In honor of the day when we give thanks over food that sends us into depressive slumbers, we thought it would be nice to talk to those who feed us in the film industry: craft services.

I had the pleasure of speaking to two veterans of the industry on both coasts, Danielle Wilson, the owner and operator of Eat Catering NYC and Mark Ilvedson, long-time crew journeyman who started in craft services and now works in production design.

Wilson recently worked on A Place Beyond the Pines, Man on a Ledge and Fading Gigolo with John Turturro and Woody Allen and is currently working on Three Generations with Susan Sarandon, Naomi Watts and Elle Fanning, While Were Young with Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts and The Family Fang with Jason Bateman. Wilson also does a good deal of commercials—“a lot of Papa John’s commercials.” And though she’s a big Peyton Manning fan, she’s not feeding the crew Fritos pizza for sustenance.

Ilvedson’s gigs haven’t been quite as glamorous. Working on reality and game shows along with ultra low budget horror films has really taught him how to stretch a buck.

Here, Wilson and Ilvedson share eight things they don’t teach you in film school about feeding your crew—but should.

Feed the crew consistently throughout the course of the day.
To sustain everyone’s energy, one must have mini meals during the course of the workday to keep the crew productive, attentive, awake, alive and in a good mood.

Junk food won’t cut it.
“The food we used to think was healthy ten years ago is not,” Wilson notes. “Then I would make buffalo chicken out of a crock pot and that was perceived as healthy. Now I put out super foods and make fresh juices. Snacks include dates and bananas. I’ll sneak in a lot of vegan, vegetarian and gluten free dishes. Big Teamsters will come up to me and say, ‘Do you have anymore of that green juice?’  There’s a big movement in health consciousness on the movie set.

Liquids are crucial.
“The most important aspect of my job is coffee and water,” says Wilson. “Coffee is a necessity for working those kind of hours.” A water bottle tip: get the tiny bottles. Otherwise, you’ll find half drunk bottles of water everywhere. Crew members can’t keep track of their water bottles.

Don’t risk mutiny.
“I think if you skimp on food your film suffers,” Ilvedson says. “I did a horrible movie under very trying conditions on location in the middle of nowhere and the only thing that kept things going is we had semi decent craft services and hot catered meals. If it wasn’t for that, I swear to God the movie would have fallen apart. It would have been mutiny.

“It’s amazing to me how if the craft service is bad, how much it changes the mood on set. People really bitch about that. People will stand around saying, ‘can you believe this craft service?”  How is there not cold water at least?’

“I think people underestimate how physical a lot of people’s jobs are on set. The art people are moving furniture. The key grips are moving heavy equipment.

Beware thieves.
The only thing tougher than finding a studio for under four G’s in Manhattan is fending off entitled New Yorkers pissed off because your film crew is taking up parking spots. Wilson says she’s had to fend off everything from men in Brooks Brother’s suits, elderly men swinging canes, to women with Louis Vuitton purses plunging their hands in the almond bowl. “People will actually say, ‘you owe this to me. Look at all these parking spaces you’re taking.’”

Ilvedson worked on a job where the studio was connected to the production office. People from the office would come down and pile heaping mounds of food onto plates while boasting “looks like I don’t have to go out to lunch today.”

Cash is king.
Ilvedson recounted when he was sent out holding a production person’s credit card: “I’m very Norwegian looking and the credit card belonged to a woman with a very long Spanish name. I was at Smart & Final and I was doing this reality show called Model Latina, and I literally had $3,000 worth of food that I was trying to buy for this shoot and they wouldn’t take the card. It was such a fiasco. Always take cash.”

If someone says you’re going to run out of food, listen. 
“They’re usually not lying. It’s not like anyone in craft services is embezzling money,” Ilvedson says. “If they tell you we need an extra hundred bucks it’s probably true.”

When in doubt, avoid mayo.
Trying to have tuna salad on set is just a bad idea.

JB Bogulski / Film Independent Blogger