ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

7 years, 6 months ago - Vasco de Sousa

I started in another discussion about filmmaking teams.
https://shootingpeople.org/discuss/view/a466bf5cdaf1c3df9acf2e6b

Basically, like a band gets together without money and toys around with ideas, I think a film team can. Take the film "Sing Street" for an example.

When people propose films to Netflix or the studios, they usually have a team already attached. The people at Netflix, Columbia, etc have said so themselves. It's not quite battle of the bands, but it's "these people are interested..."

When you write a business plan, you often have team members already attached. I recently applied to (low budget) funding that asked who my team was.

Unfortunately, the people who set up filmmaking websites don't understand venture capitalists (or film venture capitalists) and funding bodies and don't carry the option for "team building" in a job advert. It's just paid or unpaid.

I've found team members offline (or through their websites) but not many on sites like this.

7 years, 6 months ago - Nathan Hannawin

Hi Matthew,

I think you answer this yourself. Putting ads out like this will only get you students or people just starting off, but this does not mean they are bad at their job and could be absolutely fantastic in a few years time.

I highly recommend doing everything you can to expand your network. A team working for you could know a lot of contacts from other shoots. Even if you don't need a stunt coordinator (for example) in your shoot, your gaffer may have worked with one on another.

Always keep an ear out, I have met some fantastic people this way. Hope this helps.

7 years, 6 months ago - Adam Ethan Crow

Fella, what has to be understood is that nobody is going to work for free in any field if they have no connection with you. Unless they see a benefit to themselves. Improving their showreel, testing their own kit - things like that. So yup, unless you call in your mates then you either have to pay people or be ready to work with people just starting out.
I've connected with great people through the site, some of which I now work with and pay.
One thing you will find here is good advice and people who know what you're going through.
Good luck with it.
Adam

7 years, 6 months ago - Jeffrey Daniel Owusu

From experience I find that if you have a project that you don’t have enough funds to pay crew, then make sure that it’s obvious to all that the project that you are crewing for has potential.
If you were to have a good script, amazing locations, promising good food, well organise shooting schedules, free accommodation and travel.
You would get the attention of a professional crew member, sometimes experience crew don’t always care about the funds because whatever you offering them would not be close to their daily wages from a low budget shoot.
A year ago I saw a filming project online and the production company wanted to do a short film with zero budget and I mean zero budget actors had to pay all their expenses, but because the production company consisting of just 2 people had built a good presence on the social media with, it caught the eyes of crew even having a gaffer come on board with his 2 ton truck full of kit.
So it’s possible, it’s just that when you put in the work for all to see, you will get the people you need for expenses.
The question is if someone had asked you to come on board a project but is offering you expenses only and you are so used to getting paid for your vast experience and knowledge in that particular field, what they would have to have done for you do it for free.

Also think about collaborations or them owning rights etc

Jeff

7 years, 6 months ago - Helen Jack

Hi everyone,

I'm a little late to the party, but I just wanted to jump in and say a few words.

Matthew - I totally hear you, and know how hard it can be to walk the fine line between finding work / experience / good collaborators / earning money. As the vast majority of people wanting to become filmmakers know, it's not easy trying to turn this line of work into a career.

As Nathan and Adam both say above, it often takes working on a number of unpaid, but hopefully beneficial collaborations, in order to build a network of contacts that one hopes will lead to paid work further down the line.

It would be fantastic if funding and investement for films in this country was as rich as in other parts of Europe, but sadly it's not, and so many people struggle to raise the budget to pay their cast and crew (as you know).

We're working hard at Shooting People to increase the flow of paid jobs onto the site and into the bulletins, but a core proponent of Shooting People has always been to give independent filmmakers the chance to interact with other and find collaborators for their passion projects - hopefully projects that other people are excited by too, and want to help on. That might even lead to networks being formed and people collaborating again and again (as Vasco mentions above).

Jeffrey makes a good point that it's so important to offer cast and crew good incentives to work on your film if you're working on a zero budget. Covering expenses for travel, food and accommodation (when necessary) is essential, but also offering your collaborators a good working environment, the opportunity to collaborate again, credits, a copy of the film etc will make the whole experience worthwhile for everyone.

I hope you all keep making films, working with collaborators and finding money! Do subscribe to the bulletins to keep an eye out for paid and collaborative job opportunities, and the Funding page on the site for opportunities.

Helen

7 years, 6 months ago - Ray Brady

Hi Matthew,
There is nothing wrong about posting for unpaid collaborators, people who are less busy than they would ideally like to be, people who are not having their phones ringing night and day with offers being made for paid work may have some spare time to be interested in unpaid collaborative work but if there is no money in it you need to at least be offering something to entice them to work with you i.e. A body of past work, a network of people that indorse and recommend working with you or least a great script. When I'm putting a team together for a project I send all, cast and crew, the script so that they can read what they are getting involved with, so that they can make a decision of interest based fully understanding what they will be putting their time and energies into. You mention "fast food", when it comes to catering that should always be a last resort (i.e. a remote location where providing food would be extremely difficult and impractical), as oppose to back to your production base a wide selection of inexpensive but healthy nutritious food can be offered at less than the bill for ten to twenty people having take away food and drinks. Filmmaking is exhausting and highly stressful, plenty of healthy food is an essential prerequisite to ensure an enthusiastic highly productive team, performing and working to their best creative levels. Your time is cheap, if you have the ambition and the dream to make your film, put as much time and effort into making the film as possible and bring more to the production than any of your collaborators, show them how much your project means to you, i.e.on a recent project, I self-financed, wrote, shot, edited and did the sound design for a film that I have just submitted to compete at the Cannes Film Festival (not the short film corner), I am not suggesting that you need to do everything but wearing several hats often enables you to get to the point of shooting and through production and post, quicker and with less expense, on another short I had a team of twenty involved, half the film was shot in a forest at night with a bunch of first time teenage actors, they all put their hearts and souls into the shoot and embraced the opportunity to be involved, the short is part of a self funded feature length film "Psychomanteum", now complete and being submitted to film festivals world wide, all expenses where paid and good food and show reel material provided. Alternatively, I recently offered to get involved with a Shooter asking for collaborators on a micro-budget feature, when I contacted them I offered my director services and a script that I had written on a project knowing that I wouldn't be paid, even expenses, so to be involved would have cost me personally not only my time but put me out of pocket a few hundred pounds, but my offer wasn't enough, they wanted me to bring possible locations, other crew members and my own equipment to their production. Incredibly unrealistic and unprofessional in my opinion, to ask for so much when they were offering nothing more than the pitch and a link to watch their poorly made short to inspire my participation in them stepping up to plan to make a micro-budget ambitious feature. Well good luck to them but I knew immediately with their response that with their attitude they would not attract collaborators of any quality or experience.
On the plus side, collaborative pieces are possible but you must commit all your resources, be realistic and be fully aware that making a film is only half the battle, spending the next year of you life and funding the equally, or even more expensive half, marketing and promoting your film at festivals, attracting sales and distribution, namely finding your audience to justify every cast and crew members time and effort, when that is the hardest part to deliver and justify making the piece in the first place.
Best of luck with your future films
Regards Ray Brady