Feeding People

[David Mullen ASC]

Just be prepared that with film crews the food is never good enough and they will complain to each other no matter how much money you spend. :blink:

 

R,

 

That's true too, film crews are rather spoiled. The quality of catered food these days is crazy -- I'm on this Showtime TV series right now and the catering is fantastic, it's like eating at a high-end restaurant every day. And yet I'm sure there are still some complaints.

 

On the other hand, if the budget is obviously tiny, most crew people expect the quality of the food to also be lower.

 

But just admit that food is a very personal thing for people. I've worked with crew people who only wanted iceberg lettuce for their salads, no other types of lettuce. I've worked with people who have no interest in eating "foreign" food, they be happy eating a hamburger for lunch every day. And of course, I've worked with vegetarians who are often stuck with pretty dismal options.

[Guest]

I've worked with people who have no interest in eating "foreign" food, they be happy eating a hamburger for lunch every day.

 

Yep, that's me!! :D

 

Except you forgot to add that I'll eat the hamburger for breakfast and dinner as well, oh and a bed time snack.

 

R,

[Phil Rhodes]

The only time I ever worked on a "big" feature, the food was so abysmal that a member of the principal cast, Name You'd Recognise, complained about it - and made it known that he'd complained about it. Things improved slightly for a week or so. I wasn't terribly surprised that everyone kept coming down with minor ailments.

 

I get better food on ads and music promos, I get the best treatment on corporates. It's absolutely crazy, but there it is.

 

Corporate tomorrow and Tuesday! :)

 

P

[Guest]

I get better food on ads and music promos, I get the best treatment on corporates. It's absolutely crazy, but there it is.

 

Yes, but Phil this is the UK you are talking about. A country that is not known for its great cuisine even at the best of times :D

 

Sorry, but it's ok for me to poke fun at my mother country.

 

Mean while over in France I hear the food on set is legendary. I also hear they have a five hour lunch break with which to eat it with. :)

 

R,

[Alfeo Dixon]

No, what I was getting at is that a crew who is working for free should be getting something out of a project. If for some reason they aren't getting enough from the project, for example if they don't find the work is improving their skills, then they might decide to leave the project. Or, perhaps people will leave a voluntary project if they later find paying work. Whatever the reason, if somehow providing free food can magically work wonders for a project, which is what people are saying is the case, then it's worth bringing food into the project to see if it quells a disappearing crew. If a crew is truly being put into deplorable conditions, then free food wouldn't do anything for the situation. Frankly, I'm surprised that some people are driving people on 12 hour days. 8 hour days seem long enough to me.

To most of us, deferred payment means nothing, on the likelihood that your project actually makes money and they do get paid is close to none. I know of only one job that the crew actually did get a deferred payment.

 

I have one rule, if I work for free... feed me. The better your catering is, the more you can put your crew through the ringer.

 

Clint Eastwood keeps his days to 8 hours and his crew LOVES him for it... he pays well too!

[Matthew W. Phillips]

If you're poor, write scripts. That's free and doesn't ask other people to work hard for you for no money, and no food. Hate to be the "a-hole" saying this, but in honesty, you can't expect people to work on your project without some form of compensation. The PA holding up traffic, for your shot; what "creative process" are they really involved in? The creative way of keeping drivers from running them over?

And people who are going to agree to shoot for/with you not only for no money, but also no food, probably won't get you a nice, or even marginally acceptable product; unless you're a film god.....

 

Adrian is dead on with this one. I've directed many micro-budget shoots and I've never paid anyone anything up to this point. But I'll be damned if I didn't feed them well, give out enormous gratitude, listen to cast/crew input, and give them plenty of tasty beverage (this means Cold bottles of Spring water at least; not the water hose) My cast and crew have always worked hard for me just for these things. I have done these things on usually les than $100/day. When you consider that you aren't paying ANYONE for ANYTHING, you are getting a steal at this rate. I'm not saying this is an excuse to not pay real currency to people, as I intend to when I get larger budgets, but until then, I can give them as much good treatment as I can afford.

[Matthew W. Phillips]

If you plan on shooting far past 12 hours...

