It’s time to start thinking about remote production offices. And 10 tips on how to do it.
With provinces across Canada discussing phases to begin reopening businesses and easing quarantine restrictions, Studios and Content Creators have also begun planning their first days of principal photography — and what it’ll take to get there.
As the Co-Founder of Circus, one of the companies directly affected by the loss of physical production, I spent the last few weeks on Zoom speaking with Producers, PMs, Production Accountants and Crew about what will happen when the outbreak is over. The unanimous consensus? ‘We have to think Indie’.
Studios and Guilds are leaning on Steven Soderbergh to lead the charge to a safe return to work, due in part to his experience shooting the movie ‘Contagion’, where his exhaustive research and detail were applauded by experts across the globe for his realistic portrayal of what could happen during an outbreak. But another reason why he might just be the right person to lead this industry back to greenlight status is his extensive experience at almost every budget level of production, more specifically in this case, his mastery of the ‘High Concept Indie’.”
Indie doesn’t just mean low budget — it’s an Ideology that we’ll need to adopt until we can operate at full capacity again.
Producers Chris Ferguson and Brian Kavanaugh Jones’ Variety article mentioned how sets might change to accommodate. Smaller ‘pods’ of crew will be implemented to reduce risk, 10 hour work days to give crew more rest and avoid fatigue-related failures of safety protocol, quarantined locations, props and costumes, and a reduction or even strict lack of background performers and daily hires. I’ve even spoken to Producers who are specifically looking to hire couples and roommates to quarantine in hotels for two weeks to further reduce the risk of contact transmission with other people. And the list is continuously evolving and growing. However, this all sounds very familiar to Indie Creators (besides the quarantining part) who are going to find that the methods they’ve been using to create their content might be the same ones adopted by the studios.
The Indie Ideology at work.
In 2015, I produced the Indie ‘Hello Destroyer’, which was an ultra low budget feature we shot in Prince George with a micro crew of 17. We used Slack to communciate with our crew and direct deposits or eTransfers for payment. Catering and crafty was produced and packaged off-site and brought to set. We had no Talent or Directors chairs and department heads drove their own vehicles and trucks. To limit the amount of people on set, we shrunk our camera, grip and lighting package to an amount that could be managed by a crew of 6. And because of the reduction in labour, we were able to extend the shooting schedule by weeks and reduce our shoot days to 10hrs. Not only did this give our crew more time to rest and be healthy, we were able to be more agile and focus our efforts on increasing production value.
Though these methods may not be ideal, the Indie way of thinking is being agile and working with the limited tools and resources that we have. The Coronavirus is no different. We are faced with dire and immovable circumstances and in order for us to keep the show going, we must adapt how we shoot.
But let’s not forget about the production office.
The Indie Ideology needs to be applied here as well. Less physical contact will mean we can’t have people or paper flying around the central nervous system of the production anymore. Nearly all crew have some direct or indirect contact with the office, from shuttling start packs, sides and scripts, to picking up paycheques, dropping off equipment, props and costumes, and so much more. But responsible Creators will have to get rid of the production office completely to limit the risk of an outbreak which could cease or postpone the production indefinitely from shooting. I can’t even begin to think what insurance policies are going to look like.
So the production office must go remote. Production Managers, Coordinators and especially Production Accountants working from home will need to utilize secure and online tools to safely collect, collaborate and distribute essential documents that meet the satisfaction of the studios to limit their liabilities. Tech companies, such as Circus, do this all the time and some of the largest software companies in the world, such as GitLab, allow all their 1,200+ workers to be remote. It can and will be done.
So how do we do this not just remotely, but also sustainably AND securely?
Here are 10 tips on the most vital aspects of the production office where we can utilize the available tools to increase our efficiency and at the same time, reduce the amount of physical contact between the office and set.
Start Packs.
Circus is built for this. It’s the best (and only) solution in Canada for end-to-end digital start packs. Using the Circus platform, anyone with office level permissions can send an invite link for crew to onboard from anywhere in the world using any device. Crew can then securely store everything in their work profile and release their payroll (TD1 forms, incorporation docs, etc.) and residency-related details & docs to production accountants with a click of a button, who can track, dispute and approve all the start pack docs from the comfort of their home. Crew can sign pre-filled residency declaration forms, union deal memos, box kit rental forms, or contracts using any device, which are then automatically distributed to inboxes and union admins. All of this documentation is secure with cutting edge security technologies such as bank-level encryption, automatic redaction of financial details on residency docs using machine-learning, two-factor authentication, watermarking on all uploaded story docs, and much more. Circus also has a seamless start pack to payroll solution allowing crew to submit timecards right after completing their start pack. Get in touch for a demo.
Communicating & Distro.
Coordinators already have the basics figured out with email but if you’re looking for a better way to organize the communication of all the departments and drag and drop files such as scripts, schedules and call sheets, you can use Slack create departments channels and organize everything and everyone in there. Prop Masters can share images in the #Props channel and get feedback and approvals from the Director that can be viewed by everyone that needs to know. There’s a few drawbacks of using Slack though — It’s difficult to get the studios to approve this tech as there is no watermarking function and tracking who has seen and accessed what is non-existent. If you’re looking for tracking without the chat, CrooGloo will get you there or you can use StudioBinder which also gives you the ability to generate sides, schedules, calendars and more.
