What do you wish all productions did?

Z

zenessa

Hi all
Im producing a documentary which requires some long days. I am relatively new to producing and want to create a good atmosphere and experience on set, as I am a strong believer in maintaining a happy crew. Sometimes the smallest things can make a big difference.

I am wondering what are some things that you have experienced on sets, that you wish all productions had/did. I’m talking about the little things (or big) that make the difference, that you wish were common practice on all sets. It could be certain things that productions had, or certain things the crew did.


Alternatively, what are some things that you hate on set My example, is being a vegetarian, I hate when productions don’t think to cater non-meat options and I go hungry the entire day.
Thanks for the feedback

Ness
 
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In between meal times, not everyone has time to visit the craft services table. I love it when someone walks around and comes up to the crew and actors personally with a plate of fresh snacks. It can be anything from little fruit cups, freshly baked cookies, to cheese and cracker platters.

Just make sure it's not in the middle of a take :)
 
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Recycling bins or baskets, for all those plastic water bottles everyone half-drinks. Sucks seeing all those go straight to the trash. Very few shoots seem to recycle.
 
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Hi there my name is Jennie and I'm a Director from the Bahamas, Lets see something I always do on my set is ask every one if there ok periodically , or do you need a drink of water....some times a shoot can be so long and people love if when your concern about their welfare. And always use the word please if your asking someone to do anything for you. And I love to make light jokes on set especially when every one gets tired.
 
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In fact, that's what I wish all productions did... starred Christian Bale, and every member of the crew and any actor who is not on screen makes it their personal duty to walk in his line of sight. And the actors in the scene with him make goofy faces during his lines.
 
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The big one people hit upon is crafty running efficiently and making sure when "lunch" is scheduled you make that deadline. With that, keeping your locations cleaner than you found them is a good policy too. It turns off a lot of folks to see craft services even remotely sloppy. So if that is maintained you've pretty much parlayed favor. Speaking of scheduling though, that is also really important! Last minute call sheet changes or not making your day tend to ruffle feathers on sets quickly. So, make sure you are very diligent about making sure once times are set they remain locked or at least fair notice is given if things change.
 
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Number one thing I like seeing...money in my hand and the end of the day...

Number two....someone who takes it upon themselves to bring the camera guys water every now and then...we can't be telling the director to wait while we go get a drink...
 
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What do you wish all productions did?
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I wish that they followed the comments and suggestions that I make during the preproduction consultation. (We'll set aside finding someone with even a basic knowledge of how to run the audio gear and how to boom.)

1 - Find a new location for scene XX because there are four north-bound local lanes, four north-bound express lanes, four south-bound local lanes and four south-bound express lanes 300 yards east, a very active rail switching station 200 yards west, and it is under a take-off runway of one of the busiest airports in the country.

2 - Not wear new leather, corduroy, vinyl and other noisy fabrics.

3 - Put felt and other noise reducing products on props. (i.e. sticking felt on the bottom of the coffee cup to mute the CLINK!!!! when it hits the saucer.)

4 - Put carpeting down when the actors feet will not be seen when they are on wooden, tiled and other hard floors - especially when they wear hard shoes and they haven't put rubber or felts on the shoes.

5 - Take the time to capture room-tones.

6 - Take the time to capture dialog wilds.

7 - Make sure that the actors are properly hydrated. (I hate editing out lip smacks, tongue glue, etc.)

8 - Keep the crew quiet.


I could go on, but you get the idea.........
 
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1 - Find a new location for scene XX because there are four north-bound local lanes, four north-bound express lanes, four south-bound local lanes and four south-bound express lanes 300 yards east, a very active rail switching station 200 yards west, and it is under a take-off runway of one of the busiest airports in the country.
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Wait, you can fix that in post, right?
 
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-do proper location reccies
-trust and respect the hierarchy
-pay expenses, especially petrol and parking. Also would be great to have expendables covered, but at least petrol and parking should be covered - I shouldn't have to pay to be on your set
-schedule a time for lunch and stick to it - make sure lunch is ready at the scheduled time, and only break when it is ready. So often I see low budget sets. sets that either push lunch back because it's not ready, or break for lunch and have people sit around for 15 minutes while it finishes cooking.
-let camera crew eat first. We're probably working the hardest, and shouldn't be left the leftovers because the PAs who have been standing around for two hours got to eat first.
-bring water and drinks to camera crew - when the DP has to spend a full day handholding an Alexa, then there should be water being brought consistently. If there's sweat dripping off him/her, the 2nd AC shouldn't have to request water to be brought over.
-be wary of where everyone's travelling from. If peolpe are travelling 2 hours to/from set, then I still count it as a forced call if we wrap at 7pm and start at 7am the next day. If you're paying that's fine, and even not so bad if you'er at least covering petrol/travel, but just be wary - it's great for the Director to request a call time of 7am if we're shooting at his house, but for those driving two hours every day, they have to leave at 5am, and didn't get home the night before until 9pm.
-cater with good food. And make sure you get everyone's dietary requirements beforehand. Also, light meals that are filling are always better than heavy meals - everyone feels much more like working.

-talk to me about scheduling. If you've scheduled a shot that needs a complete lighting reset, and a dolly set up to take half an hour, then we're going to have issues.
-similarly, schedule appropriately. If we can't get the thing shot in 4 days, then we may just have to push it out to 5 days. I'd rather have a happy crew for 5 days, than an annoyed, angry crew after 4 days of forced calls and late wrap times.
 
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1 - Find a new location for scene XX because there are four north-bound local lanes, four north-bound express lanes, four south-bound local lanes and four south-bound express lanes 300 yards east, a very active rail switching station 200 yards west, and it is under a take-off runway of one of the busiest airports in the country.
Click to expand...

dlevanchuk said:
Wait, you can fix that in post, right?
Click to expand...


You're as funny as a porcupine in a Trojans factory.... :lol::D:lol:
 
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A lot of great advice from the above members. Pre-production goes a long way to avoid the trappings of a poorly run production. Outside the lack of experience or complete ignorance of an individual producer the biggest reason for a poorly run production is lack of capital which results in the producer cutting corners. Often it's the crew that feels the stabbing pain of those cut corners.

Make sure the scope of your documentary doesn't exceed the scope of your funds.
 
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I'll also add for Producers:

Trust the experienced crew. We know what we're doing, it's not our first rodeo (so to speak ;))

When we tell you that you should fly 6 crew business class to get the free excess baggage to take our gear, then you should listen before you put us on the cheapeast airline you can find and end up paying $60,000 in excess baggage just to fly our gear over..
 
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