How to stay consistent?
Long-time lurker, first post. Bear with me.
I have the biggest project of my life coming up — 3 days, 6 short scenes, 6 different actors, different locations. I'm also directing AND doing camera, so my brain is going to be pulled in every direction.
The thing I'm most stressed about is consistency. How do you keep a film looking like one cohesive thing when literally everything is changing — the cast, the locations, the lighting conditions?
I don't really know where to start. Do you lock your lenses and never deviate? How strict are you about exposure and contrast from scene to scene? What about the type of lights and modifiers you use — do you try to keep those consistent too, or does it not matter as long as the end result looks the same? How much does art direction play into holding the look together versus what you do with the camera?
I'd love to hear from people who've been through something similar. What do you actually pay attention to on set? What catches you off guard? What do you wish you'd done in prep?
I'm mostly self-taught so I don't have a lot of formal workflow to fall back on — I just want to hear real experiences from people who've had to hold a visual world together across different days and different conditions.
Any and all advice appreciated. Cheers.
---
*Note: English isn't my first language so I used AI to help me put this into words — but the questions are 100% mine.*