Logistics. Availability of personnel.

short introduction

A film crew is a group of people hired by a production company for the purpose of producing a film or a motion picture however, the film department separates the film crew into different departments for instance they might have a audio and video department this consists of all the cameras and microphones. and in another section would be the directors/co-crew this would consist of all the people running the whole operartion 

 A Skeleton crew is the minimum number of people you need to operate or maintain a certain project or task. He considers a skeleton crew to be made up of 5 people although he doesn’t think that Production Designer and Script Supervisor should be included in his crew. However, Kroll believes that the main 5 crew members should be:

Director of photography – 

a Director of Photography is a crucial part of the crew can spend more time direction your actors and less time worrying about lighting and set ups. Saves you a lot of time making the days on set run faster and more efficiently.

makeup/hair- 
will be able to photographing specific looks. makes sure looks are consistent throughout production important for actors to feel their best in character. adds a level of professionalism to the production gives the actors the respect they deserve.

production assistant-
keeps the set, to keep things moving well makes moving gear easier, makes shots when daylight is running out, brings a positive attitude onto the set.

location audio-
 sound is 50% of a film, perfect sound with poor visuals will make the audio more polished giving it a more professional feel. care about sound more then the film quality and will do everything in their power to make the audio perfect.

gaffer/grip-
 saves you a huge amount of time, gives your DP more time to focus on their tasks allows others to focus on their ideas, less chance to miss shots and give you a smoother running time on set this is someone who must share the same ideal as you as well.


In feature films its most likely harder to have a skeleton crew of only five people because there will me many more actors towards the film and a higher level of professionalism expected(not to say that short films wont have a good level of professionalism) of the film so they might only have a small crew but will have multiple people in that sector for instance you might have multiple people on makeup/hair each for a different actor so they can get used/comfortable working with the actors requirements and the film requirements however, on bigger films when Kroll mentions that he doesn't think that a production designer and a scrip supervisor may not be needed in a skeleton crew in longer films it may be important to have a script supervisor to make sure the script stays on track and within your ideal story-line. As well as production designers in longer films the shots you want will have to be up there with all the rest and don't want any frames to lack quality compared to the others however if we're talking about an animated film it would be a bigger role for a production designer because then they can make sure that none of the artwork gets sloppy or the animation style changes halfway through.