Total length of footage shot or edited — meters for film stock, minutes for digital. Tracks spend and waste.
Métrage
When shooting on film—whether 16mm or 35mm—you calculate in meters, not minutes. A 400-foot roll of 35mm runs about 11 minutes, a 1000-foot roll just under 27 minutes. That's the basis: Métrage is your unit of consumption, your budget on the reel. You know this from the set—the focus puller notes every take, the script supervisor counts along, and at the end of the shooting day, you calculate: 50 meters for the first take, 35 for the repeat, 28 for the third attempt. The material costs money, and it costs time in the lab.
In practice, métrage functions as a control instrument for raw footage. You plan the shooting in advance: How much material do you need per scene to have enough variations for editing? An experienced DoP works with a ratio of about 5:1 or 8:1—meaning 5 to 8 meters shot for every meter in the finished film. A nervous director who repeats a lot drives this ratio up. That's not quick thinking, but an expenditure trap.
Métrage enforces discipline. Those working with digital memory cards tend to shoot endlessly—leading to a mountain of material in the edit that no one can sift through. With film, you have physical limitations and costs that justify every take. This forces you to work precisely: camera inside, adjust lighting, then roll. Not shoot first, then think. On the budget sheet, you note: planned métrage vs. consumed métrage—and on the fifth shooting day, you realize whether you're still on schedule or not.
During editing, the meters fade from focus—you then work with lengths in minutes or seconds. But the meters were the price your material cost. A good editor knows: more métrage means more waste, more to review, but also more options for timing. That's why métrage control isn't pedantic, but a production reality. It documents how economically or wastefully a crew works.