Crew Connection

Finding worldwide video crews doesn’t have to be painful. You know your go-to crew does it right, but if they’re in Colorado and your shoot is in Cairo, what do you do? Usually, you have four options:

1. Shell out the big bucks for flights, lodging, meals, and camel rides to get your tried and true crew on the job.
2. Phone a friend who knows someone who knows someone.
3. Lose your mind and time searching the interwebs for a local crew with the style, gear, and know-how to get your job done the way you want.
4. Cross your fingers and wait to see the footage.

Crew Connection gives you four better options no matter the situation and saves you money, time, and brain cells to boot. We’re good enough at it that we just might become your first through fourth options.

1. Need a local crew in an anything-but-familiar location? Click or call.
2. The go-to crew already booked? Click or call.
3. Want a crew who’s been tried and approved by a team of video production veterans? Click or call.
4. Stuck in an elevator trying to avoid eye contact with someone you’re not sure if you know? Click or call.

If crewing is the most time-consuming part of your job, you need someone in your corner. The Crew Connection team is your Mickey Goldmill. We specialize in knowing each crews’ location, capabilities, and gear to ensure they meet your unique business needs. You don’t need to travel the world, get tangled in the interwebs, or just take someone’s word for it to find worldwide video crews. Crew Connection makes the answer to “How the hell do I crew in Cairo?” a whole lot easier.

About Crew Connection

Crew Connection puts a world of video service providers at your fingertips. In just a few clicks you can search, chat with, and book vetted crews local to your shoot—all on your own schedule. Rely on Crew Connection’s team of media experts to organize the crews and gear you need for multi-day and multi-location video projects anywhere in the world. Our crew coordinators are on call around the clock if you ever need live assistance. Visit CrewConnection.com, call us at 303-526-4900, or shoot us an email at info@crewconnection.com.

This is big, people! Crew Connection’s international online database Crew Connection makes it faster and easier than ever for you to connect with the best video service providers around the globe.

Sign in or sign up to access a world of professionally-reviewed crews right at your fingertips. Skip the phone tag and endless Internet searches—find, contact, and book guaranteed crews on your schedule.

A world of video at your fingertips

CrewCloud brings a whole new level of simplicity to crewing. Find, book, and message crews directly so you can get back to business even quicker.

Our database is stocked with freelance media pros. The best part? Our in-house video industry veterans have reviewed and approved each one according to their knowledge and experience in the media space. It’s all online, but coordinators are always available to take your call when you need them.

Even with the convenience that Crew Connection offers, we know that some of our largest bookers still appreciate a little help from our experienced crew coordinators. You have full access to our staff around the clock when you call 303-526-4900,  email info@crewconnection.com, or use the chat feature on the Crew Connection website.

International crewing has never been easier

When we say it’s a world of video at your fingertips, we really do mean the world. Crew Connection is a custom software solution to the age-old issue of sourcing video pros in unfamiliar areas. If you have a shoot in a far-flung locale, we’re pretty sure we have just the crew on call. Go ahead, try, and stump us. 

Even bulk shoots are easy

With Crew Connection, managing bulk shoots—whether it’s 10 or 100—is so easy it’s almost fun. Crew Connection allows you to research and contact crews all over the world on your own schedule. Don’t waste your day scouring the Internet for crews in unfamiliar locations. Stop drowning in calls that come trickling in from crews at all hours. Keep all of your communication in one centralized location and check your Crew Connection notifications when you have time.

Booking lots of shoots at once maybe your job, but our job is to make sure it’s not overwhelming.

It’s a perfect match

With Crew Connection, you can search the video industry’s leading database of global production talent by your specific needs everything from gear and location to areas of expertise.

About Crew Connection

Crew Connection puts a world of video service providers at your fingertips. In just a few clicks you can search, chat with, and book vetted crews local to your shoot—all on your own schedule. Rely on Crew Connection’s team of media experts to organize the crews and gear you need for multi-day and multi-location video projects anywhere in the world. Our crew coordinators are on call around the clock if you ever need live assistance. Visit CrewConnection.com, call us at 303-526-4900, or shoot us an email at info@crewconnection.com.

