V48HOURS 2010 – A Furious Filmmaking Competition

Keeping Cast & Crew Happy

When competing in V48HOURS keeping your cast & crew happy should be your highest priority. Without a happy cast & crew your weekend is not only going to be no fun it is also likely to have the wheels fall off half way through. So here are some simple things you can do to ensure your cast & crew remain happy and helpful throughout the weekend.

Get Volunteers.

This is important as it's part of the rules. Everyone has to volunteer, people shouldn't be being paid - or roped into helping out due to any reason other than them wanting to take part. It's a fun, exciting weekend - but it's also more than a little insane and nothing is going to lead to an unhappy crew quicker than somebody feeling that they are only there because they are obligated to be so.

This goes for both the 'amateurs' and the 'professionals'. It doesn't matter if people you are after normally get paid to do this sort of thing for a living - that's not what V48HOURS is about. As such - you have to treat them as volunteers, which includes remembering the only thing that is keeping them there is their enthusiasm for you and the project. Start exploiting them and pissing them off and you'll run the risk of ending up working alone.

Be Honest.

An example of being dishonest is to rope anyone in on the promise that "Oh, we'll only need you for an hour or two" when in reality you may need them to stick around for the entire weekend.

Let everyone who is going to be involved know exactly what they are going to be in for - even if they should only be needed on the Saturday let them know there is a CHANCE they will be needed on the Sunday. If they then tell you they absolutely can't be there on Sunday, then it is up to you to make the call on whether or not you'll be able to deal with losing them if you need to do reshoots on the Sunday.

Be honest about what you expect them to do, when you expect them to arrive, when you expect them to leave, when you expect them to be able to get some sleep etc. Don't say 'just 15 more minutes' to keep them around when you know that they are probably going to be needed for another two hours, and if you don't know something tell them that you don't know. As long as everyone is honest and up front then problems are very unlikely to occur and even if they do they are much more likely to be resolved amicably.

Be Safety Conscious.

Cast and Crew are likely to go to almost any lengths to get the short made as no-one wants to feel like the one that is letting the team down/preventing the shot from being got - to the point that they will possibly put themselves in harms way.

As such it is the team leader's responsibility to ensure that whatever they are doing or being asked to do is safe and they aren't putting themselves at risk of being hurt or worse. You should certainly never encourage anyone to do something if there are concerns from them about it being too risky or dangerous.

Everyone on your team should be and feel safe at all times.