How to Hire Department Heads & Crew

Video Transcript

"Scott duPont here...it's getting exciting. We're just about to roll the cameras on your first feature film. Okay, so your starting the casting process. You've figured out whether to go SAG or non-union and by that time you've already chose your director because he's got to be in before the casting ever starts. But what I like to do on all the different films and videos that I've produced is during the casting process which can take several weeks spread out during your pre-production. During the casting if I have some windows when I am putting up my daily schedule, if I have like an hour when I'm not seeing any actors or my director 'cause I'm the producer or my director is not seeing any actors... that's a great time when I will open our doors up to interview potential key department heads. And what I'll do I'll look at people that maybe don't have ...on my first feature films... now, it's a different story but in my first couple of projects I didn't have a lot of money. In some cases almost no money to pay these people. So I would look for someone that maybe operated a camera but really really wanted a Cinematographer "title". Or I would look for a really solid Assistant Director that wanted to be a 1st Assistant Director which is a step up and a huge title for their resume. So that's what you do, is during the last few weeks of the pre-production process, reach out to people that maybe want a credit and maybe if you're shooting on weekends they'll be willing to take a little bit of money but they are not going to hold out for full blown rates if they can go up and get an additional title which will really help their career a lot more than just sticking down below as a PA, PA, PA for the rest of their life. So there is a little career trajectory here in the film business and that's what you got to understand. We've got some really exciting stuff here. We're getting close to rolling the camera, so stay tune to Expert Village."