As important as having the best possible actors is to have the most professional crew. And when there's not much money, that's a tricky thing. Whenever you can, try to pay everyone, one way or the other, be it money, a trip to Cornwall, a foot massage... whatever. We know sometimes there's simply no money, and in that case we would advice you two things: first, find people who believes in the project. More than friendship, enthusiasm will make the team work. And second, be flexible... very flexible. When you cannot pay money to people you cannot expect them to put priority one to your project. If they find a well paid job or something prevents them from doing what they said they would, just thank them for the time spent and be happy for that. You'll have to find replacements from time to time, it's part of the business. You'll need to find a balance between directing your film with determination and being flexible for these situations. It's tricky but necessary.
A funny thing about collaborators is that, quite often, they may say "yes, making a short film is cool", but they won't necessarily jump into it... until you have done something already. When people see you are serious and are actually making a film, then they will be on board quite easily. They need to know you are going to do it, yes or yes.
In our case, we think we found the best possible crew ever. Most of them were friends or friends of a friend, many of them worked with us at Method Studios, in London. This is a little summary of everyone involved (I hope not to forget anyone!).
To all of you: a thousand thanks, the movie would not have been possible without you.
A funny thing about collaborators is that, quite often, they may say "yes, making a short film is cool", but they won't necessarily jump into it... until you have done something already. When people see you are serious and are actually making a film, then they will be on board quite easily. They need to know you are going to do it, yes or yes.
Everyone working on the set.
In our case, we think we found the best possible crew ever. Most of them were friends or friends of a friend, many of them worked with us at Method Studios, in London. This is a little summary of everyone involved (I hope not to forget anyone!).
- Andy Pinson: he helped us with some compositing and hard roto work, invaluable for a couple of shots.
- Antony Allen: he helped us find the street location.
- Daniel Barker: he was at the green screen studio recording sound.
- Francesco Ricciardelli: he modeled, textured and lit most of the CG objects and environments. He did an amazing job, despite Dan and Jesus being a pain in the ass, asking for new versions all the time.
- Giorgia Pulvirenti: she help us compositing some shots for the film. And she's from Rome!!
- Jenny Wan: she came the three days of shooting and helped recording the sound. Tireless woman.
- Joe Fletcher: he works at a professional studio and he took care of all the sound mixing, making sure all sound was even, cleaning it up... a really dificult task.
- Jon Ossitt: he made the modeling of the CG sets and animated one vehicle to the highest level of detail. He also created all the digital cameras and layouts of the scenes.
- Justin Lee: he stayed with us the three days of filming and took some wonderful pictures of the production and the actors. He also designed the film's beautiful poster and was the first Executive Producer we got in the film.
- Ian Ward: he made some experiments with Arnold renderer and lent us his light equipment.
- Ivan Girard: he created some wonderful matte paintings for the backgrounds of the dream and the talk show.
- Mak Knighton: he lent us his microphone and sound recorder. Where did he get these things from?
- Mónica Verdú: she came to the main day of shooting, brought her car to carry equipment and crew, took pictures during the day and also composited a couple of shots. She also helped us render one CGI shot, by asking a friend of hers.
- Paul Chandler: he made the amazing concept art that was the base to the CG shots.
- Rowena Cumner: she organised the food for the shoots, something usually overlooked but of great importance which keeps the crew happy and fed.
- Siwan Hill: she did a great job with make up and hairdressing. We found her on mandy.com!
- Yone Santana: he let us use the green screen studio at Brunel University. It was an amazing experience to film there. He also helped with on-set lighting, providing a lot of great advice. He also yelled a couple of times to make the shooting faster - it's important to keep the pace!
To all of you: a thousand thanks, the movie would not have been possible without you.
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