 

I've been on low-budget sets where the Producer/Director's Mom/Family cooked the meals which means they saved money by buying the supplies themselves (try bulk stores like Costco) and preparing and delivering it and serving it. Ordering out almost always is more expensive.

 

I try to avoid shooting past 12 hours a day too as you wish to consider your cast/crew in being properly rested. If you aren't naturally altruistic, at least consider that your film will suffer if they are too fatigued.

 

Ahhh yes, what would I do without Mom? My mom has been at every project I have made cooking up tasty homecooked meals for the cast/crew. They love it as it feels like Thanksgiving...and Brian is right that it does save money to have someone who will prepare it for free.

 

I'm of the opinion that a low-no budget movie works best when run like a family instead of a business.

[Jason Hinkle RIP]

Okay, the vastly overpowering vibe I'm getting is that the books I read are correct, in that providing food is mandatory.

 

costco or sams club are great places to get bulk stuff for cheap. I don't personally ever have the time but I have heard about friends who cooked a home meal for the production. cook a great rice dish or something, or hire a friend who likes to cook to be your craft services person. instead of buying pre-made veggie trays, buy the veggies and cut them yourself. there's no rule that says you have to order pizza.

 

there are lots of ways to save money, they just require more labor so it's a trade-off. good luck to you with your production!

[Brian Dzyak]

I try to avoid shooting past 12 hours a day too as you wish to consider your cast/crew in being properly rested. If you aren't naturally altruistic, at least consider that your film will suffer if they are too fatigued.

 

If I can remember back that far correctly, I think it was the last truly low-budget movie I worked on where one of our last days went 23 hours! Mind you, I had come to expect longish hours, but that day was particularly irritating. It began early in the morning and we were shooting DAY EXTERIORS until about 4pm. Then the plan was to go to a practical INTERIOR to shoot a few shots and that would be it.

 

The whole morning, I was wondering why the Electrics weren't inside pre-lighting. When I asked the First AD about it, he said that they didn't know what to do because the Director refused to go inside to show them and the DP what the plan was. Okay, fine, except that when we did wrap the EXTERIORS, the lighting took FOUR HOURS!!!! The rest of us sat around doing nothing while this happened.

 

It was sometime around 11pm when my fuse blew. This last shot of the night was the long end of a crappy Angeniuex zoom wide open pushing in to minimum focus. We were on short-ends and my regular 2nd has left for another show which meant that our Loader was pulling double duty. The rest of the crew was looking at me to pull the plug on this ridiculous day so stress was mounting.

 

Then it happened.... we had just finished a reload (one take per short-end mag) and were waiting... and waiting....and waiting.... where were the Director and the Actor? I inquired out loud to the First AD and was told that they were in another room EATING.

 

So, we were in the 23rd hour on a freebie, with all kinds of stress building up, and the key people vanish to go eat when everyone else is hungry and ready to bail. In a manner quite uncharacteristic of me, I shouted quite loudly that if we weren't rolling in one minute, we were all going home. I've never seen an Actor and Director run so fast.

 

 

Long hours are to be expected, but when planning your schedule, keep the days reasonable, be efficient during the day to keep the days short, and keep food around. It's really not too much to ask.

[Jeff Clegg]

Looking at this list, it seems providing food is actually cheaper than not providing food,

 

I would say that's the best way to look at it Mark. I have been on sets that had absolutely no food or water other than what everyone brought with them and the latter half of the day would get very rough. Sometimes just having some water and a bowl of generic brand cheap pretzels around can make the difference between a crew pushing through for the rest of the day or slowing down and everyone getting pretty cranky, especially on days where there wasn't enough time to stop off and get a proper meal or even enough fluids to rehydrate.

 

I have seen all of the above suggestions put to good use. Some of the ways I have seen people try to feed everyone on the cheap:

 

-The director/producers' wife and her friend would take orders in the morning from a preset list of sandwiches (peanut butter and jelly, turkey, etc.) along with side items (chips, potato salad, etc.), none of it top shelf or expensive stuff. They always had extra if anyone wanted it but this kept them from making 15 turkey sandwiches to find out no one wanted them and then wasting money on the food.

