Are we as film makers supposed to just give'em the script the day before and then shoot right away?

Or are we supposed to go through several walkthroughs with the actors, full dress, without camera's? Kinda' like a play rehersal?

I never really thought of this till now. I'm sure that a lot of folk, including myself were just always going and shooting with out rehearsing. This is very dumb now, I realize.

I don't know... is this something a lot of you guys do, and how the heck do you go about such a thing?

I can't imagine a full dress rehearsal being necessary. Walking through the script with the actors is helpful with getting the timing down, making sure they know what's going on, and letting them ask questions about things they don't get. Being prepared the day of the shoot can only help things instead of constantly fumbling over lines and what not. It's not much more work and the extra bit of effort can only help rather than hinder.

elliott...

id say do it but film it anyways. a lot of the first stuff is great if you got your ideas set

I always rehearse. Too many student filmmakers make the acting an afterthought. That said, it can make bad actors better but it can't do miracles--if they don't get it, they don't get it, and your film will suck if they don't.

The ideal situation would be to have a read-through, in a really informal setting with the actors and the creative team (director, writer, etc) to flesh ideas out, hear from your actors on the way they want to play things, find problems and lines that don't work, answer questions, etc. Then maybe do a rehearsal for blocking, where you get an idea of how it's going to work specially, and have the DP there to think about how you can shoot it. Obviously you need to adjust the schedule and rehearsals to your particular project. Some projects need tons of rehearsing for say, a fight scene, or a really dynamic conversation or whatever, whereas others need virtually none. I've done stuff cold, with no rehearsing and had good luck quite a few times. Count on more takes, but if the actors are good, and prepare by themselves, you'll manage.

I agree with everything titatanium said and which is what I've been doing myself recently. Having a sit down and running through the lines is a good informal way of generating more ideas and getting rid of all the little problems the actors may have.

-Kegan

That's why I miss theatre so much. There's no excuse not to work so intently with actors, but with recorded drama it's often easier just to wing it and work with it in post. Sigh.