") → S12-01 (Brianna in the splits, Gustav behind her) → S12-02 (the baton release) → S12-03 — he falls back into the coffin (Phillip's backward fall, played in reverse — padding dressed into the coffin, spotter out of frame). S11-01's wide lands last on the dimmest sky: the pre-dawn hint, moon still up. Roll both cameras on everything.
8:10 PM35 min	Relight to full nightSetup	—	Gaffer / grip	Swing from the dawn look to moonlit night, fog units up to full. Sized at 35 min on purpose — the tail is the cushion that absorbs any golden-window overrun before the night block starts. Crew already ate at 6:30, so this is a working turnaround, not a break.
8:45 PM40 min	The resurrectionPre-Chorus · 1:08–1:25	S4-02 · S4-03 S4-04	A: locked B: handheld	The lid bursts open (pushed hard from inside — hands in frame are a paint-out), then Gustav magically rises: Phillip falls backward into the coffin, played in reverse. Restored at Phillip's request — pad the coffin interior, walk the fall at half speed first, and budget resets between takes. That's what the extra 10 minutes here is for.
9:25 PM40 min	Chorus 1 Pt 1 — spell1:25–1:412 angles	S5-01 · S5-02 S5-03 · S5-04	A: gimbal MS B: slider WS	Whole section per pass. Gustav advances, draws the baton, casts; Brianna's hands rise on the marionette beat. Grab the baton macro insert while the section is lit.
10:05 PM40 min	Chorus 1 Pt 2 — puppet dance1:41–1:572 angles	S6-01 · S6-02 S6-03	A: gimbal MS B: slider WS	Conducting into full puppet control, ending on the world-tear whip. Same lighting as Pt 1 — this is why the two sit back to back.
10:45 PM35 min	Bridge — graveyard3:05–3:202 angles	S10-01 · S10-03	A: gimbal orbit B: locked	The counter-swirl: performers circle one way, camera orbits the other. Run the orbit in both directions so the edit can pick. (Chorus 2 / seq 9 is off tonight — the studio intercut covers it.)
11:20 PM30 min	Intro + Verse 1 at the stone0:35–0:52 · 0:52–1:08	S2-02 · S2-03 · S2-04 S3-03 · S3-04	A: static / macro	Brianna only — Gustav holds (still in bones) for the S12-07 wink at 12:10. Kneeling at the stone, clearing the inscription, the incantation, the ground glow.
11:50 PM20 min	Pre-Intro — graveyard edge0:00–0:35	S1-04 · S1-05 S1-06	A: slow push / static	Hero stone in heavy fog, Brianna's face in the fog, her step into the graveyard. Fog-dependent, so it stays at Panic Point.
12:10 AM10 min	S12-07 — the winkPost-Chorus	S12-07	A: macro static	Missed on Day 1 — the macro ECU wink in the coffin. Hero-grave lighting is still up, so it shoots before the turnaround. Gustav holds in bones to here.
12:20 AM15 min	Pre-Intro — woods path0:00–0:35	S1-01 · S1-02 S1-03	A: dolly forward	Turn the camera around and shift the two big lights — not a company move. Up-angle branches, jogging tracking shot, the earbud reverse. Last setup of the night; wrap from here. If time is short, bank S1-02 first.
12:35 AM55 min	Camera wrap · teardown	—	All hands	Lighting, grip, fog and gravestone struck; coffin stays in the grave overnight, hole fenced or covered and made safe. Out at 1:30 AM — ten hours from call.
Sep 12 crew	Return · coffin + fillNext day	—	2-person crew	Pull the coffin, backfill the grave, final site check with Panic Point. A fraction of the cost of holding the full unit past 1:30 AM to do the same work tired.

◆ dance section, timed by song section 2 angles gimbal MS + slider WS built in Hard out sky-locked, cannot slip Off the day moved to a separate pickup

Ten-hour days & the overtime reserve

Both days are now built to land inside ten hours rather than planning to run past it. OT stays available, but it's the reserve, not the plan.

Why OT still beats a pickup day. Both locations rent for over $1,000 per day before a single crew member is paid. A pickup day means paying that location fee again, plus a full day rate for everyone, plus a second round of the gold-skeleton makeup, plus re-dressing the grave. Paying the existing crew an overtime rate for an extra hour — set already built, lit, and in makeup — is dramatically cheaper for the same footage.