 

-On one shoot in college (self funded by the crew/classmates so VERY low budget) we had a little bag lunch for each person on set with a sandwich, again a lot of peanut butter based delicacies, and apple or banana and some chips. A lot was bought in bulk to save on costs, and the whole bag idea worked well because it was about as portable a meal as we could have gotten. Along with a big bowl of of bulk bought pretzels that was always miraculously in easy reach kept us moving well even on some very long over night shoots.

 

-Family style meals, usually pasta based, prepared the night before and heated up the day of. This may require some more preparation to make sure there is someplace close by to heat up the meal, but the pasta based stuff was fairly cheap and filling for everyone without being greasy or heavy.

 

-Generic brands rule. You don't need to buy Evian or even name brand sodas. A generic soda called "Dr. Thunder" became in in joke and a sort of mascot on one shoot and was probably the cheapest morale booster for everyone.

 

-One thing that I have seen help cut down on waste, especially with water bottles, is to let, everyone mark their bottle with their name. It is far to easy sometimes to set a bottle down and forget where it is and then have everyone running to grab a fresh one. If it's really hot out this can save an amazing amount of waste over the course of a week.

 

One thing to make sure of is that you have a little more food handy than you think you absolutely need. You may find that you have some "hanging around people" who will gladly dig into what looks like free food. Make sure your cast and crew get first shot at lunch as well. The only thing that will make a everyone more hostile than never feeding them is finding out that while you were finishing that one last shot before lunch, the food mysteriously disappeared.

 

Good luck with making your project Mark.

[Matthew W. Phillips]

If I can remember back that far correctly, I think it was the last truly low-budget movie I worked on where one of our last days went 23 hours! Mind you, I had come to expect longish hours, but that day was particularly irritating. It began early in the morning and we were shooting DAY EXTERIORS until about 4pm. Then the plan was to go to a practical INTERIOR to shoot a few shots and that would be it.

 

The whole morning, I was wondering why the Electrics weren't inside pre-lighting. When I asked the First AD about it, he said that they didn't know what to do because the Director refused to go inside to show them and the DP what the plan was. Okay, fine, except that when we did wrap the EXTERIORS, the lighting took FOUR HOURS!!!! The rest of us sat around doing nothing while this happened.

 

It was sometime around 11pm when my fuse blew. This last shot of the night was the long end of a crappy Angeniuex zoom wide open pushing in to minimum focus. We were on short-ends and my regular 2nd has left for another show which meant that our Loader was pulling double duty. The rest of the crew was looking at me to pull the plug on this ridiculous day so stress was mounting.

 

Then it happened.... we had just finished a reload (one take per short-end mag) and were waiting... and waiting....and waiting.... where were the Director and the Actor? I inquired out loud to the First AD and was told that they were in another room EATING.

 

So, we were in the 23rd hour on a freebie, with all kinds of stress building up, and the key people vanish to go eat when everyone else is hungry and ready to bail. In a manner quite uncharacteristic of me, I shouted quite loudly that if we weren't rolling in one minute, we were all going home. I've never seen an Actor and Director run so fast.

 

 

Long hours are to be expected, but when planning your schedule, keep the days reasonable, be efficient during the day to keep the days short, and keep food around. It's really not too much to ask.

 

Brian, I feel I have misjudged you in the past when you've seemed harsh about low-budget Directors but after reading a story like that, I must apologize. Nobody should be expected to deal with that sort of setup...especially not on a freebie.

[Paul Bruening]

Haven't seen much of you for a while, Matthew. Have you been busy producing? Are you still working in S8?

[Matthew W. Phillips]

Haven't seen much of you for a while, Matthew. Have you been busy producing? Are you still working in S8?

 

Hey Paul! I did some festival stuff then I spent a lot of time writing various script ideas as I realized that you can make shorts all day but at the fests, people want to see what "the next feature script" is. Having nothing completed pretty much sucked so I decided to devote time to that for a minute.

 

Super 8...yeah...I'm at the cross roads with that. I love Super 8 but at the same time, I'm looking to obtain some decent financing for my first feature film next year so I think I may have to leave Super 8 behind me. I have been thinking about going Super 16 for the next one (provided I can obtain the services of our very own Mr. Sierkowski) otherwise, I'll shoot regular 16.

 

What have you been working on lately Paul?

[Tom Jensen]

An army travels on its' belly.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Matt, you had me at hello ;)

I'll keep the Arri warm for ya.