Crew Connection empowers professional video service providers to take their schedules back into their own hands. Set up your own professional profile in just minutes, send a message with your clients at your convenience, and receive a guaranteed payment within 30 days of every single shoot. Find out why hundreds of crews all over the world love using Crew Connection.

Clients come to you

Crew Connection is online and on-demand, allowing clients to search directly for you—professional video service providers all over the world. Once clients find a potential match, they are able to message you directly to get the booking process started. Removing the middleman means you get high-quality clients and projects delivered straight to your inbox.

Build your pipeline quickly

Your professional profile on Crew Connection lets you control your own destiny. Creating an impressive Crew Connection profile that includes your best stills, demo reel, and bio information help you quickly build a pipeline of paying projects with our high-quality clients. 

Online and on the line

You can do everything online, but you’ll still have the same excellent service and support from our crew coordinators whenever you need it. Give us a call literally any time at 303-526-4900, drop us a message right on the Crew Connection website, or use our handy Crew Connection chat feature to get a quick response between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. MT. 

Prompt payment

And the best part of all about Crew Connection? Payment is ensured within 30 days of receiving your invoice. Every. Single. Time.

About Crew Connection

Crew Connection puts a suite of marketing tools at your fingertips. Get your demo reels, stills, gear, awards, and more in front of the biggest clients all over the world—for free. At Crew Connection we pay video and post-production providers within 30 days of receiving your invoice so your work and your life are never interrupted. Need live assistance or want to add quality jobs to your pipeline? Our crew coordinators are on call around the clock. Sign In to Crew Connection, call 303-526-4900, or email info@crewconnection.com.

Between all of the tasks you have to juggle on any given day, it’s a wonder you have time to breathe—much less login and out of Crew Connection on all of your devices.

Here’s a (literal) shortcut that will keep you logged in and just a single tap away from Crew Connection when you add it right to your device’s home screen.

Safari on the iPhone and iPad

Open Safari, which comes preloaded on your Apple device, and visit CrewConnection.com. Tap on the Share icon in the center of the toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

Tap “Add to Home Screen.”

Change the title of the shortcut to something simple and memorable. “Crew Connection” is a great option! Select “Add.”

The shortcut It will now appear on your home screen just like an app!

Chrome on Galaxy S6

Open the Chrome app and visit CrewConnection.com. Tap the menu button in the upper right corner.

Select “Add to Home screen.”

Change the title to something simple and memorable, like “Crew Connection.” This will be the name of the shortcut on your home screen. Select “ADD.”

Now you’ll be able to find the shortcut right on your home screen just like the rest of your apps—including Pokemon GO of course.

Please keep in mind that technology is always changing and we can’t possibly cover every ever-updating device out there. We tried to include instructions for the most popular devices, browsers, and versions. Even if you don’t use one of the specific items mentioned here, many systems work similarly when adding a shortcut—including laptop and desktop computers. Play around and see how you can create a Crew Connection shortcut on all of the devices that you use.

Sources

• How to Create Website Shortcuts on the iPhone Homescreen
• ANDROID 6.0 MARSHMALLOW: HOW TO ADD BOOKMARKS TO HOME SCREEN ON GALAXY S6

About Crew Connection

Crew Connection puts a world of video service providers at your fingertips. In just a few clicks you can search, chat with, and book vetted crews local to your shoot—all on your own schedule. Rely on Crew Connection’s team of media experts to organize the crews and gear you need for multi-day and multi-location video projects anywhere in the world. Our crew coordinators are on call around the clock if you ever need live assistance. Visit CrewConnection.com, call us at 303-526-4900, or shoot us an email at info@crewconnection.com.

In the media production industry, most of us wear multiple hats on a daily basis. Often, one of those hats is full of bills that need to be paid. With Crew Connection, that doesn’t necessarily have to take a big portion of your day.

At the bottom of every estimate, we include an optional Purchase Order Number field that you can fill out before hitting the Accept button. This ensures that the correct PO number is attached to the project all the way from inception to invoicing.

We made the PO number field optional because we understand that every project is unique. That’s also why we also added the ability to send the estimate to your accounting department before accepting it on CrewCloud. Just use the Open as PDF link at the bottom left of the estimate to download a PDF of the estimate to share as needed.

