As often as I can, I try to tell y'all about the things that people don't really think to tell you when you start in this crazy film game. The following post is just such a tidbit. It's an article I wrote two years ago that was originally printed in
Student Filmmaker Magazine and is also expanded with even more practical tips in my new book,
The Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide. Enjoy...
MealsFood is one of the great secrets of the pros. It has a tremendous psychological effect on the crew. When the big studios and production companies do a shoot there is always a “spread” of delicious food and a continuous supply of snacks, drinks, and coffee. Crewmembers often speak of three things when describing a particular project they’ve worked on: 1) the quality of the project, 2) the organization of the shoot and 3) the food. Good food is a standard part of the deal for all professional film and tv crews. It is (and should be) expected. I wish I could lean into the ear of every student filmmaker and shout this through a bullhorn:
"DO NOT SKIMP ON FOOD FOR YOUR CREW!!!"
This is one of those critical “little details” that so many new filmmakers overlook or save as an afterthought. Feeding your crew good food is extremely important, especially when they are working for free. In the long run, you will not save a dime by being cheap when it comes to food for your crew. (Oh you’ll save on the food itself, but you will lose immeasurable amounts in crew morale, energy-level, momentum, and attitude towards the shoot.) As a general rule, the more hell you put your crew through, the better your meals and snacks should be. The crew is the machine that creates your project. Food is the fuel that runs the machine. The better the food, the better your machine will run, the better your project will turn out. It’s that simple.
NEVER SKIMP ON FOOD FOR YOUR CREW. THE BETTER YOU FEED YOUR CREW THE BETTER THEY WILL PERFORM.
Food StrategiesBecause guerrilla crews tend to be so small, catering usually isn’t a practical (or affordable) option. You will mostly be dependent upon local restaurants for meals. It is a vital part of pre-production to scout out and have menus from all the local restaurants. Both Yahoo (local.yahoo.com) and Google (local.google.com) have excellent tools that search and list local restaurants. All you need is a zip code or city name. You can get restaurant phone numbers, addresses, and maps with a few keystrokes. Also, many restaurants now make their menu available online or would be happy to fax it to you. You can let the crew pick from the menu setting a dollar amount per person. An even simpler option, is to just order a variety of different dishes and serve them up buffet style.
If you’re feeding a large number of people, make sure you place your order at least a few hours ahead of time and tell them when you need it delivered or will be picking it up. I recommend you pick it up whenever possible, because delivery times can be unpredictable and it’s much easier to check and fix the accuracy of the order at the restaurant. Try to get free plates, cups, ice, napkins, and utensils when possible to save a little cash. Also, don’t forget to get receipts for your records!
Craft ServicesThe term craft services is just a Hollywood name for the snacks and drinks department. (Yes, craft services is a department.) You should have a craft services table (or box if you’re on the road) stocked at all times with a variety of high-energy and sugary foods and snacks, spring water, and drinks. Try to find out your crew’s favorite snacks ahead of time and keep plenty on-hand.
I know it may be tempting to save a few bucks, but stay away from generic food items. Name brand snacks and drinks are always better, even if it’s only psychological. Instead of giving them the very best, a table full of Chumps Ahoy chocolate chips and Tropican’t orange juice tells your crew that you care about them enough to get the absolute cheapest thing you can get away with. And your crew may, in return, give you the absolute cheapest effort they can get away with.
Apart from snacks and cold drinks, it is absolutely essential that you keep a fresh pot of coffee and hot water for tea on-hand at all times, morning, noon, and night. If food is the fuel of the filmmaking machine, then caffeine is the lubricant that keeps the parts moving and extends the life of your crew. Keep your filmmaking machine gassed up and lubricated and you will get noticeable results in performance and morale and a reputation as someone who takes care of their crew people.
If you have a sizeable crew, try to find a dedicated craft services person. A good craft services person will often be the most popular person on set. This is a perfect position for those eager friends and relatives that want to help out, but have no filmmaking experience. Their job is simply to keep the food and snacks flowing, help coordinate meals, and help clean up the mess afterward. It’s a great low stress position for someone that just wants to be a fly on the wall and observe. (
*craft services photo: courtesy of bravotv.com)
KEEP SNACKS, WATER, AND CAFFEINE FLOWING AT ALL TIMES. TRY TO GET A DEDICATED CRAFT SERVICES PERSON.
