Dealing with No-Shows (or deadbeats)

F

FilmBoy77

Veteran
i put out an ad for help on crew and actually am willing to pay out of my own pocket so as a result i got a lot of responses, however, one guy responded to every email and phone call and on the actual day of the shoot he just flaked for no reason. luckily i had a friend helping out as crew but he didnt plan on having to be boom op as well as everything else. we had a small shoot that day so we managed, however i had an actor that had flown in from out of town with his own money, etc to perform and i wouldve been shyt out of luck had i not had that extra hand.

i have a shoot coming up this weekend and only really need about 2 guys but now i'm nervous i'm not sure if these dudes are on the up and up when they say they want to help out.

have you all dealt with crew guys just simply not showing up or flaking regardless if you're paying or not? i could see if i was asking for free labor, but damn. what is your work around for this?
 
Oy. You are talking about one of the great tricks of lo/no-budget filmmaking. How do you trust the people you set up to work on stuff? Ultimately it happens to everyone - the guy that talks big but doesn't deliver. You start to sense it.

I've had really good luck with my crews because most of the time the guys I ask for help are the ones I've worked with on other sets before. You find who you like (and more importantly, trust). If you need a position filled and you don't know anyone, you can do one of two things: ask your colleagues, or get ahold of a pro directory. I've had mixed results with personal recommendations, but I generally have very good results from people I've found in pro directories.

It's also got a lot to do with who you approach and how you lead, but I feel less qualified to ramble about that. :)
 
people are flakes period. next time put out an ad and tell 3 people to come out and if all three show up tell the other 2 they're not needed for the day. :)
 
Mickey Munday said:
next time put out an ad and tell 3 people to come out and if all three show up tell the other 2 they're not needed for the day. :)
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Then words will get around and people will never work with you again. I had that happened to me once where I showed up for an 8 am shoot and was told to go home; I was pissed. Never do this. Andrew probably gave you the best advice so far, find people that you can count on and keep working with them.
 
I just shot a fairly decent budget indie music video last weekend and had two cast / crew issues the day before filming, Saturday.

I was in contact with the lead actress on Tuesday, she said she had booked us, it was a paid role, and it was 8 hours, the shortest anyone had to work on the 14-hour shoot (with lunch break and walking second meal). Called her Friday night after I had e-mailed her Wednesday with no response. Called again early Saturday and voice mail again. Tashia McIntyre, in fact, is her name. You deserve to have people know that if you're going to act unprofessional. There needs to be more sites out there to list flakes so we can avoid them, honestly.

I replaced her and recast the role by 4 p.m. Saturday. I called her at 1:25 p.m. again and gave her an ultimatum, in a nice way, "Hey, I need to hear from you in the next hour and a half here or I'll have to consider other options as I've not talked with you in a few days or heard from you. Please call back as soon as possible." Fortunately I had backups, about 6-7 other possibles and 3-4 I really liked, the girl I got I think worked a lot better, prettier face to me, great personality, great to work with, it was a nice experience and worked out for the best.

One of the grips I used on my last music video also canceled at 9:15 p.m., but he isn't a flake. He's very reliable, he just got stuck in Chicago's airport, his flight was canceled, and he couldn't do anything about it. Nor could we. We were short a grip and had to have only two electrics, one swing, one grip, when the original budget had six total grips / electrics. It was definitely tough, I think one of our PAs did some grip work, I wasn't paying that much attention honestly but we got everything done and were actually ahead of schedule!! It was amazing, wrapped 45 minutes early. I have never had that happen before, but it was the best crew I've ever worked with. I think everyone was in agreement that we had some amazing talent on that crew. Our B camera operator is actually a really good director, much better than myself no doubt and much more experienced, so having him on the shoot was great but I felt kind of humbled ;)

I had an actor flake on my second short as well. E-mailed at 3:40 a.m. Sunday morning / Saturday night (I'm sure he was just getting back from a bar / club, hehe) and said basically screw you, you didn't send me the script early enough, blah blah, I'm not showing up. We recast him on the morning of, when the first actor showed up, started an hour late, and the second actor was SAG and one of the best actors I've worked with, way better than the guy who flaked. Again, worked out in my favor luckily.