 

For record, awesome food today on set kept me going; though I didn't get a chance to really sit and eat. A breakfast casserole thing with bacon (my favorite!) and pretty awesome pasta with some ham and peas and cheese, plus nice coffee all day makes for a very happy Adrian (and crew... all 3 of us).

 

I also have to recommend granola bars, you need something you can grab and go for an "inbetween." Sometimes, you get stuck waiting till 2 or 3 for lunch on set and while you get used to that, eventually, the first few days are a bit rough.

[John Brawley]

This also brings up the question, should the movie industry join every other industry on the planet and simply ask people to be responsible for their own lunch needs?

 

It's not food it's fuel.

 

You're asking other people are indulging your whim by choosing to help you make YOUR film.

 

The least you can do is to feed them.

 

I do free shoots all the time. But i wouldn't do a shoot that wasn't catered in some way. It's an insult in my book if you don't and asked me to bring my own lunch.

 

If you were painting and renovating your house (aka your own personal creative endeavour) would you really expect painters and builders to turn up for free ? And if they did, then not to feed them, pay their *costs* for being there ?

 

How privileged you are to receive the generosity of your crew's endeavours. The very least you can do is to feed them rather than treat them like they are the ones who are receiving the privilege of working on your production.

 

If you were a highly experienced and respected filmmaker, you might expect people to want to turn up for the chance to work with you and other's of your calibre, just for the chance to watch you work and meet your creative collaborators.

 

Otherwise, I have to agree that it's a pretty insulting and arrogant attitude to expect that crew will.

 

I imagine you're already stretched to just make this film. Films aren't made by one person and you need all the help you can get. Hows about you make it as attractive as possible to work for free on your film ? You might be surprised who would choose to help you out for FREE if you make it easy for them to say yes.

 

Im pretty sure anyone you approached that had some experience would likely turn you down for the chance to work for free with no meals. Think about if you're going to be happy with the kind of crew that would be prepared to work in this way....

 

There are lot's and lots of reasons cast and crews are fed by production, mainly to do with productivity. If it really did make sense to not do it this way don't you think it would have happened already ?

 

jb

[Paul Bruening]

Hey Paul! I did some festival stuff then I spent a lot of time writing various script ideas as I realized that you can make shorts all day but at the fests, people want to see what "the next feature script" is. Having nothing completed pretty much sucked so I decided to devote time to that for a minute.

 

Super 8...yeah...I'm at the cross roads with that. I love Super 8 but at the same time, I'm looking to obtain some decent financing for my first feature film next year so I think I may have to leave Super 8 behind me. I have been thinking about going Super 16 for the next one (provided I can obtain the services of our very own Mr. Sierkowski) otherwise, I'll shoot regular 16.

 

What have you been working on lately Paul?

 

How's about you two split the travel distance at Oxford, Mississippi and produce in 2-perf?

[Brian Dzyak]

Brian, I feel I have misjudged you in the past when you've seemed harsh about low-budget Directors but after reading a story like that, I must apologize. Nobody should be expected to deal with that sort of setup...especially not on a freebie.

 

Thank you, Matthew! :) I really am very flexible and do attempt to be understanding. Like I said, long hours are to be expected and once the parameters are set and agreed to, I'll never complain about money or anything else. But that situation was particularly over-the-top because there was plenty of time for a pre-light but the Director and the AD were very non-proactive in building an efficient day. It's one thing to go long because of circumstances beyond control, but these yahoos were consistently over their heads.

 

It's well and good that ambitious people want to create a product that they hope will move them ahead in the world, but exploiting people in order to accomplish that isn't a good idea. Naturally, nobody can "abuse" us without our permission... of course we all could have walked away from that job... but we made a commitment and chose to finish it despite the way that particular production was going. This isn't meant as an indictment of EVERY independent Producer and Director, but it does serve as a warning for aspiring crew members to remain aware of what should be considered "acceptable" work conditions and what shouldn't be. Everybody agrees to work on a job for their own reasons, whether it be money or just experience or perhaps even the chance to travel. But no matter the reasons, that shouldn't give the Producer leeway to take advantage of anyone.