If you don’t have a PO number and you’re ready to get your project started, go ahead and accept the estimate. You can reach out to us at absolutely any time to update your invoice with the right PO number—even after we’ve already sent you the invoice! There is no limit to the type or number of characters you can use in your PO number.

If you have any questions about using PO numbers on Crew Connection or need to get in touch with a crew coordinator about an invoice, shoot us an email or call 303-526-4900 at any time.

Streamline your payment process, eliminate paperwork, and take back your day with Crew Connection. Sign up for free to give it a try today!

About Crew Connection

Crew Connection puts a world of video service providers at your fingertips. In just a few clicks you can search, chat with, and book vetted crews local to your shoot—all on your own schedule. Rely on Crew Connection’s team of media experts to organize the crews and gear you need for multi-day and multi-location video projects anywhere in the world. Our crew coordinators are on call around the clock if you ever need live assistance. Visit CrewConnection.com, call us at 303-526-4900, or shoot us an email at info@crewconnection.com.

The video-industry veterans at Crew Connection are constantly adding crews from all over the world (Yep, we’re international!) to our database of vetted video production crews. We want to make sure you get a crew who both understands the area local to your shoot and saves you travel expenses.

However, every once in a while, you may need a crew in a remote location like, say, northern Alaska. In such cases, we make sure you’re matched up with the best, closest crew available.

When you use Crew Connection to search for a crew in a certain location (learn how to use our search features more effectively here!), the search distance in the dropdown menu will default to 25 miles. That’s because, at the 50-mile round trip mark, most crews will begin to charge for travel expenses.

If you aren’t able to find a local crew in those 25 miles, just use the dropdown menu to select the next distance option. If you still aren’t able to find exactly what you’re looking for even after adjusting the distance, just contact one of our crew coordinators.

Many clients balk at the notion of paying for a hotel room for each crew member when using a traveling crew. However, depending on the length of the shoot and your call and wrap times, it could actually end up saving you money.

Most traveling crews charge for the door to door, or “portal to portal,” service. That means that the second they leave the office until the time they return, they’re on the clock.

If your crew is traveling over 50 miles round trip on top of a full day of shooting, you’re very likely going to rack up overtime. And when crews charge half of their standard hourly rate for overtime, a traffic jam or bad weather can quickly turn into a huge expense for you.

As you’re conducting your search for a video production crew on Crew Connection, keep in mind that even a non-local crew who is able to drive in is still a heckuva lot cheaper than paying to fly in a crew and all of their gear. Aside from the obvious travel expenses, a crew that’s based closer to the shoot location will better understand the unique area and culture.

However, if you do find yourself needing to fly a crew in, remember to account for excess baggage fees for all of their gear. If your crew is traveling internationally, make sure you arrange for visas and whatever permits they might need to shoot.

At Crew Connection, we might not always be able to match you up with a local crew, but we’ll get you as close as possible!

Are you a busy media manager who’s booking shoots all over the world? What are you waiting for—sign up or sign in on Crew Connection today and get the video production crew you need when and where you need it.

About Crew Connection

Crew Connection puts a world of video service providers at your fingertips. In just a few clicks you can search, chat with, and book vetted crews local to your shoot—all on your own schedule. Rely on Crew Connection’s team of media experts to organize the crews and gear you need for multi-day and multi-location video projects anywhere in the world. Our crew coordinators are on call around the clock if you ever need live assistance. Visit CrewConnection.com, call us at 303-526-4900, or shoot us an email at info@crewconnection.com.

Your flight is booked, your bags are packed, and your calendar only has one meeting on it—you plus a margarita, on the beach, pronto. But there’s still that nagging feeling that you forgot something. Did you remember to update your CrewCloud notification settings (read more about those here!) so that your projects and clients don’t fall through the cracks while you’re stretched out in the sun?

Just like you would add an out of office message to your work email to let clients know you’re unavailable, you should update your CrewCloud profile so that clients aren’t left assuming that you simply aren’t interested in working with them.

Don’t ruin your vacation by coming back to a bunch of neglected projects and upset clients! Even if you’re taking a few days off work, it doesn’t mean your clients are. It only takes a second to set up CrewCloud to make sure you don’t ruin your chances of working with them later on.

There are several options for setting up CrewCloud to handle your notifications while you’re gone. Our recommendation is logging into your My Account page and visiting the Notifications tab under Crew Account Details.

