Indie Pro Tip: Keep the team small

When you are building a crew for your first, second, or even 100th movie, it’s always good to ask yourself just how much crew is necessary to complete the film. Do you really need all those people loafing around the set? Trust me, you won’t have to worry about left over donuts…the actors will take care of that.

Unfortunately, there is something of a Hollywood stigma that it takes a ton of people to make a movie. There is a Los Angeles based company that has just moved to my little town that operates this way. They try and hire 30 people at $100/day, and everyone runs around with their heads cut off for 5 days, until half the crew quits and the other half finishes the movie 10 days behind schedule. The fact is in my town there aren’t even 30 people who can make a movie…there are 10, and I know them all. None of them will work for $100/day for a big production company (but they’ll work for free for friends, or students).

Is this logical? In this particular production companies case….yes…well sorta. The problem is that these sort of companies produce B movies with has-been and never-was Hollywood actors from the 80s, and dump them off on the DVD and foreign markets for a couple hundred thousand bucks. Unfortunately, these minor league Hollywood actors are still Hollywood actors, so if they showed up on set and saw only a dozen people, they’d call their agent, curse them out, and leave. These people –with few exceptions– have that stigma built in that it takes some ungodly amount of people to make a film. These companies have their core crew, and the rest are just ‘props’ to convince the big name that a real movie is being made. Now, every now and then, one of the low paid people steps up to the plate and makes a difference. Then they get pulled into the real crew.

But more importantly, is any of this logical for you? Absolutely not! Even when you aren’t paying people, every extra person on set costs you something. Whether they are sucking down the craft services, standing in the way of the people actually working, or maybe just bothering you with the suggestions of “you know what would be cool”, any unnecessary person is a burden. In the world of computer engineering, it’s a well known fact that 3 good programmers will finish a project on time, while 20 will never finish. The same is true for film.

This is why I stress that every beginning filmmaker should work for free (but not for those big companies –for students and other indies). The reason I say this, is you aren’t really working for free…you are auditioning your crew. As you work for free on someone else’s project, you can see who is good to work with, and who is more trouble than they are worth. I’ve done this for the last two years. In the process I’ve found ten extremely skilled people, who are great to work with…and who can shoot an unheard of 10 pages per day.

How to determine what you need
What you need will depend alot on the complexity of your project. A five minute short might not need a script supervisor, but a feature definitely will. That said, the best way to determine what you need is a priority system. You need crew in this priority:

1. DP/Camera - Someone to run the camera
2. Sound/Boom Operator - Someone to hold the boom
3. Gaffer / Lights - Someone to move the lights
4. Script Supervisor - Someone to take notes and Slate
5. Make up - Someone to make the actresses look pretty and embarrass the guys
6. Production Assistant / Runner - Someone with a car to go get all the stuff you forgot.

And that’s it. Yes…that’s it! You can shoot a movie with only 6 crew members. And for that matter, if you are even more crazy you can have less than this. In fact, ultimately you only need two people : One to work the camera, one to work the sound. The reason is that for 99% of scenes, those are the only two people with an active roll while the camera is running. In other words, when the camera stops, there is no reason the sound person can’t apply make up and write script notes while the camera person moves lights. But ideally, I like shooting with these 6 people because it keeps everyone active constantly. Your worst enemy in keeping a set running properly is people sitting idle too long.

I’m sure I’m getting nods from some people out there, but others probably think I’m nuts. Only 6 people???!!! Yes…and it is my preferred method of shooting. In fact, I can say that even on sets with as few as 3 people, I’ve never said “Damn I wish we had more people here to help out”. On the other hand, I have been on sets with 9 people and said “I wish all these $*&#*#@* would get out of my way.”

When you have 50 million dollars and 4 months to throw around, go ahead and go crazy with a 100 person crew. But as an indie, you’ll never regret keeping the crew small.

How to find top quality crew.

It’s your first film, you’re under the gun and have to get things done. Money is disappearing by the second. The actors are getting antsy (or possibly drunk). You look up into the sky and scream…”Where the hell is everybody?”. Sound familiar? You need to learn how to find a good crew.

Finding a good crew isn’t impossible, in fact its probably not nearly as hard as you might believe. Paying for crew members certainly helps, but it doesn’t solve the problem completely. And some of you can’t afford to pay the crew so you’ll have to just live with what you got, right? Well, maybe but probably not. There are, in fact, ways to find great crew members, who are often willing to work for free. And the most beautiful thing is, once you’ve found a good crew your troubles are practically over since you can stick with them over and over.

Where to find film crew members
Well…first things first…where not to find crew: your non film making friends . If you’re friends are filmmakers like you, its fine, but absolutely do not beg friends who are not filmmakers unless they are you’re absolute best friend who would take a bullet for you (in some cases they might have to). If your shoot is less than 10 hours, you may get lucky and have a successful shoot…but more than one day is impossible. Film shoots can ruin friendships. In addition to the generally high stress factor, there is a great amount of knowledge, skill, and perseverance needed to complete a film. Your non-filmmaker friends will have none of those.

Don’t get me wrong, your friends will want to help…at first. They’ll show up ready, eager, and willing. Then they’ll quickly realize they don’t know what the hell is going on…and so will you. So your friends end up holding the clapper, or getting you a coke, and generally feel useless. By the second day, they feel more useless. By the third day they don’t show up. By the end of the third day, you suddenly realize you need six more crew members than you have for one particular shot…but everyone’s already left. Take my advice…use only people genuinely interested in making films on your crew.

So where do we start our search? Craigslist and myspace are a great place to start. Regions where film productions are popular often have meet up groups, trade organizations, or other community oriented events where filmmakers can go to network. One of our local groups in Louisiana is H.U.R.D Meetup Group.

The absolute best way to find crew
The absolute best way to find crew, is to volunteer for someone else’s production. It’s alot of hard work, and your doing it for free. But wait…isn’t that exactly what you want other people to do for you? Maybe its a good idea to get a feel for just what you are asking out of people, before you go on thinking that your brilliant film is so great that everyone is dying to join you. Once you’ve done this a few times, you’ll have a good idea of the kind of directors you like to work with, and the kind who you absolutely despise. So now when it comes time for you to direct, you what your crew will expect out of you.

But, most importantly, joining another production helps you to meet people and see how they work, before you are actually dependent upon them. You can see who disappears, who is always late, and sometimes you might even catch someone stealing (they are less afraid to steal in front of a PA than you might think). More importantly, you’ll see the AD that does everything in her power to keep 100 extras under control…you’ll see the production assistant who runs to the aid of the grips, regardless of whether or not its his job or not. You’ll see the people you want to work for you.

Third, those people will see that you work. If you work, it means you’re serious. There are alot of wannabes in this field, and working for a week only to have a production fall apart is every crew member’s worst nightmare. I may not be getting paid…but I at least want to see the movie I worked on. People who show up and work their ass off for someone else, will only work that much harder when its for themselves.

So now that we’ve found a crew, my next article will cover how to keep them working hard for you.