 

Most indie Producers likely are wonderful and go out of their way to be fair. But sadly, there are some who aren't as fair. For that reason, God created unions. Get rid of the "abuse" and the reasons for "unions" goes away too. :)

[Michele Peterson]

Brian, I feel I have misjudged you in the past when you've seemed harsh about low-budget Directors but after reading a story like that, I must apologize. Nobody should be expected to deal with that sort of setup...especially not on a freebie.

 

 

Most everyone that is critical of freebies is because they have had bad experiences. I once did a freebie as a 2nd on a shoot out in the desert. What was promised to be done by sunset. It ended up being a 20 hour day, a 10minute drive to find bathroom, starting to rain, crafty ran out and 2nd meal was left over bagels from breakfast with peanut butter and jelly. Then I had to take over driving the 4 hours home because the producer was falling asleep at the wheel and would have killed us! I told them I wasn't coming back the next day, then the 3rd day they called wanting to know why I hadn't showed that day. They had no clue what they did wrong!

Edited September 15, 2009 by Michele Peterson

[Adrian Sierkowski]

How's about you two split the travel distance at Oxford, Mississippi and produce in 2-perf?

 

Hell I'm game, how we can just go ll out and shoot it in Fiji. Whatever we need to do we need to do :)

[Diana Perri]

Here's a summated list of reasons for providing food on set (thanks to all the thread info):

 

-Preventing lunch hours from running longer than expected.

-Keeping crew energy levels high.

-Keeping crew hydrated.

-Helping to prevent hypoglycemic problems.

-Making the crew feel appreciated.

-Giving the set a more professional look (good for behind-the-scenes shots).

-Providing a place for non-active crew to mill about.

-Improving the director's skill at making low-cost culinary creations.

 

Looking at this list, it seems providing food is actually cheaper than not providing food, due to time improvements and increased performance by the crew.

You're still making it about what you can out of it.

 

You could also think of it this way... when you put together a crew, you are (hopefully) building relationships with people that you'd like to work with again. The production becomes a temporary home or community of sorts, and you hope for cohesiveness and camaraderie on set. A "we're all in this together" kind of feeling.

 

And, since the dawn of time, one of the strongest bonds in any community is sharing a meal. It connects people. If, when on a set, the crew doesn't all sit down together to break bread (though it's highly recommended to have a pre-determined time each day to break for lunch), a moment at the table grabbing a snack and joking with someone does a lot to relieve pressure, let out some steam, refortify. A film or video production, with its intensity and participation in the act of creating, is a communal experience.

 

Even as a broke student on my very first project, I knew enough to bring food. I kept it simple: bagels, cream cheese, wrapped sandwiches I picked up at the deli, pretzels, grapes, and bottled water. Do you want to look back on the experience as just showing up and getting people to function in their assigned roles, or do you want to look back and recall the connections you made, feel the sense of community that formed? Do you really want your crew (community) to remember you as the schmuck who didn't feed them?

Edited September 20, 2009 by Diana Perri

[Diana Perri]

You're still making it about what you can out of it.

I meant to write "what you can get out of it."

[Paul Bruening]

I am watching Idiocracy as I write this.

 

Feed everyone EXTRA BIG A** FRIES!

[Andy_Alderslade]

This is actually a very funny topic considering the experience I had a few weeks ago,

 

I was on a low budget feature which was shooting 2-perf 35mm, the caterers took so long to set up on the first day breakfast missed the call time by 2 hours, then lunch was also really late.

 

They used to take about 15min to cook a tiny beef-burger, the spaghetti bolonaigse had bone in it, the crew were beginning to complain of stomach aches, diarrhoea. Some crew members started buying their own food at the supermarket.

 

The last day I saw them, I asked them to make me a bacon-sandwich for breakfast, the 'chef' bent down to get something of the floor and his head went into an open tub of margarine, as he stood up unknown to him he had margarine in his hair - it was there all day, he never noticed, we never told him.

 

Then when I wasn't about, a studio staff member had some of their food and started retching and then was so ill he had to be taken away in an ambulance. That was their last day.

 

If you don't look after your crew, you may very well nearly kill them...

[Paul Bruening]

If you don't look after your crew, you may very well nearly kill them...

 

You bad man. Now, you've given me a wrap party idea for all of the spec workers.