Who Are the 5 People You Need on an Independent Film Production?

A major film production can have thousands of people involved in its production from major people like the writer and director to the director of photography and the art director to the set dressers and grips down to the assistant editors and the catering. Because these major productions have such huge amounts of money at their finger tips they can afford these extravagances but the independent film productions on modest budgets or no budgets at all (as can sometimes be the case especially in the case of many short films) have to be a bit more frugal. Being a producer and production manager on several indie films I've been in the position to develop an eye for what an indie production absolutely must have despite whatever the meager budget or production requirements.

Indie film productions are becoming more prevalent all over the world because of the advances of digital technology and the readily availability of multiple distribution outlets. Despite all these advances in technology anyone thinking about producing a film should keep in mind the key personnel that should be involved to produce an adequate and worthwhile product.

WRITER: You can't shoot a film without a screenplay (...well you can but trust me the results are always disastrous) and even though the screenplay is only the "blueprint" for the final film the contributions of a writer cannot be stressed enough. On set, the writer can be available for any rewrites that come up and if the film production's budget is really small than the writer can double as the script supervisor as well because she will be more familiar with the script than anyone else. One of the very first films I was ever associated with the Southlan-Films short film Night of the Hungry Dead there was only an outline of a script available because it was a film being done in one day. Because of this the screenplay was very hectic and sporadic and barely made any since but the writers were on set at all times to help shape up the script as we were filming. On the Southlan-Films short film Séance we didn't have a script at all. There was only the outline and the vision of the director to go on for this film which was also shot in one day. The lack of a script was not good for the film as the single location with a large cast in a single room became hectic when all the actors overlapped their improvised lines. It took many takes to iron this out and much of the conversation was inconsequential, a drawback to improvisation, and a lot on time was wasted on set.

CATERING: One of the single most important jobs on any film production whether big or small is that of catering. You can't shoot a film without feeding the cast & crew. I've even been on film sets where no one was being paid and everyone was working for free but the production had huge catering and everyone on set was more than satisfied. "A fed cast & crew is a happy cast & crew," as the saying goes and there is nothing but truth in that statement. On the Southlan-Films production Hell's End everyone was on deferred payment but the producers spent an enormous amount of the available budget on feeding the over 50 cast & crew 3 meals a day throughout production. No one went unhappy when there was always food and snacks around. This was also a similar circumstance on the Cakebaby Production The Tedious Existence of Terrell B. Howell in which everyone was working for free but writer/producer Kelly Silverman provided a huge amount of food and snacks for the crew. This was not the case on the Interstate Films production Turn the Other Cheek in which there was no catering. At one point I went out and bought water for the cast & crew out of my own pocket and because we were filming long hours the cast & crew were restless and tired due to the lack of snacks and fruits and other items that keep the body's sugar levels high. This became a big problem on the film.

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Someone has to organize everything and everyone on a film set so that the director and other key personnel and do their jobs without undue interruptions and stress. It is the PM's job to filter all the lower departments' requirements and run a tight and organized production throughout principal photography. The PM is the captain of the ship despite the fact that the ship is owned by a producer and/or director and it is the captain whom is responsible for the needs of the crew. On the CenterSeat Entertainment production of the musician Chris DeMarco's music video "I'm Calling You" I was responsible for organizing the crew and help finalize casting and taking care on contracts so that the director didn't need to deal with it. I left the director to deal with DeMarco and his needs for the video while I deal t with everything else and the production went very smoothly. On the Southlan-Films production The Middle of Nowhere the lack of a PM caused the production not to have any of the contracts needed in order to sale the film a distributor and the film was even shot on two separate occasions due to the chaotic scheduling. These problems could have been avoided if the directed hadn't tried doing all of these jobs himself. Some things are always forgotten or left out.

ART DIRECTOR: Nothing is more important to an indie film than the look of each and every location and how they appear on screen and it is the job of the art director to make sure that every room and location looks and feels relevant to the film and/or scene at hand. Without the major contributions of the art director some locations can seem boring and uninteresting or plain especially in indie productions where much of the film can be filmed on actual locations rather than on sets. There was no art director when I was on set of the Beijos Film Chosen and therefore many of the rooms and locations had technical issues. A lot of the walls were plain with no set dressings and the final result looks like a low budget film because there was no one on hand as the art director to make sure that the sets looked good. This was not the case on the UNIQUE Production Between Love & A Hard Place in which our art director made sure every location was relevant to all the characters and the situations. The film looks and feels 110% more authentic than most indie films.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: This person is responsible for the look of the film as it pertains to lighting and camera departments. It has become very easy in this day and age of digital film making to go out and buy a digital camera and shoot a low budget film with results that are less than thrilling partly because of the lack of care in terms of the lighting and camera. Films can make or break depending upon the look. A horror film is only frightening if the monster or killer is hidden in shadows and a comedy is only funny if you can see the joke. A dp will ensure that the film looks good for the genre of the story and will make sure to keep the monster in shadows while making sure that the comedienne's jokes can always be seen. In the Southlan-Films production Jack O'Lantern director Ron McLellen (who also doubled as the dp) made sure to always keep the monster in shadows while also lighting the other actors in the scene. He created suspense by adding shadows in scenes with the monster. In contrast, in the religious drama Between Love & A Hard Place dp Randy Stewart was a marvel at drawing out the drama through lighting in scenes of emotional turmoil between the characters.

These are just a few of the important personnel on the set of a indie film production. There are several others that are just as important (make-up artist, script supervisor, and still photography, to name a few), so, don't think that just because you have the ones on this list that you can go out there armed with a camera and a few key crew members to go shoot your own film. Film making is a very collaborative medium and with the help of all your cast & crew anything is possible.