Abel Cine Tech recently teamed up with the long-established, Maryland-based, corporate crewing company Crews Control to assist their crews, as well as their corporate clients with the ongoing migration to HD. Components of this joint relationship include HD format and product awareness, training and technical support.

We caught up with Crews Control CEO and founder Andrea Keating for some insight into the story behind this breakthrough company.

How did you develop the concept behind your company, Crews Control?

I helped start up a local agency that represented talent in the Washington area, and they wanted to stay local. Production crews were the one group of talent that clients used to fly around the country at the time. When the economy dipped in the late 80’s, I realized that if I could set up the qualifying and screening process for clients to hire local crews for the location shooting it would be a win / win situation. More work for local crews and a significant cost savings for clients.

Briefly describe the history of the company.

I started the company in 1988 and spent the first few years screening and qualifying talent. I basically called everyone I had ever worked with in the business and asked, “Who are the best camera people you know?” From there, I developed a multiple step interview and screening process that we still use today. As I developed the first crewing agency in the U.S., the concept was brand new, so I spent a lot of my time educating clients on how we worked and how we could save them time and money. I’m proud to say that my first client is still a client, and our client list includes folks that began working with me 20 years ago. In the mid 90’s, we went international and are now booking crews in Hong Kong for clients in Germany. I am still amazed at how far reaching my concept has grown.

What makes your company unique?

We represent the best and do whatever we need to do to make sure that our clients are happy. Our goal is to make working with Crews Control better, faster and easier than any other option that our clients may have. 

What makes you so successful?

First, my team here at Crews Control. They are all incredibly talented, bright and totally committed to doing whatever needs to be done to make sure every shoot goes perfectly and our clients have a good experience working with Crews Control. Our Production Managers take great care in matching the right crew with each client and their project and have a great sense of pride when they chat with a client after the shoot and the client shares, “That was a great crew you matched me up with, I want to work with them again when I go back to that city.” They do their job very well.

Second, the crews we represent. We work with the best and it shows, shoot after shoot. They always go above and beyond to make sure each time we send them out on a Crews Control shoot it goes well, and they make us and our clients look good time after time.   

Can you share some of the factors that go into a good crew / client match?

Obviously, the technical aspects and the years of shooting experience. The screen doesn’t lie, you can tell the level of expertise in the first minute or so of a demo reel. We work mostly with owner operators who stay on top of the latest technology. But gear is only a small part of the equation… we match our crews and clients based on content being shot, shooting style and, yes… personality of both the crews and clients. We gather feedback from clients after each shoot and use the information gained on both the crew and client side to help match them with the right type of crew for each project.  

Tell us a bit about your clients. What range of projects are they shooting?

Most of the work that we do falls into two groups. Corporate internal communications, which include training, marketing, recruitment and meetings and web; and then shooting for production companies that are producing programs for the cable market.
 

What types of equipment / acquisition formats are your clients working with most these days? How has this changed over the years?

Working with corporate clients means that Betacam-SP still makes up a big portion of our shoot requests, with DVCam a close second. But, with Betacam-SP being phased out, we are anticipating shift in the market in the next 12 months.

What are the needs of your company / your clients / your crews in terms of evaluating new technology?

Because of the high volume of shoots that we are booking worldwide we get in on the early buzz on new technology and are constantly getting feedback from crews and clients on formats, new cameras and trends in their part of the world. So, essentially, we have an international focus group to tap into when we are looking into feedback on technology. We use that feedback to educate ourselves, clients and crews to make sure that we are making the right recommendations for our clients and crews. 

How rapidly do you see new technologies being adopted? Are the crews or production clients generally the first to accept them?

With the corporate market, the shift is slow… but we are seeing a big of hesitation all across the board. With so many options out there right now, folks are a bit cautious to make the leap into new technology, as it’s still unclear what will become the market leader. Here at Crews Control, we have rolled out a program, our Technical Partnership Initiative (TPI), which tracks the manufacturer, format and model of the thousands of shoots that we are booking worldwide and are using this information to help our clients and crews make the best equipment purchasing decisions based on their shooting history, as well as trends based on their company's industry, geographic area or department size.

Describe the strategic partnership with Abel?

Our partnership with Abel and our new Nationwide Educational series allows us to offer our clients and crews a hands-on opportunity to learn about new formats, technology and trends in a manufacturer-neutral environment. It’s all about education and gaining the information you need so you can make the best decisions on which technology will work best in your work environment. Abel has the national presence to provide service and support to our crews and clients nationwide and also has a reputation for customer service and support that matches our own philosophies.  

Our clients will have the benefit of learning about technology trends in an educational environment and will have the opportunity for small group peer-to-peer networking and information sharing. It’s hard to keep on top of all the new technology… this is just one more way that Crews Control offers value to our clients by offering then educational and industry expertise through our partnership with Abel. It’s win / win / win.

View photos from Abel's first Crews Control training seminar on tapeless HD production on the following page.