Flaking seems to be pretty much part of low budget filmmaking. That particular time, the short, nobody was paid so maybe it was more understandable though no less unprofessional.

I do what I say I'm going to do, if I agreed to do something for free I do it, your word is your bond. That's all you really have is your reputation, your good name, and if you forget how small this industry is I feel sorry for you, that's what I'd say to flakes.

On the last shoot, for instance, my behind-the-scenes videographer knew my makeup artist from another shoot, which was kind of a funny coincidence, and my actress and actor went to school together in Florida 7 years ago!! I had no idea, just a really weird coincidence. The B camera operator, the director, has worked with my DP on almost all of his projects, and I interviewed them separately (one last August, the DP, and one maybe four months ago, for the production company) with no idea they knew each other. So there are all of these strange connections that just remind you how fast word can travel if you are a flake.

These people get punished.

Side note, the actor who flaked on me in the short applied to my friend Bryan's short, and when he was looking over headshots of people who applied I pointed to the picture, "Don't even think of that guy, he flaked on my short," and Bryan threw his name out immediately. So if people think word doesn't get out, it does!
 
Flaking out is a ticket to oblivion. No faster way to get there unless you're already famous or otherwise irreplaceable. So if you're Brad Pitt, or the only 7' tall Russian-speaking Asian actor in town with six fingers on your right hand and one leg, and that's what casting must have, you've got a pass. Everyone else has to show up... : )

Reminds me of Hiram Bullock, the gifted guitarist who was in Paul Shaffer's original David Letterman Show band until he got canned for not showing up at the taping a few too many times. His nickname, even before that happened, was "Fire 'im".
 
Always hire 'every people'. If you get in a jam, they'll pick up the slack. They can take the place of 3 or 4 decent crew. We all know them...some of us are them.:) Only trouble is, with a really good everyman or everywoman, they will eventually just set up their own shop and stop working for you.

Get passionate college kids who are in Film Pro 101, etc and want to learn. No one shows up earlier or works harder!

Don't hire your friends!!!!!!!!!!! They will never take you seriously because the professional boundaries aren't there. Never, never, never hire your friends. Do I need to say it again?

If you can afford it, and it's a make or break project, hire union. Now, I'm not union...in fact, as a retired Hollywood PA, I have tons of issues with unions (so now I live in a right-to-work state - which I recommend highly), but union guys will show up and do the job. They will actually do what you ask (as long as it's in their job description)...which is also a plus! They'll do a good job, too and you will have that much more of a professional product.
 
Ted Spencer said:
Sadly, this is far truer than I wish it were...
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This is VERY true.

I brought my sister on my last shoot, and it was the biggest mistake I made. It was a very professional shoot and it was the wrong place for her, she wanted to help and I cast her as an extra, but she caused all kinds of problems on set and basically acted like since she was the director's sister that gave her some sort of authority. It doesn't. Like I told her, on the set she is a PA basically (and extra) and I'm the director, so when I say to do something you do it. We're not brother-sister until after the work day ends. My business partner and I work the same way. When we're on a shoot or at work, we're acting in a professional capacity, we are there to get a job done, we can be friends AFTER the work is over.

If people don't respect the hierarchy of a set you end up having chaos. It's just really a bad mistake.

I knew it would be a mistake with my sister, but I didn't realize it would be such a big deal. She made some really inappropriate comments that made me wish nobody knew she was my sister, and it was quite embarrassing potentially. I think much of the crew wasn't near her when she said anything, because she was always hanging in the back, but a few people heard the comments and no doubt thought she was a witch with a B ;)

I think bringing family to a set is even worse than friends.
 
