“Are the people nice?”
I recently worked on a show where our dolly grip had to leave, suddenly, due to a family emergency. Life happens, from time to time, and, when it does, I always try to do anything I can to make it easier for someone to leave, as many people in this industry (myself included) have a weird sense of responsibility when it comes to taking days off and upsetting the apple cart.
Needing a replacement, we called around to a few names that we knew, but no one was available. We finally checked with a dolly grip who is extremely well known in the industry. We hadn’t called him first because no one on our crew knew him firsthand, but, as we started to cast a wider net, we figured, Why not? Maybe he’s available. Thankfully, he was.
The DP texted me to tell me that he was available and was getting on the next plane and then told me the one question he had for the producers - “Are the people nice?”.
It may seem like an odd question to ask, and I suspect that not many people out there would have that be the question they would come up with, but in asking that—and only that—he told me everything I needed to know about himself. Soon enough, I recognized it was all true.
Most people coming in to a job will want to know things like the rate, the schedule, where they are staying, and so many other things, all of which are important. But, by simply asking if the people he would be working with were nice, he illustrated that he knows the true value of what you are looking for in a crew. Quality is a crapshoot, and one person's quality can be another person's lack of abilities. Hours fluctuate, stories come and go, so many other things that someone can be worried about can change on a dime. But kindness, decency, and working with people who are nice are things that aren’t going to change regardless of what happens, and that one single question immediately told me what kind of person he was. The kind of person I want to work with.
I can honestly say I have never heard someone ask this before and I’m personally going to brazenly steal it and use it in the future. It sets the bar high and lets production know who you are and what you expect. In that one question, I learned everything I need to know about him, even if he was any good, because someone who isn’t that good can’t turn down the shows that aren’t filled with nice people, but someone who is truly secure, works as much as they want, has been smart with their money and their career, and has the most important things in mind when taking a job, is the person who is going to simply ask “Are the people nice?”
Sometimes, the simple questions are the most important, and asking that, and only that, can say more about you than a five-page bio ever could.
