By Bill Mountain of ACrew4U
(Photo credit Sean Gleason/Bravo)
It’s that time of year when everyone starts thinking about fun stuff. So it’s only fitting that spring is typically when ACrew4U tends to get involved with projects that go a bit beyond corporate.
You see, a bit like Peter Parker moonlighting as Spiderman, ACrew4U has a pretty left field side-hustle.
It’s US reality television.
And it’s arguably one of the things that gives us a uniquely gung-ho culture.
Last year we hosted a London shoot for long-running reality show “The Real Housewives of Orange County” in London. We helped with everything from locations, though to local crew and transport, and anything else they needed on the fly.
A reality show is pretty much the definition of bottled madness.
Here’s what a project typically looks like:
Maybe 2 months ahead of a shoot, the production company will contact us. In the case of RHOC, we knew the score because we have already helped them make episodes of the Real Housewives franchise in a couple of other cities.
The first thing we need to do is get a budget together. This is a very logistics heavy item, as no one stays still for long on this kind of shoot. The next item is a rock solid location and production team.
In parallel with this, the US team are typically scoping out venues for the story. At this stage it’s more likely to be options on places that might work for a show. The organic nature of a reality series means that many options are needed as the dynamic of a story develops.
Once the US team have settled on some preferred locations for events to unfold in, the local locations person needs to get onto venues and firm up deals and permits to shoot and wrangle with the byzantine procedures involved and generally suggest work-arounds and keep both the inbound clients happy and location owners in a holding pattern.
With daily Europe-US team calls this pre-prod phase is very useful in terms of getting a good rapport established with the inbound production. This is very important because it’s going to be pretty intense when the show hits town.
By a couple of weeks before the shoot most of the local team and unit vehicles will be booked and lots of paperwork attended to.
Then three days before shooting, an advance team will touch down, and the location manager is in overdrive helping them scout locations, and finalise tech requirements for tricky venues.
Two days before shooting, the main production and kit (a lot of kit) will arrive and need taking to the hotel. This is typically when visitors meet local kit and technical crew and the production managers are kept busy sorting any unanticipated requirements in terms of kit and making sure the visitors have all the tech support they need.
One day before the shoot starts in earnest, the cast will arrive, and the place they are staying will be rigged if it hasn’t already been done. There will be conferences with showrunner and production to make sure the next day’s shoot has what it needs.
Now for the crazy bit.
Three 16 hour shoot days with 40/ 50 crew plus cast in tens of locations.
We typically won’t know the final details of tomorrow’s shoot until the evening before. This is because the story develops organically and will be when our location and production management earn their living keeping as much as possible in a holding pattern and finding anything the story requires.
When the shoot starts in earnest, the transport coordinator is in the eye of the storm. Running a 12+ vehicle fleet and coordinating 3 plus units who all have ever changing plans.
PAs and security help keep the set safe. As an army marches on its stomach, so does a crew. Someone in production needs to make sure a very hard working team gets the food they need where they need it. No double decker bus canteens for this crew.
As well as the main units we’ll typically have a locally-crewed B roll unit tasked with mopping up any establishing shots needed.
The location manager at this stage is run ragged. They have to secure tomorrow’s locations, hand over today’s locations to production and make sure we have all the clearances needed for the network or streaming service. They need a lot of paperwork.
Sometime mid afternoon there may well be “lunch”. This is an opportunity for the showrunner and team to brief production on how the story is developing and help the local team pave the way for tomorrow.
Then, late afternoon, it’s time to get on the road for the second half of this long day and get our evening set piece scenes.
Maybe it’s using a top end restaurant, or visiting an event. When you watch it, it all looks simple enough but don’t forget as well as the six or so people you see on screen, we have another 30-40 in the wings making it happen.
Once that’s wrapped, (generally very late) it’s back home.
And the work is far from over.
The showrunner and team need to confer on the locations for tomorrow’s stories and our hard working location person has to be all over the details and be prepared to make changes needed. As well as that, our equally hard working transport coordinator and production team must ensure that transport, tech and unit needs are all seen to. As well as making sure the local crew all have their call times and locations coordinated.
Repeat this for another couple of days at least, and you’ll understand why we don’t get fazed if you need to shoot a corporate talking head in Shanghai next week.
What might seem like a somewhat esoteric side-hustle gives us a real edge in dealing with logistically complex stuff. Because we have the competences needed to make anything happen, anywhere.
Honed by doing lots of reality shows.
Which are just documentaries on steroids.
So, when you book your corporate shoot with us. You’re in good company.
That of the Kardashians, Love Island spin offs, Real Housewives galore, Kevin Hart and many other somewhat madcap TV formats known the world over.
( And if you’re an RHOC fan, check out season 18 episodes “High Tea & High Tension”, “Double Decker Drama” and “Sunday Roasted”! )