Feeding the cast and crew on a DIY budget.

DIY filmmakers tend to be a pretty resourceful lot, but for some reason most of the small indie sets I’ve been on didn’t seem resourceful when it came to craft services. Part of what makes a DIY crew successful is creative problem solving, finding ways around potential catastrophes without throwing money at them. And sometimes small details like feeding the crew get lost in the shuffle.

If you want to make a film on a shoestring budget, then do yourself a favor and put a reasonable amount of time, effort, and coin into craft services. Make sure your crew has items they can grab on the go (chips, nuts, donuts, coffee, water, fruit), and if you plan on putting in 12-14 hour days like most indies then provide two meals as well. But how do I do this with only $100 bucks dedicated to feeding the crew you ask? Well, you need to put some of that creative problem solving into practice. There are three definite strategies that work on a shoestring, and those are:

#1. Get Free Food

That’s right, get free food. Pick up the phone book or Google local restaurants in your area, then contact the PR person or marketing rep associated with each and get them to donate food to your production. This is easier than it sounds, but requires some research and a time investment.

Fast food chains are a great place to start because they make lots of coin and helping out a local filmmaker doesn’t hurt their public image (unless your making a porn flick or an extremely gory horror film). Also call your local news paper and tell them about your film, then ask them to run a story about the production and the local businesses that are graciously feeding your crew. That way any business donating to your production gets free press and your production gets free food (and press).

#2. Family & Friends

Lets say that your aunt makes killer spaghetti or your Dad’s hamburgers are one-thousand times better than the local burger joint. In that case tell them how much their cooking rocks and ask them to donate one of their specialty dishes to your production. Ask enough of your family and friends to donate food and your calendar will fill up quickly.

#3. Rock the Pit

BBQ is easy, cheap, and feeds a lot of people. If you don’t already have one, borrow a butane pit so that you don’t have to pay for charcoal. Now if you don’t own a pit and borrowing is out of the question you can pick one up for relatively cheap at your local hardware store. Once you have secured a pit, pick up a bunch of chicken, and whatever else is on sale. Then find a volunteer to to man the grill and your in business.

Combine the above methods and you should be able to feed your crew for the duration of your shoot. Also, if at all possible set aside enough cash to spring for the chips, nuts, donuts, coffee, water, fruit I mentioned in addition to using the other three methods. Remember that a well fed crew will notice the effort that you put into keeping their hunger at bay, and will in turn, work harder for you and your production.