One More for Safety Episode Summary

Corey Allen  0:07  

Welcome to film school Friday. I’m Cory. I’m Bill. And together we host the infocus podcast film school Friday is our special weekly episode, where I get to quiz bill to see how much knowledge he’s retained from film school. And Bill this week, I have really just one question for you.

Bill Cornelius  0:24  

Yes.

Corey Allen  0:28  

Do we have to take one more for safety?

Bill Cornelius  0:31  

Yes. It’s funny that this one was added to the film school Friday. Because I know you poke fun at me for the safety take a lot on set, it seems like all the time. I mean, to the extent when you’ve been directing your your shout out to me somewhere on set and be like, a safety for Bill. Specifically for me, yes. And I appreciate that, because I’m about to go into why this is so important. Yes, tell me, please. So this is something that was kind of in feet.

And speaking about film, school, this was something that was kind of nailed into my head from film school was the importance of making sure you’ve got a backup, when it comes to your takes, you may nail it, the very first take, and sometimes you do. But you want that second one, just in case, it’s good for editing, it’s good to back you up in case, you know, you may get a better take the second time, you don’t know. Just just doing the one take move on.

Like that works for some people, but I, I just I want the flexibility. The comfort, it’s called a safety take for a reason keeps you safe, it’s a second option, I think you should always have it. The whole joke on set when I was in college was you know, my instructor would be like do one for safety, just like demand it from us. And, you know, the big joke was, this is the one we’d all yellow, this is the one and you know, it would be the 13th take sometimes, but but we’d still do a safety.

Even then, right? Because when you get that one good take, I don’t feel confident just having one good take to deal with, you want to try for a second one at least. And hey, if the safety doesn’t work out, you’ve got the good one that came before it. That’s true. It’s just, it’s literally safety, keeping things safe.

And your editor honestly would appreciate that. Because then they have a little more to choose from, yeah, when you mark those takes down. And you know, send the sheet off to the editor, you’ve got at least two for them to choose from. Because you know, you could get yourself into a situation, let’s say if something changes in post production, if the scene has to be put together in a in a way that wasn’t pre thought of when you were on set, if it changes in post in some way. Sometimes you might need that second take to give you that flexibility.

Corey Allen  3:10  

Yeah, that’s good. Clearly, that was like ingrained in you. As early as film school. Has there ever been a project or at any point where you didn’t get one for safety? And really wish you had?

Bill Cornelius  3:26  

Yeah, um, it’s because of time constraints that you don’t get a safety. You know, if you’re in a location where it’s like, we got to get out now we’ve taken too long to do the setup. We don’t have a lot of time to run this here. And you know, everybody may nail it that first take Yep, and you got to get out of there. So there is there’s just no time for a safety. I don’t prefer situations like that, as you can imagine. But you know, in a case like that, as long as you get the one good one, and you get out of there, that’s all that matters.

It’s when you’re screwed is when you get a maybe a lackluster take or a few mediocre takes and you have to split from the location. That that’s like the bad scenario you don’t want because then when you’re in post, you’re like, Okay, well now I’m polishing a turd. When it comes to the scene, didn’t have enough time. It didn’t really come together as quickly as it should. And there’s no safety to back it up. So it’s it is what it is.

Corey Allen  4:22  

Alright, so one more for safety. Yes, indeed.

Bill Cornelius  4:25  

Yes. All right.

Corey Allen  4:26  

Should we one more for safety this film school for any or?

Bill Cornelius  4:30  

I think so. I mean, we nailed it the first time around, but just to be safe. Alright, one more for Bill. Hi, I’m Cory. And I’m Bill.

Corey Allen  4:40  

Nice. Alright, Bill. Thanks again for all the knowledge this week. Check us out on Instagram at infocus pod or online at infocus podcast calm. And if you liked what you heard today, go ahead and subscribe and if you’re on Apple podcast, please leave us a rating. It would help us out a ton and until next time, feature Crew, feed your crew

Bill Cornelius  5:03  

and do that safety.

Corey Allen  5:04  

All right, one more for Bill. One more safety.