Buying dinner after 2 hour shoot?

drc

drc

For my second short, we're going to start shooting on location tomorrow for two hours. The DP, sound tech, three actors are all working for free. Should I buy them dinner after a 2 hour shoot or is that more expected when you're shooting for the whole day?

* If anything, it would be a by-the-slice pizza place nearby. $5 a person at most.
 
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drc said:
we're going to start shooting on location tomorrow for two hours. The DP, sound tech, three actors are all working for free. Should I buy them dinner after a 2 hour shoot(...?...)
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Buy them dinner before the two hour shoot, so you can go over what you'll be shooting.

You'll also get to know them better.
 
I always buy some food afterwards, but thats me.

It feels right to me. They gave me their time and helped me out, and thats the way I usually express my "thank you".

If its not a dinner time - we ll go for a quick lunch (subway, burger king), hang out, talk about anything else, besides making movies, and then separate.


for a late shoot- delivery works best (eat24hours.com) for me. Or costco for larger than 3 :)
 
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A full dinner might be overkill. I'd probably go with pizza.

To be honest, for a 2-hour shoot, while they're eating their dinner, they might just be thinking, "why didn't he just give me $20, instead of spending $20 on me, at dinner?"
 
Zensteve said:
Buy them dinner before the two hour shoot, so you can go over what you'll be shooting.

You'll also get to know them better.
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Yea but my concern is that the people who aren't hungry will end up sitting there for half an hour, when they took out time from a busy schedule to work, sitting idle for 30 minutes might feel wasteful to them.
 
Cracker Funk said:
A full dinner might be overkill. I'd probably go with pizza.

To be honest, for a 2-hour shoot, while they're eating their dinner, they might just be thinking, "why didn't he just give me $20, instead of spending $20 on me, at dinner?"
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Yea, I didn't even think of that. Nearby there's a by-the-slice pizza place, that would work best. $5 per person at most.
 
drc said:
Yea but my concern is that the people who aren't hungry will end up sitting there for half an hour, when they took out time from a busy schedule to work, sitting idle for 30 minutes might feel wasteful to them.
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What makes you think they'll want to stick around, after the shoot?

If it were me, volunteering on someone else's shoot, I'd prefer that they just give me 20 bucks, instead of taking me to a diner. But I wouldn't expect any payment. Pizza should suffice! :)

EDIT: oops, we're both posting at the same time
 
$5 per person? you can call it lunch, dinner or whatever,... just do it. It's cheap. And they'll work for you again.
good luck
 
Yeah doesn't hurt to offer. Even if they're busy after the gesture is nice.

Have a case of bottled water and some trail mix or granola bars at the shoot too. $8.
 
I know this is super-unhealthy, and it might not be the best thing to have your cast/crew pumped full of sugar and caffeine, however...

On my last shoot, we were all about those mini 8-oz. cans of Coke (and Diet).
 
Two hours could end up being four. Anyhow... have water and some fruit on set.
When done:
"Thanks guys, if anyone is hungry I'll order a couple pies."
Done.
 
GuerrillaAngel said:
Always food on the set. Always.

Never go to dinner with cast/crew after the day's wrap -- YOU will get stuck with the tab.
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Yes, but sometimes don't you want to get stuck with the tab? If everybody has done a wonderful job on a 12 hour day and nobody has gotten paid, what's 15 bucks per person at the end of the night? It's still pretty cheap for a 12 hour day, don't you think?

And these people will all come back to help you on your next project. That's pretty cheap in long term view of things.

If you're going to make a movie, and you want to own it, and you want all these people to work for free, it's not unreasonable for you to have to incur 'some' costs.
 
trueindie said:
Yes, but sometimes don't you want to get stuck with the tab? If everybody has done a wonderful job on a 12 hour day and nobody has gotten paid, what's 15 bucks per person at the end of the night? It's still pretty cheap for a 12 hour day, don't you think?

And these people will all come back to help you on your next project. That's pretty cheap in long term view of things.

If you're going to make a movie, and you want to own it, and you want all these people to work for free, it's not unreasonable for you to have to incur 'some' costs.
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+1

I'd expect to take the tab at this point.

Who's paying for the food on set anyway? Does craft service have a register at the end to ring the cast & crew up?
 
I buy the food provided on the set. I have total control of the cost there -- can buy/make good stuff based on low cost (for instance, whatever is on sale).

An open-ended trap of buying everyone's meal where you have no control of the costs is not smart moviemaking. if you have the funds and write it into the budget, great!

Voicing an opinion on bulletin board is easy, actually managing a feature film budget during production is another matter entirely. Throwing away $75+ every night over the course of several months toward something that will not show up on the screen never pencils out.

The other thing, filmmaking is a two way street re: cast/crew. They volunteer their time, I create a movie they can be proud of having been part of.
 
GuerrillaAngel said:
I buy the food provided on the set. I have total control of the cost there -- can buy/make good stuff based on low cost (for instance, whatever is on sale).

An open-ended trap of buying everyone's meal where you have no control of the costs is not smart moviemaking. if you have the funds and write it into the budget, great!

Voicing an opinion on bulletin board is easy, actually managing a feature film budget during production is another matter entirely. Throwing away $75+ every night over the course of several months toward something that will not show up on the screen never pencils out.

The other thing, filmmaking is a two way street re: cast/crew. They volunteer their time, I create a movie they can be proud of having been part of.
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Well, I'm not voicing something that I have not done. I HAVE paid for open ended meals. I have paid for food for a dozen people on set, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, for 10 days. Because I kept them on set from 8 in the morning till 9 in the evening and then told them to show up at 8 the next morning. And I didn't pay them.

If you can create a movie that other people can be just proud of and give you their time, then more power to you. I evidently don't have that capacity. So for people like me, who are at the moment, unaccomplished by most respect, I have to feed people, and sometimes I have to feed them well. So I budget it in when I plan my movies. Were I more accomplished, maybe the story would be different, but it's not. You may think it's a stupid way to do things, but I find it quite satisfying.
 
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