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Much like the growth of video conferencing instead of in-person meetings, hiring local crew for your video projects can make a lot of economic sense, even under the best circumstances. In recent weeks, the argument for hiring local crew for out-of-area video projects has become stronger than ever.

by Crew Connection We work with crews all over the world and always vet them to make sure our clients get the best. One of those is Crew West. The company treats smaller shoots with the same level of service as the big ones and also has one of the best time-lapse guys in the business. We talked with Michael Barcless, a Managing Assignment Editor for Crew West/Sat West. Barcless is a producer by trade and in addition to staffing shoots and providing cameras and formats, he covers MLB and the NFL (go Cardinals!).

Cold eyed they stared at me, moaning softly to themselves as if there was something they wanted to say but they couldn’t quite figure out how to make words work. I knew I had to do something, they needed food and they needed food now or the next thing on the menu might be me!!!

Every year, thousands of hopefuls flock to Los Angeles, Vancouver, and New York with a dream to make it big in the film and television industry. We live in a time where every college student with a phone has become a filmmaker. With so many people to choose from, how hard can it be to hire a professional crew for your production?

Creative jobs are just about the most fun careers in the world—but they can also be the most challenging. As anyone who works in film can attest to, it can be tough to force creativity when you’re just not feeling it. There are lots of great exercises to boost creativity out there, but it’s not always enough to use short-term tactics. If your team has been trouble getting inspired, then it may be time to think about ways you can boost overall creativity on an ongoing basis.

Seasoned producers get into a rhythm. Before they even set up a project, they have a decent idea of how long the project will take, how much money they’ll spend, and the team they want on the job. But make that shoot international and you’re sure to throw off even the most experienced professional. That said, hiring international crews doesn’t have to be a painful experience.

Your team is the backbone of the set and, like our actual backs, it’s important to keep them healthy. If they begin to suffer due to physical, mental or financial issues, then the production will equally suffer. For those old-school thinkers who believe employees are replaceable if they begin to have issues, you will spend more hiring new employees. Training and bringing replacements up to speed is time-consuming, so investing a little extra into your current employees will save money in the long run. Plus, happy employees are more effective, efficient and loyal.

ProductionHUB announces its “How Not to Screw Up When You Crew Up” panel at the StarLite Film Festival Sun., March 1 at 3 p.m. at the Garden Theatre in Winter Garden (160 Plant St.). Whether you work in production or need to create promotional videos for your business, learn some tips & tricks on hiring crew and vendors for your projects and making the most of your budget.

Running our video production company used to be about jumping on a plane to meet the next story in person. That all stopped the second week of March - when Covid-19 hit, my team went from talking face-to-face with our clients with full-sized cinema cameras to get the best angle to...nothing. Working on-location wasn’t an option. We weren’t allowed to travel. We weren’t even allowed out of our houses, let alone to work with a crew.

With in-person concerts on hiatus, Grammy-nominated rock band Underoath turned to Odd!Life Studios to help produce a live streamed concert series so fans could enjoy their music while at home. Creating an immersive experience that was equal parts performance art, the concert series (“Underoath: Observatory”) consisted of three concerts over the course of three weeks, with each concert covering one of Underoath’s albums in its entirety. Cinematographer, Director and Producer Lief Thomason from Odd!Life Studios spoke exclusively to us about what it took to successfully pull off the concert series, including how using a Blackmagic Design workflow powered by four Pocket Cinema Camera 6Ks, an ATEM Mini Pro, ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K and ATEM 1 M/E Broadcast Panel helped them get everything done within their tight two week turnaround time.