Coffee and Celluloid

Crew Call - The Cast Behind the Camera

Posted November 29th, 2008 at 10:21 pm by C47

One big problem Undercover has presented that I haven’t had to deal with before is finding a crew. Normally set is considered a class, so having people to show up and work isn’t a concern.

However, since this is an extra film not part of the curriculum, we’ve had to scrape together a crew. It’ll come together, but it’s just one extra thing to add to a long to-do list.

People are usually surprised at how many people it takes to make a film, especially at how specific some jobs are (”All they do is move the camera? They just turn a knob to adjust focus?”).

A lot of jobs on a film set come down to time and quality. Yes, you can do most of these jobs with a few people - you hear of a few friends making a movie all the time. But when one person covers many areas, the quality suffers. And in order to get that high production value that you see in Hollywood films, you need highly trained people in highly specialized jobs.

When it’s one person’s job to focus on just one thing, that thing will be done perfectly. And it will save time, and time is money.

Compared to a large production, our crew is extremely small, with just the basics for each department.

To break it down, here’s what our crew looks like: More »

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