Taking Care of the VegetariansPersonally, I’m a carnivore, but these days I have rarely done a shoot that didn’t involve at least one vegetarian or vegan (vegan = no meat, dairy, or egg products) crewmember. Make sure you survey the crewmembers ahead of time for vegetarian or other special dietary needs, so you’ll know how many veggie or special meals you’ll need daily. To make life easier find out what types of common dishes they do like and which local restaurants they prefer.
Vegetarians, and especially vegans, are sometimes treated like second-class citizens when it comes to mealtime on a film crew. However, do not ignore these crewmember’s dietary needs. I can tell you from experience that vegetarians will not want a salad or a simple side dish for every meal. It’s definitely harder to find menus that accommodate vegetarians, but you’ve got to put in the legwork to make it happen or else you will have some miserable souls on your crew and it will be reflected in their energy and work. Take care of these people and they’ll take care of you.
MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHO THE VEGETARIANS & VEGANS ON YOUR CREW ARE AND PLAN FOR THEIR SPECIAL DIETS.Peace, Love, and Video
-Ant.
I will be appearing TONIGHT (Thurs. Oct. 25th) on the Bennie Randall Show on BlogTalkLive at 9:00pm (EST).
Preventing It:
Preventing It:
Preventing It:
Fixing It:
Preventing It:
• Have your performers do an ADR (Additional Dialogue Recording) session to redo the dialogue. This is undesirable for most documentaries and still a major hassle with actors because they must match the exact movement of their lips and the tone of conversation, not to mention that you still have to recreate the ambiance of the original location for it to work. 
Meals
I know it may be tempting to save a few bucks, but stay away from generic food items. Name brand snacks and drinks are always better, even if it’s only psychological. Instead of giving them the very best, a table full of Chumps Ahoy chocolate chips and Tropican’t orange juice tells your crew that you care about them enough to get the absolute cheapest thing you can get away with. And your crew may, in return, give you the absolute cheapest effort they can get away with.
It could just have easily been titled, All the Things I’ve Done Wrong in Filmmaking and How You Can Avoid Them. (And I’ve done a lot of things wrong in filmmaking over the years, so there’s much to be learned, especially if you’re just starting out.) Although it's doc-specific, most of the info in this book can be applied to narrative filmmaking as well.
Rosco, best known for their gels, has made a new venture in the world of lighting with their new LitePad. Rosco's LitePads are ultraslim light units that resemble two panes of plexiglass sandwiched together. They consume very little power (12volts). They are lightweight and generate very little heat. Rosco's website suggests using them as prop lights (as in the light source from a tv or computer) or to squeeze into tight sets for supplementary lighting. It was too bright on the showfloor to tell, but I would venture to say that these units could also be employed as onboard camera lights for ENG 
and doc shooting- essentially, a poor man's LitePanel. They come in various shapes and sizes from 3x3 up to 12x12. Best of all they are affordably priced. I believe the rep quoted the price on the 3"x12" unit at just under $200.00 . For some reason exact pricing on these units is still pretty elusive, but I know they are way cheaper than the popular, but pricey, LED LitePanels. If anyone has actualy used these units in the field, pleae enlighten us more with a comment below.
Sony has jumped onto the solid state bandwagon with it's new prosumer entry, the XDCam-EX, which is basically Sony's answer to Panasonic's HVX-200. (Check out Camcorder Info's video clip about the XD-Cam EX.) Scheduled to drop somewhere around the end of this year, the XDCam EX will be priced comparably to the HVX-200 at around $8000. Most notably, the XDCam EX will feature three 1/2" image chips and capture 1080i, 720P and
1080P HD footage to Express PC cards which fit neatly into a little slot on Apple's MacBook Pro and other PC computers for instant editing. It has variable frame rates, so you can under or overcrank the camera to get fast or slow motion effects. Sony's Express PC cards are called "SxS Cards" (pronounced "S by S"). The SxS Express Cards are smaller and transfer data faster than Panasonic's P2 cards. According to Sony a 16GB SxS card will hold about an hour of HD footage. The camera has 2 SxS card slots, so you could shoot a total of 2 hours if you had two cards. It' smaller than the HVX and I think even smaller than Sony's HDV line. Canon...the tapeless aquisition ball's in your court. Man up!
