Lessons

Lesson Info

Managing Your Crew Roles

Con stress enough how important that is because all of you revue at the moment like whether it's now, houston, you're starting in, you know, sorry you've been doing this for forbidden and the rest of you photographers a showing photographer quinn, you're college? Yeah, yeah, photographer so at some point, except for you, houston, because I'm assuming you've got, like, your name and your branding and the way you protect your business on its awaking progress, like it should be something that you need teo to nurture constantly. I do as well, right? Because like your brand and we're getting to that it's it's, your it's, your identity? Yeah. So precious, man, you get treated like it's like a little baby. You need to feed the baby you need to like nurturing oh, my little bon jonah, you know that till seaman, you know, like in terms of, like, the way you use your social media and and the way you kind of set up your identity. So what has that got to do with crew rolls? It has a lot to do with ...

your crew, doesn't necessarily I'm going to say, like, they will have to wear like labels, and sometimes you might get a hand you might get some help from a freelancer assistant we just totally fine because not everyone has like a ten man team that is full time, it doesn't work like that we all know that we have, like, three, including me is three of us that I like jenna, that constantly there on then I know two others that helps us out sometimes to do secondary roles, but it's important to kind of translate to communicate that with your with your crew in a sense that what your philosophy is that this doesn't have to be, like a full on like, drill, like, all right, so this is one jonah, and I want you to think journey, and I want you to think this and you need to, like, make sure everything's personal, otherwise you're finished, you know, like, it doesn't have to be like a drill we wouldn't be I'm exaggerating them, but, you know, it's it's this like a this phone call yemen so as you know, like, we're very, like personal with a couple, so, you know, when you're shooting, like you go through, like their responsibilities as a shooter like, you know, you don't need to, like, go crazy with coverage in terms of, like, just get the necessary things, and I'm not saying that you're getting less, but you're actually getting more but more meaningful stuff. Because you know, sometimes if shooters that you work with if you're not aware and they're like a secondary in there getting some shots for you they're not aware of what you're all about they'll just shoot anything that's pretty going the editing swing like got all this footage and it's just you know what I mean it's not not going to do any favors for your couple because this is extra footage where it doesn't have any meaning and you know, like when I was pulling focus for the beach, you know, like if that couple wasn't a beach couple and he didn't marry proposed to her on the beach, I wouldn't do that and obviously she got really by the beach because that's a comforter so it's about really communicating with your crew um your your philosophy but you know in a gentle way doesn't have to be like a long winded like sit down okay, so when he talked to you about what we do, you know, get this in your head now it's just kind of making sure that they're aware of what they need to do and equipment check is so important right? So you, for example, houston or any of you will have ugo that you have and then your other person who may be your secondary or a third person that comes in the chute you need to be clear about the gear that way there's no overlap and you know bring anything that's unnecessary and also on the shoot which wei need to talk about with crew rolls is be very clear in terms of their responsibility on the shoot right because like for example threat the venue when we're getting can't that point both of us getting candidates so what I do at the venue I say I can't look man I'm going to sit up audio right? We get them instead of what you do when you go around start getting some candidates so it's so important to us to keep in keep communicate with you your crew and is walking there and just do whatever and like assume that never assumed some assumptions like the mother of all stuff up you know and it's my rule and so it's really important man and like just communicate clearly what you need to do each part of the day so if they're going to the group's prep and you're doing the bride's prep you know be very clear hey look I'm probably going to stay a little bit longer here because they're doing some dancing on dh like send off at the bride's place so when you get to the ceremony you need set up usually I just tend to do that because I just like doing it but they look whether it's whoever's like on my shoes they look man, you need to do that and then he's cleared but if I'm telling them how is this person is going to rock up he's gonna assume I always do it and rock up days and down all these details shots and write about to come and the audio is not ah you know and then like you're filling and you were me you feeling around how man the bride's coming right now so you avoid all that here in constant communication throughout the whole day then you're going to save yourself some some nightmare situations and like in the ceremony like let's say one guy's on sticks right and he's like, you know good he's monitoring what's happening shooting the bride and groom feeling the bride and groom doing their vows and all that but that person needs to like glance and like, yep, so I might be over there and, you know, it's important that you caught constantly look around and just check and I'm I like old glance that for example, on my glance at noah's sound just like because he may be monitoring the audio you good? Yeah, good and then another example could be he needs to move as I said this he needs to move because, for example, let's say that photographer wants to get a nice wide angle and like I said, your photographer is your friend okay, we've all heard stories where you know, for a tour of a man such a nightmares like that person's at this and that person that I know well like in the course all talk about how you work with the photographer because I cannot stress enough they're your friend so you know your accommodate and what it comes down to is communicating with your guys you know, like you shoot that so finding if we if we need to move because we're constant looking each