It’s in the contract, dumbass.

As I have been searching for jobs, I have been coming across various postings by filmmakers that are scrambling to replace people, places and equipment. You should always have contracts with everyone on your cast and crew.

With Phobia, I had thought that we had covered all of our bases. My producer and I had spent countless hours researching the contracts and forms used on film sets. We had everyone on our cast and crew sign multiple contracts that covered everything from being caught on screen to having their names used for promotional purposes.

However, with all of planning that we had done, we were far from perfect. Early on, when we were looking to crew up, we went over several people for one significant position. We made a decision based on who wanted lots of money and who would work for free. One of the guys that would work for free told us that he could get us free equipment.

I should have realized early on that he was going to be a problem, but we were in a time crunch and I’m sure he thought that he was trying to help. He was nothing but a problem, and I dreaded his phone calls every – single – day. He had guaranteed us free equipment, so we put aside his... idiosyncrasies.

Unfortunately, the closer we got to our shoot dates the more frequently his story changed. He couldn’t get in touch with his friend that owned the equipment. His other friend that owned equipment was out of the country. His third friend that had equipment wouldn’t let him use the equipment. There were more stories but I stopped listening and let my producer deal with him as I had so much going on trying to get the shoot ready.

Ultimately, this one crew member more than doubled our budget. Two days before principal photography was about to begin, we were forced to buy this equipment because we had trusted this man and had been giving us nothing but the runaround, resistance and problems.

Had we been provided the honest information about the equipment we would have been able to find inexpensive alternatives in the six weeks we had been depending on this man for so much of our needed equipment. Big studios can throw money at a film to fix problems. When you are self-financing, the jump from an $8,000 budget to $17,000 is destructive.

Have a contract that very explicitly spells out what each cast and crew member is to bring to the table. Even if you don’t have a barrage of lawyers, people will take you more seriously if you take yourself seriously and behave professionally. Don’t be a dumbass; get the contracts ready.

Don.