To empower independent filmmakers with budgetary and time constraints to spend more of their time telling their film’s story & less of their time battling chaos.

As a filmmaker, the two most important assets to safeguard are the film’s story and the film’s money. However, many times, these two are inevitably on opposing sides of the battlefield. The trick is to be able to understand and respect both their values and to find a balance between them.

By working through many of these potential situations beforehand through preproduction, it is easier to spot and eliminate the battles before they even begin. By keeping energy up and leading by example, it is easier for those who work beside you to work with you into bringing this story to life. By working closely with all departments as a core team unit and treating everyone with kindness and respect, it is easier to feel unified with telling the film’s story instead of departments feeling unheard and frustrated, which often leads to unexpected chaos.

And the less chaos filmmakers have on set, the more likely they are to succeed with telling their film’s story in the time that has been given to them!

It’s easy to banish any form of organization on a film set because, hey — if no one pays attention to the call sheet, who’s going to pay attention to yet another paper with information on it? Yet the best film sets that run on the highest tiers have organization ingrained into everything they do. It’s the difference between having props neatly laid out in their assigned spots on a prop table versus having to chase down the art department for a prop pen. It’s the difference between the makeup artist knowing which actor is next in the chair versus accidentally skipping to the wrong one which then delays filming. Between queing the lighting team to set up at the next location before the rest of the crew are slated to be there versus just winging it and costing production 20 minutes. Between having paperwork properly ready for an actor promptly upon arrival versus having to wait all day for important paperwork to be filled out because the actor had to rush to set. Organization is everything on set, and all the best film sets need it and thrive on it.

There’s a myth that’s going around about work ethic in the film industry, and it’s something like this: in order to have a strong work ethic, you must be willing to work long hours and have the dedication to come back in less than 10 hours to work another 13-15 hour shift. If you don’t, you don’t have as strong of a work ethic as the rest.

As someone who knows quite a few people who have gotten into car wrecks after long days on sets (and as someone who’s pulled over into many gas stations to sleep), I can say that refusing to come is not a hallmark trait of a someone with bad work ethic. It’s what you bring to the table on the day, and if you need that extra sleep so you can bring your best self to set, then more power to you.

Strong work ethic is helping out each other on set. It’s not being afraid to haul sandbags from one side of a barnyard to the other. It’s about volunteering to lay out that RAM board or to pop up that tent, even though you don’t “have to.” It’s about being there for your team. And for safety’s sake, take those 12 hours off between shifts if you need it!

As I’ve graduated over the years to more and more professional sets, I began to notice something really refreshing: those at the top of their game were just the nicest people. One would think that ego would get to them, but no. One would think that those around them would stop listening to them and want to take their place, but no. Everyone treated them with such dignity and listened everytime they talked.

It made me realize just how much power being kind in this industry is. I think it holds such weight because people want to work with kind people, and as long as they have the rest of their stuff together (like an organizational plan & strong work ethic), their positivity can truly influence a whole set for the greater good.

As the years go by, we’re starting to get more and more of that, which can only reinforce the idea that great art is best made in great environments.