From the SoCal Film Group Mailbag: Who's on the Crew?

"Hello and hello again.

I am a film student who found your site through Wordplayer. Actually, some of the members gave me great advice on how to shoot a film using 8mm tape stock and camera. Now I am beginning production on a short film (16 pages, so roughly 18 minutes) and have been asked to create a crew list. The reason being I am involved in this film student network program, and I must have a list before I can receive my crew information. For a short film, do you get as intensive as a large scale (low budgie) production? Should I simply list -- Director, director of photography, make up, production design, sound, and leave it at that? Or must I list grips, gaffers, art design, etc?

How do you usually go about it? (Hopefully you don't lean over and tap your buddy Joe on the shoulder and say, "Wanna make a movie?")

Hopefully you can help. Thanks!

Michael Martin"

Hey Michael,

A lot of your crew list decisions will depend on your budget.

Since we work with very low budgets, we typically use the smallest crew we can have and still get the work done. This will change, obviously, depending on what kind of location we're in, how many actors we have, and other variables like that, but a typical crew for us is:

Director
Writer (if it's a different person than the director)*
Producer / 1st AD
DP (who often operates the camera himself/herself)
Boom operator / general sound
2 Gripticians
Craft Service / PA

To that, we often add:

Script supervisor
Sound mixer
another griptician
another PA

And then, as needed, we'll add:

Hair / makeup
Location manager
Production designer / set dresser
Costumer
Camera op
Camera assistant
Fight / Stunt coordinator
Props
practical EFX
another griptician

Other people would give you a different list (and would probably say that some of my "optional" crew members are absolutely necessary) and that's cool. There are few hard-and-fast rules when working with very low budgets. It's all about getting the shots as good and as fast as you can, without breaking the bank. Since we're a cross-training collective, most of us do several different jobs on any given shoot day, which cuts down on the number of people who are just waiting around until they're needed. That's not how it usually works in the real world, though.

*(Speaking of the real world, many "real world" movies don't invite the writer to the set. We think this is stupid.)

When thinking about your crew, consider these questions -- what kind of budget are you looking at? What location(s)? How many actor(s)? Any other variables that should be considered?

(It occurred to me, since you're in film school, your professors might want you to work with large crews, just so you can learn how to deal with them.)

Hope that helps,

Steve Barr