When hiring a crew, regardless of your budget, it's important to secure enough cash to keep cast and crew happy and healthy. This means making sure they're well fed, able to get from one place to another with minimum hassle, and out of harm's way. To accommodate these needs on a large-scale production, you need to hire drivers, caterers, and medical personnel.

Also, keep in mind that in addition to overseeing the needs of cast and crew, there are dozens of other positions that need to be filled when negotiating a big-budget operation. For example, films requiring the use of animals will need animal handlers. Productions featuring air transport will need pilots, or films requiring undersea footage will need divers.

Transportation

As one can imagine, transportation is a key component of the filmmaking process, especially when shooting on location. Not only do the cast and crew need to get from one set to another, but all the equipment needs to be transported in a safe and timely fashion. Typically, a transportation manager, or captain, is hired to coordinate all of a production's transportation requirements and oversee all of the drivers.

Catering and Food Services

Armies don't travel on an empty stomach, and neither do film crews. Keeping cast and crew well fed will do wonders for morale and keep the production flowing. On a small-scale production, this can be as simple as someone bringing coffee and doughnuts for everyone in the morning. On big productions, where shooting days are long or on location, this means hiring a catering service that can provide cast and crew three meals a day. In this case, the production manager is usually responsible for hiring and scheduling catering services.

Medical Personnel

In an industry where safety is a huge concern, it's important to have some type of medical professional on-set if you can afford one. Many productions typically have a medic available during the entire production, especially when construction or stunt work is involved. This individual can be a nurse, physician, or emergency medical technician who will be available for all medical situations that cast or crew members may find themselves in. Regardless of the situation, at the very least you should always have a fully stocked first-aid kit at the ready.

Animal Handlers

Productions requiring the talent of animals — regardless of how small or large — will need an animal handler or wrangler. These unique individuals are usually specialists in regard to whichever species of animal they train. Animals can be a challenge to work with, so hiring a talented wrangler is paramount, especially in regard to shooting delays (see Chapter 12).

Publicists

Once a film is complete or even in preproduction, the element of hype comes into play. In order to generate publicity and excitement about your production, you need to hire a publicity director or publicist to get the word out. Publicists have all types of strategies and marketing techniques up their sleeve, in addition to having a strong network of media connections. A savvy publicist will know the ropes and be able to reel in a film's target audience by arranging anything from press releases to billboards to interviews.