Surround yourself with the best
Crew
A fellow Swede and awesome director said -”you have to surround yourself with the best to be the best”. Jonas Akerlund. That has been my mantra ever since, to work with and surround myself with the best people I could find.
The best people on location is your crew
A good crew will build you up, put you on a pedestal and go beyond the call off duty for you. A good crew will support you, help you, save your butt and be your friend. A good crew will, with their skills, let you create magic on a daily basis and let you take the credit for it.
I have the best crew. I work hard to find them and I work harder to keep them. Some are aspiring photographers, some are well trained and very skillful craftsmen, some are future stars just passing by.
How do you get a good crew?
First off, photography is a way to see and interact with life. How you see life is how you portray your subjects. How you interact with people is how you interact with your crew. So in short, call it good kharma or just being a good human, treat your crew well. Your crew will be a reflection of you! Yes, you might wanna think about that a little…
Directions for how to take care off your crew
1. Feed them well. Even if you have to go to a “cheap skate supermarket” the night before to get food cause that’s all you can afford (hence no catering), you do that! A well fed crew is a happy crew and happy people work better.
2. Coffee. If you don’t supply your crew with this your shoots will never be sucessful. I try to differentiate myself and actually give everyone, at least once, individual coffee orders from Starbucks or preferably Coffee Bean, this is actually costly but what the f*ck. I want my tripple espresso, why shouldn’t they get theirs? I try to keep it to one or two individual order per shoot though.
3. Pay, I pay with a check end of day. I can afford that so I pay up. There is nothing to gain by not paying end of day but tons to gain. If you are the guy that pays end off day, you are doing the right thing. No, you are not doing any favors or being extra nice you are just doing what you should do, pay for the great work that the assistants did for you.
For me it boils down to this
True art is created when a positive vibe translates over to the whole team and everyone from the runner, the assistants, to the photographer, model and art director works together in harmony. From the moment I get the job to the moment I deliver the job i work hard to create that positive vibe, with all means possible.
Zach, 1st assistant (and shooter) teaching Suzanne some posing tricks … Suzanne was in town for a personal portfolio shoot. Zach makes women look beautiful and they love him for it. Zach is my lighting wizard.
Behind the scenes with Matt, 2nd assistant. Matt is just a really cool duude to have on set. Spreads good energy by just being there.
Vincent Ford, make up & hair and my personal advisor on women and relationships. Vincent sorts it all out for me.
Courtney Beckett, in house staff and multi talented artist and friend. She keeps track off me and I owe her the world. She will become a star and I am lucky to have her in my life for awhile.