other, you just give me the night look, I I need I need to let you go move, so I know it was part of what we sell is the doctor sermanni full, so I don't want to have like twenty seconds of blank I'll probably be able to fill it, but then I spent more time looking for shots and that's the reason right? So then I make sure I stay on ah fixed position keep it safe, he'll move double takes like what no second to do it bank goes back in the position and you're a good eso really, really important make sure that you are very, very clear in terms of your responsibilities just avoid all the hassle any of you want to show it to be good to hear like any stories in terms of working with other shooters, maybe many of you so is this houston that done shots in winnings in terms of film cinema? Is that right? Okay, well, so what you saw and then queen you can come and share if it was this you're on your own or did you I was just on your own yeah, but I will say very related to this is that I wasn't well enough briefed on when things were going down during the event and so I was working with a zoom and I was like doing something with my zoom and all of a sudden the kid his bar mitzvah it was was like lighting the candles on a very it's important ah ah a jewish ceremony for the for the night and he was starting to dedicate these candles and I was like, whoa like, you know, I wasn't just kept in the loop, so we were actually talking about that earlier is how you always have to be on it talking to people who are organizing the event like and tell them to keep you in the loop. And another thing is I didn't work with the photographers that also you say he didn't weapons are like we didn't collaborate like well like that, I don't know, I think kind of naturally like you alluded to we kind of were intimidated by each other and we didn't realize that we were we should have been each other's friends and kind of kept an eye out for each other and I when you said you know the photographer might want a wide shot sometime I thought, oh my god, I was like santa right next to the kid the whole time during the candle lighting ceremony the photographer probably hated me during that moment so and he said the first thing is I call the photographer myself or I'll even go to their office or place of business and I'll be like a houston I'm going to be working with you on this such date with joan sarah you know, they're almost like my teammate during the day because if I'm after the ceremony she's getting shots of them to holding each other by the tree I'll let her get her shots will create you good I'm going to jump in and do it ah glide cam shot around the tree eso like you said, you know they're there if you're not a team member with them I mean they're they're not gonna wanna help you any definitely there's anything you need, you let me know if there's anything um you know vice versa just let me help out the show I was shooting a wedding in boston and it was in the middle of the summer and it was in a church that was about ninety percent humidity and my camera just shut down and so I missed the ending part of the ceremony and luckily the photographer loaned me those images so that I could put that in the film and it's just like they know you really are feeding off of each other and they're both incredibly vital roles, but photographer really kind of does run things and a lot of ways definitely and when you're on the field is certain ways you can communicate with them, which I'll touch on later on because I want to give away too much but you know, language and but your body language and what you say and hey say inputting context like we we can wonder, like, do this, like, really cool free if we can get them here instead of saying our will, you know, oh, I want to take him there, I want to take my shoe, my shoe, all right? You know, so it's team it's team thing. So when I have de jade weddings, the deejay sometimes can assume the role of politely moving the party along. We're going to cut the cake. We're gonna do this in that throw the garter and all that. Do you find yourself working? You're mentioning the photographer but the deejay or a wedding planner someone else who's in charge and obviously, how important are those relationships also he referring to liken wedding planner and coordinator yeah, they're like they're like one of the most important people to work with they are in control off everything they're the ones that they have recommended pretty much everything in charge of coordinating everything goes on making sure that the scheduling is on time so they're super super important to make sure that you have a very strong relationship with and it's also a very good you know, obviously being a business relationship it needs to be a friendly relationship because in the whole experiences with well because you know when they're on the shoot actually most coordinators and well I know pretty much all the wedding planners and coordinates I work with they're they're pretty they're all day there like like us, they're heavily invested in the couple so they're another very important to be you need to be different you need to be friends with all the supplies let me get that straight, you know especially like that using mentioned d j for a moment I thought you meant the person that is going to control with the speeches and the disk well as the person who is providing the music I've served in a role, if you will of we're going to play some songs and now the daddy daughter dance it's the deejay who has orchestrated that and now it's time to throw the bouquet and it's the deejay who's orchestrated that, not at every wedding, but I'm just thinking of other people that we need to touch base with and figure out who's running the show that's. Not quite the word, but you know what I'm saying to you referring, teo, like the emcee, use that term emcee the master of ceremonies. Yeah, yeah, because they're there another critical crew off the day that is so important. We explain that we go through that in terms of the process off the reason that the venue slash reception, but they're like, you need to know you. They need to know what you're doing because otherwise you ninny, like, okay, so announcing the first speaker, it's, the father of the groom and you're like you like, you know, maybe having a little break and do well, what's going on, you know you want to avoid that, you know you want to, you want to be ready, but you you won't be ready unless he knows he doesn't know that you're gonna be stuck.