Advantages and disadvantages of a one-person crew

- Hi, I'm Eduardo Angel, welcome to the 1 person crew video productions tips and tricks. And today I would like to talk about a topic that is very close to my heart which is the advantages and disadvantages of working as a one person crew. So let's start with the advantages. A big advantage is that we can move around much easier. To go from point A to point B, we can take public transportation like a subway or a bus but I often enjoy using rickshaws or motorcycles or even bikes. Another advantage is that because we are carrying very little gear, usually I travel with one backpack and a monopod, I can go straight to a bar or a restaurant to meet new friends. I don't have to go to the hotel to drop off 20 pelican cases. Another key advantage is that I can get closer to my subjects because I can spend more quality time with them and we can even travel together, which is unthinkable for a low budget production and a crew of 10 or higher. And talking about low budget, we can actually put together lower budgets, more efficient budgets for our clients because we can cut a lot of the travel, meal, accommodation expenses. If you're only one person as a whole crew, you can definitely take care of that in terms of offering more value to the client on a budget. But, pay attention, working with less gear or less people does not mean working for less. You are still doing the same jobs. You're still directing. You're still producing. You're still shooting. You're still editing. And the product at the end is going to be the same or better than if you're working with more people. So work with less gear and with less tools and with less people, but not for less. I often work in very small spaces, in tight locations where I can barely fit a tripod. So I cannot even imagine what a crew of five or more people would do in that situation. So working in tight locations, in tight spaces is definitely an advantage when you're working as a one person crew. And something that is very important to me is that you have more control on the story because you are getting the footage you want as the director but you're also getting the footage you need as the editor because you are fulfilling both roles, most likely. And one last advantage that I would like to mention today is that in today's global financial situation is much easier, much faster to get a project off the ground because you need less money, first of all and also less people to coordinate, to communicate with. So, and also it's easier to pivot. So let's say you're working on a story and the story is not working out for whatever reason, like access or budget or anything. You can very quickly pivot to something else, something nearby or a slightly similar story but not with the same subject because you are more agile. You can move faster. And now let's talk about the disadvantages. Wearing so many hats at the same time is hard. I'm not going to lie. When you are asking questions and monitoring sound and making sure that there is enough battery left and you're still thinking how am I going to keep everything on schedule, it is hard. It is very challenging. It can be very stressful. But at the end, it is very rewarding otherwise I wouldn't be doing it. And another disadvantage that is very related is that because we are wearing so many hats and doing so many things at the same time, it is much easier to make mistakes, to forget to hit record during that interview, done it, and also not having a perfect framing or things that are not perfectly sharp, done it, many times, and things like that. So the way to attack that is to streamline your process. Repeat the same steps as much as possible. And that's why one of the other movies in this series is about how I use custom camera settings. So every time I start the camera, I turn it on I always start with the same exact setting. So that's one less thing I need to worry about. And another disadvantage, advantage is that we must work with less gear. We can have something that is amazing and does an incredible job, but if it's too big or too heavy, I simply cannot take it with me. And because we have to work with less gear sometimes it is challenging. At least personally, for different lighting situations you have to be more creative, work with lighter smaller, more compact led lights that can be battery operated, for example, as opposed to bigger more powerful lights. Just, it comes with the territory. Another disadvantage is that it certainly takes longer to set up and to break down. For something very simple like this, what I'm doing right now, it takes a little bit longer because I have to set up the camera, I have to organize this my desk, I need to be sure that the framing is somewhat right and the exposure is right. And it takes a lot of back and forth between in front and back to the camera. So of course it would be much easier having a second person or a third person working out, one monitoring the sound, one behind the camera and me delivering the content in front of the camera. But it's possible, I'm doing it right now so it comes with practice. And one last disadvantage, there are more but I don't want to scare you, there are also more advantages, is that shooting days can be very long. By the time you wake up and go to the location and you're done shooting and come back you still have to download all the footage, to make backups, to review things to charge all your devices, all your batteries and everything else. So days that are 12 to 16 hours are pretty normal for me. But again, as I just mentioned before, I wouldn't, if I didn't enjoy that, I wouldn't be doing it. So yeah, you are prepared for that. And the way I like to schedule my shooting weeks for example when I'm on location is two days shooting almost nonstop, one day editing, and one day off and then rinse and repeat. And that kind of like rhythm is really nice because you are fully energized when you start. You have a day to review what you have done, all the footage that you have, find the gaps, understand things that you are planning to shoot that you might not need anymore, things that you are missing and you need to get. And then one day to rest, to relax and go sightseeing. I mean, I travel the world and it would be a shame not to enjoy the places you visit. So that's that. Those are the many, well not many, a few advantages and disadvantages. when working as a one person crew. Thank you for watching.