Crews are built fast and dispersed fast: in film and television production

The line producer signs off a call sheet at midnight for a six o'clock unit call. Forty crew will turn up at a studio floor in Film City or a rented bungalow, most of them known to one person only. Eight weeks later the shoot wraps, the sets are struck, and the same forty scatter to other units. Production work is built this way. A crew is assembled in days, held together for a schedule, and dissolved on wrap. The people work hard. The paperwork behind them is often thin.

This post is for production houses, film studios, OTT production companies, advertising film producers and documentary teams. It treats the quick build and quick break-up of a crew as a pattern to plan for. It offers ways to hire quickly, keep records clean, pay at wrap and bring good people back.

• A DOP comes in with his own gaffer and grip team. The production house knows the DOP but not the lighting crew, and no deal memo exists for the spot boys.
• A makeup artist is booked by word of mouth for seven days. The schedule slips to ten. The extra days are argued over on the last evening.
• An art department assistant works fifteen-hour days dressing a set, while a costume assistant arrives late and leaves early. Both are on a daily rate that nobody has written.
• A night shoot runs past the stated pack-up time and the transport vendor is not told. Crew wait on the road for a van.
• Post-production starts with editors and colourists, who are on monthly retainers, while the on-set freelancers are still waiting for their final settlement.

Speed beats paperwork on a shoot. The production manager books through phone calls and WhatsApp. Rates are discussed on the street outside the location. Everyone assumes the deal is understood. The schedule shifts with the weather, an actor's date or the client's feedback on an ad film. Then wrap day arrives and the amounts do not match what each person recalls. The same crew that worked well together will think twice before accepting another call from you.

Name, department, role (for example second AD, grip, wardrobe assistant, spot boy), phone and an emergency contact.
Start date and the booked days, with the way extra days are agreed and recorded.
Rate: per day, per week or per project, and what a long day or night shoot attracts.
Call time and typical pack-up rules, travel and meal arrangements, and who approves a change.
Payment: advance, interim payment, wrap payment date, who raises the invoice or voucher.
Credits, if any, and a rule on use of the person's work or image.
Signature of the production manager and the crew member, with the date.

1. 1

   Build a bench list

   Keep a register of department heads and dependable crew with their typical rates and the jobs they worked. Rank by reliability.

2. 2

   Tell the head of department the budget band

   The DOP, art director or editor then proposes team names inside that band. You still sign the memos.

3. 3

   Issue the memo before the first call

   No memo, no call sheet entry. Make it a habit of the production office.

4. 4

   Run a daily time sheet

   The second AD or production coordinator records each person's in and out times at wrap of the day.

5. 5

   Settle at wrap, on a fixed day

   State when the final payment falls and keep that promise. Late pay is the quickest way to lose a crew.

A crew that scatters on wrap does not have to disappear. Send a short thanks with the next schedule window. Share your calendar when a new project is approved. Offer a day of paid pre-production to key heads. For directors of photography and editors, a retainer between jobs is sometimes worth the cost. The talent management page for OTT production companies has ideas on tracking skills across projects.

Studios and houses with floors, lighting rigs and vehicles need a visitor log, a crew entry register, safe use records for rigs and a list of stunt or fire work briefings. Look at the HR documentation page for film studios. Television houses with daily programmes have another rhythm; the role design page for television production houses separates the floor manager, the editor, the graphics operator and the producer.

For ad film houses the performance page for advertising film producers can help judge department heads. For related reading, see our post on onboarding in film and television production, the film and television production HR hub and the requirements form.