I had just a little under two weeks to shoot my first episode. Granted it was a self-imposed deadline, but when you have a network waiting to sign off on your show you gotta jump on it.

I knew just a few people in the production business in San Diego. One, a larger player, had graciously offered the insides of his rolodex to get me the crew I needed. I sent out an email to every person that fit the bill. I did a craigslist posting. I contacted a fellow contributor to FiveSprockets. 

We had come up with a great idea; since this was a pilot and budget was tight, we should pay every person equally. That way, no one got their feathers ruffled, there would be no painstaking negotiations and we were all in this thing together. Everyone I spoke to agreed on this method, said they were fine with the low pay (but a decent one) and signed on. Over the course of the next week and a half the crew was slowly solidified, the equipment was gathered and the shoot was on as planned.

As to our budget? It was extremely tight. I would be pulling in every last penny that I had allocated in my business account to pay for it, as well as using my own man power to produce the show up until shoot day. This meant I wouldn’t be working on my other gigs and I’d be burning up my personal funds as well. When locations became an issue? I did what (I think) Disney, Lucas or Coppola would’ve done and I simply said “Do it at my place.” I scoured thrift stores for props, I made over 3 trips to target, my boyfriend lovingly cleaned my place for shoot day while I sweated over storyboards…

Essentially? I took a big, fat roll of the dice and bet the farm…How’d it work out? Well, I’ve got an episode in the can (by “can” I mean, I have an episode stuck in a crap Western Digital hard drive until my Seagate arrives in the mail). It all came out all right, though. I have a great episode, despite some shoot day hiccups. There were definitely some bumps in the road. Primarily? I should’ve trusted my gut a bit more in the crew I hired. When I showed some of the previous pilots to crew and I got back responses like “Very interesting.” I should have moved on. But I didn’t. I didn’t follow my gut. Crew will make or break you. In this case, it was a squeaker. Some people didn’t show up at all (my one craigslist hire). Some people showed up with a lame work ethic. Some people wowed my socks off. What I learned was this.

In this economy you may be tempted to take on pros at a reduced rate. They are all out there, wanting to work, but quoting you rates of $600 a day. They will probably work for less. But, this does not mean that they will show up to your shoot with a can-do attitude. (Note: There were a few genuinely enthusiastic pros, but they weren’t the norm) If you’ve got a low budget and you are making your production “indie style”? You’d be best finding like minded folks, indie folks, to work on your project. Where do you find these people?

Well, I will say this without any sort of bias. You find those people on places like FiveSprockets. The people that read this site (or sites like it) are the true people that love what they do for the art of the craft. They’ll roll up their sleeves, they’ll smile, they’ll find solutions and they’ll genuinely be happy to work. I’m not saying this is 100%. But in my case? On my shoot? It was the folks I found through FiveSprockets that saved my ass on this one.

So, follow your gut, find people that genuinely love what they do, and love what you are creating. It’ll make for a smooth shoot day and a fun experience overall.