How do you cover yourself for cancellations when hiring equipment/booking locations?

iamWZA

iamWZA

Active member
I'm in the beginning stages of seeking out my locations and actors. My main location is a house, which I'm going to rent for 7 days to shoot the film in (and use as our base), but I have to book this several months beforehand. I'll also have to arrange my hiring periods for the equipment a month or so in advance, and then there's the availability of my actors + a whole lot of other things I haven't thought of yet, I'm sure.

What do you experienced people do in this situation in order to stop the whole production from going tits up (as we say in England)?
I'm worried about booking the house, putting deposits down and blah blah and then one of the actors saying they can't make it on a certain day, or another location falling through at the last minute and needing to reschedule.

Any help hugely appreciated!
 
Pick a date, stick to it, don't let anything change that date. If actors can't commit you move the schedule around or get new actors. Crew members can't make it? Get new ones. Can't get that fancy camera? Shoot with something else. Above all else you just have to finish the film or you'll find yourself wallowing in a pool of debt. For the most part this works pretty well and it's why you should have a seperate producer who isn't on set, because things are going to go tits up, and you need someone to fix that while you are shooting.

That's what I usually do. Works pretty well!
 
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