Movie Time

Mitchell 390 35 mm motion picture camera

The basic plot of Mission to Paris is we are making a movie. It's a fine story and I'm reading along and I come across this line:

They were on the set until 5:30, Avila had met his day's quota - two minutes of film - and Stahl, though he ached to go back to the Claridge and get into a hot shower, had one final chore ahead of him.

Two minutes!?! Geez, you've got a full crew, all the equipment you need and a sound stage and all you've got to show for a day's work is two minutes of film? Crimintently. Then I thought about it for a minute and I realized that if it takes you three months to shoot a movie, then all you need to do shoot is two minutes a day. (3 months times 4 weeks a month times 5 days a week equals 60 work days, times two minutes a day is 120 minutes which is two hours, which is how long a movie is supposed to be.)
    Thinking a little more I begin to suspect that making a movie entails a whole lot of waiting for the crew. Everything has to be set and ready to go before you start the cameras, and inevitably there is going to be some aspect (sound, lighting, prop, wardrobe, makeup, etc. etc.) that isn't quite right, so everyone else will just be put on hold until that one little problem is fixed. And when that problem is fixed you need to be ready to go, just like you haven't been waiting for five minutes or five hours.