Thursday 18 September 2014

The best crew

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I'm not given to being terribly demonstrative online or in public.
I tend to keep my communications personal, preferring to talk in person.  Somehow, it feels more heartfelt to me, and besides... I'm a private sort of person.

The reflective blogs Ive written these last few days have been the result of an outpouring inspired by the incredible shooting experience of Learning to Breathe.

This last one, for a while, finishes a series of blogs with something very dear to my heart.  The crew.

I've worked with all sizes of crew over the years, with varying degrees of experience.  but, hand on heart, I have never felt so connected to a crew as I have done with this film.

Many of them are people I have known for sometime.

I began putting together my core crew who came to Tobago with me back in February.
These were people who I trusted, loved and wanted around me during a shoot I envisaged as being intense both physically and mentally.

I didn't ask around.  I wanted these people, and I was beyond lucky that they came straight onboard and understood exactly what I was trying to do.

In some cases the crew were stepping way outside their comfort zones, in a professional sense, but not once did they falter.

When we arrived in Tobago, the family atmosphere, I had hoped to foster, was immediately evident, and a strong unit was quickly formed that seemed utterly unbreakable.

Being in a somewhat undeveloped country it wasn't all plain sailing.  loss of electricity and water plagued our days, but not once did I hear a complaint or a lack of enthusiasm for the job.  Extraordinary.

My own relationship with each of these wonderful people is already known to them, so I won't go into this private area, but suffice to say I owe each of these people a debt i can never hope to repay. Although I will give it a bloody good go!

A month later we were back in London, and the core crew were joined by a larger group of people, adding to the skills and expertise onset.

Every single person on that set was either selected by me or recommended by a trusted source.
Every single on of those crew rocked very very hard.

In to the mix were a contingent of students who were seeking experience on-set.
I can say with certainty that ALL of these students will be bright shining stars of the future.
their professionalism and enthusiasm was extraordinary, and I will be keeping tabs on each and every one of them!

So, this reflection on working with an amazing crew, ends this current set of blogs, as I head into post-production on the film.

My next film looms large, and with a substantially bigger budget and bigger canvas to play in, I would have no hesitation in recommending every single one of my Learning to Breathe crew to the producer.

If you are a production manager or line producer and you are looking for brilliant crew members get in touch.  I have some gems for you!



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