Update the Email and Text Messages fields to ensure that someone who’s in the office gets your notifications while you’re away. Remember that your dedicated crew coordinator is always available to help if you need to pass off your notifications to someone who isn’t familiar with CrewCloud. If you choose this solution, make sure the point of contact you’ve assigned has your CrewCloud sign in info! 

If you’re going to be unavailable longer than a few days or don’t have anyone to pass off your notifications to, we have another option for you!

On your My Account page, just uncheck the box next to Profile Visibility. This means that you won’t show up in client searches and they won’t be able to contact you while you’re “invisible.”

And even if you aren’t going on vacation, now is a good time to double-check that your Profile Visibility is set appropriately to ensure you’re getting contacted when you want.  

Want clients to be able to contact you but don’t have anyone else to hold down the fort while you’re unavailable? Just contact your personal crew coordinator and they’ll reroute your messages to come straight to their inbox and respond on your behalf. Never miss another client request just because you happened to be working in a remote location on the day they sent it.

The CrewCloud team carefully created notifications to fit your needs and your lifestyle—whether you’re on maternity leave, vacation, or just shooting in a remote location. If you need a refresher on how to initially get your notifications set up, read our quick how-to guide here.

Not signed up for CrewCloud? What are you waiting for—sign up for free today! Check out our full tips and tricks series here to learn how you can free up even more time with CrewCloud notifications.

All too often we hear news about the fines and lawsuits that companies suffer all because they aren’t familiar with the nuances of workers’ compensation insurance. So, are you sure you really understand your company’s workers’ compensation policy?

You Are The First Line of Defense

Crew Connection book crews in every corner of the globe (Find out how to take advantage of that here!), so we know all there is to know about insurance requirements. We do our very best to ensure that the crews we match you up with meet your company’s guidelines. However, the only way to do that accurately is if you know what those guidelines are! Make sure that you’re aware of your company’s workers’ compensation policy and that you communicate it to your personalized Crew Connection coordinator.  

How Crew Connection Protects You

Our Contact System

In some states, crews who hire subcontractors instead of employees aren’t required to carry workers’ compensation insurance. In order to protect your company from violating your requirements, we step in when clients reach out to crews such as these who don’t carry workers’ compensation. You can read how we protect you here.

Our Smart Filters

If you know that working with a crew who has workers’ compensation is an absolute must, just use CrewCloud’s smart filters to narrow your results down to crews with workers’ compensation insurance.

Our Coverage

A project taking place in an area where workers’ compensation isn’t required for subcontractors? You might have a hard time finding the crew you need. Don’t worry—we still have you covered! We can protect you under Crew Connection’s workers’ compensation policy for an additional fee. Contact us on our website or call 303-526-4900 if you want to know more about how Crew Connection can keep you compliant. And employed!

At Crew Connection, we’ve built our system to best protect you from working with crews who don’t match your requirements. If you hire a crew who doesn’t align with your workers’ compensation guidelines, you alone are responsible for resulting fines or lawsuits.

Sign up or sign in to Crew Connection and find crews who fit your workers’ compensation guidelines so you can get back to focusing on the creative work you love. Read more Crew Connection tips and tricks here.

About Crew Connection

Crew Connection puts a world of video service providers at your fingertips. In just a few clicks you can search, chat with, and book vetted crews local to your shoot—all on your own schedule. Rely on Crew Connection’s team of media experts to organize the crews and gear you need for multi-day and multi-location video projects anywhere in the world. Our crew coordinators are on call around the clock if you ever need live assistance. Visit CrewConnection.com, call us at 303-526-4900, or shoot us an email at info@crewconnection.com.

Remember that time you set up your Crew Connection notifications? (Oh, you haven’t yet? Learn how here!) Here’s where they really come in handy: knowing the second a crew completes an estimate that you expertly requested for your project.

When a crew submits an estimate for you to review, you’ll receive a notification according to your settings. To view it, log into your Crew Connection profile and find the estimate in the Under Review section of your Estimates tab.

Take your time reviewing the estimate carefully! Look over each line item’s description, quantity, and price as well as details like location and date.