Scouts & Production Meetings
I spoke with a Cinematographer that did all of his upcoming prep for a feature, including meetings with the Director and other keys, location surveys (with just the LM on location) and pre-pro meetings using Zoom. Another alternative is upgrading your basic plan in Slack where you can share your screen and do show-and-tell with all the keys so everyone is on the same page. Want to upgrade further? Record a 360° view of each location and allow productions to experience it in VR. You can also utilize Set Scouter to search for your locations in advance with high res photography of each location. Script read-throughs have also been making the rounds this way and we can expect auditions and rehearsals to be done over video chat too where the Casting Director, Talent and above the line folk are also watching (and possibly recording which is also a feature). I know it’s not ideal, but remember, these are temporary times. Movie magic happens when get to set anyways, right?
Shotlists.
Without a doubt, Zach Lipovsky’s Shotlister is the top in this field, allowing you to create a comprehensive list of shots using storyboards and scene breakdowns. You can invite others from the production office to collaborate but most importantly, your ADs can time and track your shots on set, in real-time.
Schedules, Call Sheets & Sides.
As mentioned above, StudioBinder, SetKick allow you to import scripts, break them down, do scheduling, call sheets and sides. You can share everything with your cast and crew, who access watermarked docs from their mobile devices too. The days are over for the cast or crew in script, sound and camera departments that usually go off of paper copies. Productions may have to even rent and disinfect personalized iPads for those that don’t have a smart device or truly need a larger view where they can make notes, which brings me to…
Script & Continuity Notes.
Scriptation is the best solution by far for prep and on-set script notes. The iPad, iPhone, and newly released Mac app makes it easy to digitally mark up scripts, share notes with other departments, and even transfer those notes into new script revisions. Scriptation’s Layers feature is particularly useful for digital collaboration as it enables you to keep multiple users’ notes on the same PDF script, and toggle them on and off just like a layer in photoshop. Shows doing virtual table reads have been using the Reader Mode feature, which allows you to automatically highlight actors’ lines and even autoscrolls through the script as if you’re reading a teleprompter. This can be used by camera and sound departments as well to keep all the notes in one place to share with post.
Petty Cash, Cheque Reqs & Per Diem.
This is a difficult one to tackle so we’ll do it one by one. Petty Cash forms can be created and collaborated on using Google Sheets which I’ve done in the past on previous Indies, such as ‘Hello Destroyer’. You can create tabs for each crew member in any department to give them pre-calculated forms to fill out while being able to track the entire department’s expenditures. The inputs are live so at any time, the accountant can access the doc, make comments and and export the sheet. Doing a transfer for PC is bit trickier, especially for the larger amounts where there are limits, so there may be a push to send sterilized and sealed credit cards to crew with maxed limits that can be controlled by the accountant. Crew can also scan photos of receipts using Quickbooks where expenses can be tracked further.
Cheque Reqs. Gone are the days for vendors demanding cheques for deposits, which is nearly impossible to do on remote shoots, and something I’d love to see disappear honestly as it’s really put us in a bind when we needed something quickly. Vendors should start looking into how they can capture payments online via Quickbooks or Stripe using any credit card. There may be a push for accountants to create and track purchase orders using Quickbooks as well. Obviously, there’s only so much you can put on a credit card so for the bigger vendor accounts, we’ll see wire transfers in installments.
Per Diems for distant shoots and incoming foreign Talent can be done using Venmo or eTransfers but due to the limits it may be included in the bi-weekly payments for labour.
Timecards & Payroll.
Digital timecards are pretty standard across all the payroll companies like our favourite GreenSlate but to process payment, it should be direct deposit all the way. It’s what crew have wanted for years but the sticking point here is that unions stipulate that their members get paid on a weekly basis and it’s difficult to get the deposits to land when needed rather than just handing over a cheque, which can be printed on site at the end of each week. In order for this to work, unions may have to be more flexible and I’ve heard non union productions are already leaning towards bi-weekly payments to accommodate contact-free payroll.
Audits & Tax Credits.
Circus (👋 hi again!) allows production accountants to neatly package and zip all residency, payroll and legal docs in seconds — something that usually takes weeks to do. They can choose to either securely send Accountants the package or invite them to the platform to review and download the documents. Are they claiming they need paper copies in bankers boxes? The CRA accepts electronic copies too. It’s 2020 and we all need to keep up with an industry that is moving fast towards sustainability.
Dailies & Post Production.
ZedDrive is a Canadian solution that allows you to manage videos, photos, documents, dailies, cuts, deliverables and more. And this site is extremely secure — they have to be as one of the main resources used by the big studios. You can share access with Producers, DPs and Editors who can comment on cuts, colour grades, and vote on versions. If you’re looking for other solutions, Frame.io or Vimeo provide intuitive and seamless workflows that allow you to collaborate with key-framed comments, approvals, annotations, and secure, cloud-based storage for assets. It’s also integrated with Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Final Cut Pro X.
Bonus Round
Daily Health Check-Ups or Lunch Order.
Use Google Forms or TypeForm, both free tools, to capture everything you need and store it all in one place. Thanks to Lena from Green Spark Group for the tip.
The silver lining in all of this, besides COVID-19 forcing us to rethink and enhance safety protocol for our cast and crew, is that it might also be the final nail in the coffin for paper waste, helping push the industry towards a more sustainable future. We’ve long been overdue.
Stay safe everyone.
Did I miss anything? Let’s make this a living and breathing document to help Creators and their Talent go sustainable, secure and remote. Get in touch with me for updates.
Special thanks to Scooter Corkle and Andrew Nicholas McCann Smith for their input on this article.
