From Pre-Production to Payroll: Filmmaking with Everyset

Written by Taylor Hotvet | Jun 12, 2020 11:30:00 PM

 

Making a film can be chaotic yet exhilarating and can take months or even years to come to fruition. But now filmmakers are discovering all the different capabilities of Everyset to streamline logistical workflows and get their projects off the ground much faster.

As a team of previous filmmakers ourselves, we believe you should choose how you want to do your work and then let the tools augment the work you do, as opposed to having the tool dictate the format or process for how you get your work done. That’s why we built our tool to be flexible and adaptable; so it can help you get various admin aspects of the production process done the way you get them done, only faster and more accurately.

 

Assembling Your Crew

Every production needs to find a way to recruit crew and get them on the same page. Harnessing the collective skillset of disparate teams is one of the secret ingredients that goes into that evasive potion of “movie magic”. A magical as it may be, having all departments in different systems and all the necessary employment forms not linked together is a total nightmare. You run the risk of duplicating jobs, disappointing people, and making needless clerical errors. In a business where your next job is based on your reputation, these are not errors one can afford to make.

The Everyset team developed a solution to unify the crew in the form of our production management platform. Those you hire through our database of freelance crew members - and/or those you already prefer to work with and choose to onboard to the platform - instantaneously all link together to one system for faster, efficient, better communication.

 

Casting

The casting process is like adding flavorful spices to your basic meal - exhilarating, enlivening, but also a bit nerve raking as it’s not something you can mess up or do carelessly.

“It’s a wonderful casting tool for casting directors like me,” says Taylor Woodell, “Their database and gallery system help me do my job better because I’m more confident that I’m bringing the right talent forward instead of just the best options based on who saw and replied to the casting call.”

In our system, casting directors, producers, and the AD team can collaborate in a way that shortens the time it takes to complete tasks that used to take weeks of back and forth.

“Through the gallery, you can also automatically preview YouTube videos of actors’ reels, social media accounts, review answers to personalized questions, and share with the AD team to make selects —all without leaving the Everyset platform,” continues Taylor. “I feel like I have a stronger connection to the actors I’m casting and am better able to help producers find what they are looking for, which is a great feeling.”

 

Production Paperwork

Another feature of the Everyset platform gives filmmakers the ability to use the formatting provided for daily production planning, keeping track of call times, coordinating hair and makeup, and scheduling meal and travel times across multiple documents while only having to input the information into the system once.

“Having a flexible platform like that for every day of the shoot that's on everybody in the producing team’s phone was fairly revolutionary,” says Sean Green, lead producer at Something Massive a commercial production house based in Los Angeles. “We’d never be able to shoot as many projects as we do in a month without this kind of team coordination."

 

Payroll

It’s nice to know when you’re getting paid. You’ve worked hard. You’ve put your soul into a project, and whether it’s about the money or not, the facts are that you deserve to be compensated. On-time.

And if you’re the one in charge of making sure everyone gets paid on time, you want to save yourself from the stress of all the potential “where’s my check?” inquiries.

There are many payroll partners out there, and Everyset's platform is compatible with all of them. There is no reason you should add another annex to your production machine when all the information already lives across multiple existing documents and can easily be sent and/or gathered through the Everyset platform.

Through our reporting tab, you can pull a wide range of reports that help you keep track of the various financial and personnel aspects of production. When it comes time to pass on information to the production office or answer difficult to calculate questions our automatic system makes it easier to provide a more accurate answer faster.

Conclusion

Filmmaking is a team sport, and all teams need equipment that they can trust to help them get the job done. No matter what your role, our tools help you do your job the way you like it done. Cast, onboard, and schedule easily. Track time and run payroll accurately. Flag issues and run hot costs automatically. Coordinate and communicate seamlessly. From sourcing to reporting, we understand how you want to work. Everyset is the intuitive production platform that works like you do, the way you want it to. Built by people in production, with people in production, for people in production.

To learn more about how Everyset can help you manage your movie, visit the Production page or email us at support@everyset.com.