If you’re ready to approve the estimate, simply use the Accept button near the bottom of the page. Even after you approve an estimate, don’t hesitate to reach out to the crew to make sure everyone’s on the same page. If you need any changes made up to the day of the project, let your crew know and they will be able to do so via their company profile in Crew Connection. You’ll receive a notification once they’ve submitted an updated estimate for you to review.

If you haven’t entered your billing information yet at this point, you’ll be routed to the billing page upon accepting an estimate. After putting in your info, you’ll be taken back to the estimate to accept it. If you choose to become a corporate client, your journey will stop at the billing information section and a coordinator will review your profile. If you have any questions about becoming a corporate client, don’t hesitate to contact one of our coordinators via our website or at 303-526-4900. 

If your invoicing system requires that a PO number be associated with your estimate, enter that just above the Accept button. You can always send that PO number to your crew coordinator in the future if you don’t know it at the time of accepting the estimate.

More often than not, estimates need a little editing before they’re ready to go. Now is when you would use the Reject button. A popup will require you to enter the reason for rejecting the estimate. Take this opportunity to detail the change(s) you need—whether it’s a cost adjustment, a gear swap, or simply that the project has been canceled. This information will be sent to the crew so that their revised estimate will be more on par with what you’re looking for. You’ll get a notification when the crew submits a new estimate.

Don’t hesitate to hit that Reject button if you really do need changes to your estimate! Our crews don’t mind updating estimates or negotiating costs. They understand that you’ve got a budget to meet and they want the project to work out just as much as you do.

It’s important to keep your communication as well as your final approved estimate in Crew Connection so that when invoicing rolls around there isn’t any room for disagreement. If you need any guidance or help with a dispute, easily pull in a coordinator at any time using Crew Connection‘s chatbox, our website, or via phone at 303-526-4900.

About Crew Connection

Crew Connection puts a suite of marketing tools at your fingertips. Get your demo reels, stills, gear, awards, and more in front of the biggest clients all over the world—for free. At Crew Connection we pay video and post-production providers within 30 days of receiving your invoice so your work and your life are never interrupted. Need live assistance or want to add quality jobs to your pipeline? Our crew coordinators are on call around the clock. Sign In to Crew Connection, call 303-526-4900, or email info@crewconnection.com.

The only constant in the video production industry is change. Even a finalized project isn’t really final until it’s over. Crew Connection’s smart estimate system is built to handle whatever changes your client can throw at you—from inception through call time. 

Once a client accepts your estimate, it will be converted into a project that can be viewed in your Projects tab in Crew Connection. Once an estimate becomes a project, be sure to touch base with your client and whoever else is involved to make sure you’re all on the same page.

If—or should we say when—changes are needed, it’s easy to edit your estimate in Crew Connection up to the day the project starts.

After messaging back and forth with your client on Crew Connection, it might become clear that the cool angle they want to capture requires a drone operator or you need to add a video editor to your crew for post-production changes. All you have to do is open the project in your Projects tab, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click the Change to Estimate button. This will convert your project back into an estimate and you can start editing right there on the page!

After you’ve added gear, changed the date, adjusted the cost, or made whatever additional changes your client requested; use the Submit button to send your client a notification that the estimate is ready for them to check out! For a refresher on how to create or edit an estimate, check out our tutorial here.

If your client contacts you outside of Crew Connection to make changes, pull them back into the system by making their requested edits directly to the Crew Connection estimate. When a client accepts your estimate, they are legally bound to pay for the line items included in your estimate, which eliminates any confusion over what services your client will receive or what your net income will be.

Please remember that changes to your Crew Connection estimate can only be made up to the day the project starts. If you can’t avoid a last-minute change on set, it’s in your best interest to loop in a Crew Connection coordinator as quickly as possible. On the off chance that the on-set producer requests change that the person who’s paying the bills hasn’t approved, we can back you up and help you handle the situation.

About Crew Connection

Crew Connection puts a suite of marketing tools at your fingertips. Get your demo reels, stills, gear, awards, and more in front of the biggest clients all over the world—for free. At Crew Connection we pay video and post-production providers within 30 days of receiving your invoice so your work and your life are never interrupted. Need live assistance or want to add quality jobs to your pipeline? Our crew coordinators are on call around the clock. Sign in to Crew Connection, call 303-526-4900, or email info@crewconnection.com.