Digitronics apparently makes little flash card cameras and RC helicopters seperately and eventually got the bright idea to put the two together and the result is a Down and Dirty news chopper. Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but the ability to get controled aerial video shots for under $1000 is still quite notable. I wasn't very impressed with the imagery of the Digitronics flash memory video camera, but it could probably pass muster for online videos, quick crowd shots, bird or insect point-of-view shots, and anything quick. I also imagine you could also get away with some sort of special FX treatment in post like posterization, heavy grain, black and white, etc. I honestly have no practical filmmaking use for it at the moment, but I'm sure if I think on it a little longer on it I'll come up with a good reason to get one, (or at least a reason that will convince my wife).
Tiffen, the king of filters, has come up with a very intriguing new product with their new DFX Digital Filter Suite software hitting the market any day now. It’s sort of their version of Magic Bullet software. Only instead of just film looks, Tiffen’s software also simulates hundreds of different Tiffen filters such as graduated sky filters, Soft FX, star filters, on and on, all for about $300. I’m still a little skeptical for reasons I‘ll get to in a moment, but two things really impressed me about this software: 1) It has a clean simple user-friendly interface similar to Apple’s software products (iFilter?), but also integrates into Final Cut Pro and Avid and 2) It packs in a wide-variety of preset looks and Filter FX that can also be customized and tweaked further. The only reason I’m skeptical, is that in the demo that Tiffen gave on the show floor, they only used still photos. All the images looked great with the filters applied and it only took a few minutes to create mattes and completely change the image to a variety of different looks. Which certainly leaves one to question whether the product is considerably slower with video FX and whether the video FX will look as good as the stills. (Otherwise, why would you only demo still photos to a moving video crowd?) So I’m skeptical, but if this product performs as claimed and as I saw demo’ed, I think it would be a powerful addition to any videographers arsenal allowing us greater flexibility and ease with manipulating our images- after the fact. The most obvious application to me was for music videos. They have free demos, but I haven’t had a chance to install it and put it through the paces. To get a free demo, click here then fill out the form on and make sure you put "DFX" in the Feedback box. In my experience, Tiffen’s always put out quality stuff, so I suspect that even if this first software offering does have quirks and issues, it will probably improve with time. When I get around to doing a full demo, I’ll try to put something online. No promises though.
Storyboarding software has been around for awhile now, but Toon Boom takes it to the next level with the addition of animatics in Storyboard Pro. Unlike some other storyboarding programs that give you bare bones starter images, Storyboard Pro comes fully loaded with plenty of characters, props, and settings. Moreover, it can be used with a Wacom tablet, so you can sketch your own storyboards directly into the program. Coloring in and resizing characters and props takes just seconds. However, where Storyboard Pro really shines is in it's ability to animate the completed storyboards to replicate dolly 
shots, crane shots, zooms, etc. in a matter of minutes. Again, it's easy, fast, and effective... all synonymous with Down and Dirty filmmaking. Unfortunately at $900.00 it ain't cheap. However, if you shoot action features or do animation, this tool could go a long way to saving time experimenting with shots that don't work and let you fully visualize your film before a single frame is even shot. 
If you're shooting Down and Dirty-style chances are you do a lot of handheld, and if you're skinny like me, chances are your wrist hurts like hell after a long day of shooting. Take the Ben-Gay out of your camera bag and try replacing it with one of these babies from Hoodman, the maker of popular LCD screen hoods. I tried this out for a few minutes on the show floor and really liked the feel. It's not a steadying device, although it definitely helps. Rather, this is a rigid padded wrist support that kinda resembles the wrist pads used for rollerblading with two hard splints on either side and a mounting bracket for the camera similar to that on a tripod. It distributes the camera weight more evenly over the forearm which takes a considerable amount of strain off your wrist and the velcro fasteners keep it snug and comfortable. With this little gadget, you can actually drop your hand and completely let go of the camera and it will still stay snug. It actually feels more like the camera is some type of cyborg extension of your arm. You don't hold it as much as it becomes another part of you...very cool. At around $200.00 (if I recall correctly) it's definitely within a guerrilla budget and well-worth it for people who do a lot of handheld camerawork. At last check, they didn't have it up on their website yet, but I'm sure it will materialize soon. (photo from DigitalMediaNet.com)
I wrote about this one in a previous post, so I'm just gonna link to it. I'm listing it here again, because I'm still surprised that more people don't know about this innovative little dolly by the good people at Losmandy. It's easier to use, more flexible, and less expensive than many dollies on the market and the whole thing folds up into a little suitcase. I played with it for about an hour on the show floor and remain a huge fan. Anyway, click here for the previous post.
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