Day	Call → out	Reserve	What changed / what it buys
Day 1	8:00 AM → 6:00 PM camera wrap 5:05 PM	to 8:00 PM	Ten hours with a full 55-minute strike protected at the end. The studio now shoots first, so nothing can spill into it from the graveyard — this day has to land its own material. Note OT here also means more hours in prosthetics for Phillip once the bones go on, not just more hours on the clock.
Day 2	3:30 PM → 1:30 AM camera wrap 12:30 AM	to 2:00 AM	Exactly ten hours, teardown included. Three changes bought that: the later 3:30 call, the lid launcher removed (−20 min on the resurrection block and less to rig), and the coffin left in the grave overnight, which turns the heaviest part of strike into a 2-person visit on Sep 1. The half-hour of float at 12:20 AM is the first thing OT would extend.

Still to confirm — the OT rates before Aug 22, the rest before Aug 31 — or the reserve isn't real:

Panic Point occupancy to 1:30 AM as the baseline — the plan now needs the site until 1:30, not 1:00. Confirm that first, then confirm what a run to 2:00 AM would cost.
Sep 1 site access for the 2-person return to pull the coffin and backfill — the whole ten-hour Day 2 depends on it.
Each crew member's OT rate and threshold, agreed in writing at booking. Ethan Ramirez is booked at $650/10, and this day is now exactly 10 — so any slip at all starts the OT clock. Better to have that conversation now than at 12:45 AM.

Where this schedule is tight — and the pressure valves

Both days now fit inside ten hours, but the margins are thin and unevenly distributed: Day 1 holds 30 minutes of float, Day 2 holds 10. That asymmetry is deliberate — the graveyard work is sky-locked and location-locked, and the studio isn't.

Day 2's float is 10 minutes, and one block is doing the heavy lifting

Moving the three woods-path shots off the day entirely is what made a 12:30 AM camera wrap possible. They need bare branches and a path — not a graveyard — so they can be picked up at any wooded location, any day, with the same 2-person crew already returning on Sep 1. That valve is now spent, so if the night runs long the remaining moves are:

1 · Take the 10-minute float at 12:20 AM.
2 · Shorten the B-cam wide on Chorus 1 Pt 2. Pt 1 and Pt 2 share a lighting setup and a location; if Pt 1's wide is good, Pt 2 can lean on it. Worth 10–15 minutes.
3 · Push S12-06 to the Sep 1 return. It's a locked-off wide of an empty graveyard with no performers and a sky replacement coming anyway — the 2-person crew can shoot it before they pull the coffin. Worth another 10.
4 · Then, and only then, go into OT past 1:30 AM.

The simplified lid is a real gain — confirm it against the build

Dropping the spring launcher for a hard push from inside takes roughly 20 minutes off the resurrection block and a chunk off the 4:00 PM set-dress, and it removes the one mechanism on the day that could fail mid-take and cost a reset. Visible hands for a few frames are a straightforward paint-out. The set-build guide still documents the extension-spring and cable launcher, including its cut sheets — that needs updating before anyone builds to it.

The bones application is measured: 90 minutes

The Aug 18 makeup test came back at 90 minutes or less, end to end — half the three-hour figure both days were built around. What was the schedule's biggest unmeasured risk is now its biggest cushion:

Day 1 — Gustav is out of the chair by 2:00, the coffin block starts at 2:30 instead of 3:30, and the old contingency float sits banked as a full hour before wrap.
Day 2 — bones start at 5:00 PM (Deidre's call) against a 6:30 talent-ready goal — the measured 90 minutes lands exactly on it, with zero margin. The pressure valve is named on the card: Deidre works through the 6:30 meal if the bones run long and eats once makeup is done. Gustav isn't on camera until the 7:30 safety pass, so a modest overrun costs comfort, not shots — but twilight still doesn't wait.

Solo blocks are deliberately at the edges

Day 2 ends with Brianna-only work (Intro/Verse 1, then the Pre-Intro fog shots) plus two quick closers — the S12-07 wink at 12:10 (Gustav's last setup, still in bones) and the woods-path turnaround. Day 1 holds its one Brianna-only studio shot back to 1:00 PM so it covers the makeup window rather than idling the unit. Keeping the solo material at the edges is what makes two ten-hour days survivable for the performers.

Day 2's biggest single dependency is the Aug 27 prep half-day above. Arriving on the 31st to an undug grave doesn't cost an hour — the 4:00 PM set-dress block is 75 minutes and cannot absorb a dig, and everything downstream of it is sky-locked. A slip on the 28th still leaves the weekend to recover — but only if it's caught that day, not discovered on the 31st.