With shrinking production budgets, more and more agencies and production companies have to rely on local crews rather than sending personnel they know and are comfortable with into a small town. With a modest budget, the best you can do for your dollar may be to send your DP (plus camera package) and director, then supplement them with a crew and gear sourced locally. But relying on talent in small town America can be terrifying if you’re used to working with a seasoned city crew and access to a robust rental house. Here are a few tips on how to ensure you get the footage you need to pull off that remote shoot without breaking the bank.
#1: Send The People You Know Can Get the Job Done
Perhaps most obviously, if you’re going to send just one or two people to work with an unproven crew, send those you absolutely trust. These one or two folks will be your eyes and ears on set, so make sure they’re an extension of your vision. If you do end up with a dud crew, they’re your last ditch effort to scrape together something professional on a wing and a prayer.
The days of budgets that include room for siloed skillsets on set are rapidly dwindling, so chances are some of the folks you work with on a daily basis can hold their own with the gear as well as with the talent. This means if you’ve only got one travel slot in the budget, and your preferred director doesn’t know how to build a lighting set up or run camera, you might need to pass the baton to someone who does. While the tips we’re offering will help you avoid this, if things do go really wrong with your local crew, you’re going to need someone who can make up for that deficit. If you don’t already know who in your crew has a good working knowledge of all aspects of production, now is a good time to ask around. Sending that experienced multi-tool crewmember might be the difference between realizing your worst nightmares and pulling off something miraculous.
#3: Map Your Shoot Locations
If you’ve never been to the town in question, the first place to start a search for a small town crew is probably Google Maps. Plug in your shoot location, and see how far it is from the nearest city. If it’s close to a large metropolitan area, your options should be pretty robust. If it’s an hour or more away, the crews found in town are going to demand a premium for the extra mileage and travel time, and that could end up costing nearly as much as sending your own crew.
#4: Search for crews, production companies, and solo producers
If your shoot is very close to a major metropolitan area, you should have plenty of easily-searchable options available. But if your shoot is an hour or more away from a metro area, you may have to dig a little deeper. Instead of looking for crews and rental houses through tools like ProductionHub, consider searching for production companies or even “one-man-bands” based in the area using Google. While your gut might be telling you that a solo producer isn’t right for the job, in a small town, small town film and television professionals are often well networked, and that one solo producer might know the three other people in town that can in-fill your out of town crew.
#5: Do Research to Validate Crew Experience and Talent
Small towns can indeed be victims of the “big fish, small pond,” problem. Don’t jump up and call “Top Notch Productions, Inc.” just because they’re the first result with an address that pops up on Google. Visit the website, or if none is available, the social media pages of the producer or company in question. Be creative about your research: don’t just look at the sample videos you can readily find, look up anyone named on social media themselves and see if you can find a YouTube or Vimeo channel with their work. Instagram is also a popular place for video and film professionals, so spend some time searching there for any behind the scenes photos on their personal or professional profiles to get a sense of their familiarity with gear and experience on set. If you’ve got the time, dig into who is tagged on any BTS shots to see who the other players are in the local film production scene.
#6: Inquire With Your Top Picks
It’s time to pick up the phone and dial your top picks. Ask about experience level, gear, and whether they’ve ever been to your shoot location. Also take the time to inquire about other local talent—as mentioned above, the first person you call might just be the gateway to crew members with more experience but less online presence. Make sure to bring your crew in on this phase, especially your DP or other technically-minded folks who can verify that who you’re talking to has a working knowledge of how to get the job done.
#7: Be Open Minded
At the end of the day, a small town just isn’t going to have the same number of experienced professionals you’re used to in your home city. But if you’re open minded and willing to accept that you might have to forego the ARRI SkyPanels for a more modest kit and someone used to doing more with less, you might just be surprised at the level of quality you can get for less. In fact, you might even start to press your DP on whether renting those SkyPanels and hiring a crew of 10 for the simple interview + b-roll shoot you’re doing is really worth the investment. But don’t tell him we said it wasn’t.
Nevada County Film Crew Services at Riparian Studios
If you’re looking for a crew in Nevada County (which includes Grass Valley), you’re in luck. Riparian Studios has helped national agencies build small but nimble crews and production gear in Nevada City that have worked on set for some of the nation’s biggest clients, including Ford, Microsoft, Neutrogena, Johnson & Johnson, and more. Contact us to scope out a crew for your film or video project in the Sierra Foothills.