I've spent most of my rather long career thus far as a recording engineer, doing mostly of pop album and movie scoring sessions. I have lots of friends who are also veteran music industry professionals: composers, producers, musicians, singers... Whenever one of us is invited to another's session to hang out, the unspoken rule is "keep your opinions to yourself unless you're asked for them by the people who invited you".

Appropriate, professional behavior, in a recording session or on a set, is absolutely mandatory. No exceptions, no matter who you are, what you know, what the context is, or what you think your opinion might be worth.

OK...stepping down off the soap box now...
 
seunosewa said:
@JonathanLB: I can't believe you're bashing your own sister on a public forum!
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I am not bashing my sister, I'm pointing out her actions, which she knows were inappropriate. She apologized for what happened, and felt really bad about it, but I wrote it here to warn people about this type of situation. For you to act like I'm bashing "my own sister" on a public forum, come on dude, first of all I can bash whoever I want to anywhere I want to, but second, I don't bash my friends or family, I may criticize their actions or their behavior but I'm not going to libel them as people or put them down.

It was a bad idea bringing my sister to the shoot, it's a bad idea in general bringing family members to a shoot, I don't mind saying that. What, should I act like all was great? No. If someone asked me in an interview on national television about the subject I'd say the same thing and not feel about it at all. My sister should feel bad about what she did, it was extremely inappropriate and she knows it. I didn't even go into it all here, but when you're making fun of people on a set, that's not a good thing.
 
On my last short I filmed it in my home town and had very reliable and trustworthy family and friends be crew, extras, and some actors and everyone showed up on time and with a great attitude.

For my latest short, I am now living 2,500 miles away from my hometown so that route is not an option. Half the actors and crew are friends and the other half are respondents to a casting/crew call. For my PA positions I made them paid (even if it's only 30 bucks for the day which is definitely on the low end, but just enough to make the job official) and I got a whole lot of responses back, so to help weed out the flakes I sent a response back to all those who submitted with a request to meet them in person and talk about the project. Sure enough, out of the 20 or so people only 2 of them responded and agreed to meet in person. Both arrived early, had great attitudes, understood their role, and were excited about the project. Granted we haven't shot the film yet, so they still could flake out, but I feel that if they are willing to go out of their way to meet you in person, they are more likely to show up to the shoot. Plus I feel that the in person meeting creates some accountability so if they flake out they know that they are screwing someone they know and who was very nice to them as opposed to an anonymous person over the phone/email.
 
when we interviewed crew for Heart of Now, we made a contact list of "back-ups" in case anyone we hired fell through.
 
Hey Zak sorry to veer off topic here, but I noticed your IFHY LA premiere date in your post. Any NYC screenings planned? I'd be there...
 
Ted Spencer said:
Hey Zak sorry to veer off topic here, but I noticed your IFHY LA premiere date in your post. Any NYC screenings planned? I'd be there...
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well, right now the closest to you we get is Lehigh Valley, PA. that's about two hours from NYC. that's probably a little far for you.

SOUTHSIDE FILM FESTIVAL -- JUNE 19 & 21 -- 7:15pm -- LEHIGH UNIV. -- I'll be there both nights.

we ARE submitted to a number of NY festivals, just haven't heard back from them yet. In fact, in May we screen NewFilmmakers LA and I'll be using that to push NewFilmmakers NY to do the same.
 
Wilshireblvd said:
Don't hire your friends!!!!!!!!!!! They will never take you seriously because the professional boundaries aren't there. Never, never, never hire your friends. Do I need to say it again?
Click to expand...

Ted Spencer said:
Sadly, this is far truer than I wish it were...
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wrong. If you have friends who are mature and respect you, they are the best. We have shot our three short films in 2 months with only friends. It rocks! Just pick good friends.:thumbsup:
 
It's not "bad friends" that are the issue. It's the difference between "good friend" and "dedicated professional" that mucks it up.

There's no reason why good friends can't be professional. It's just that they seem to turn out not to be a little too often for comfort.

YMMV
 
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