Who is free on the fourteenth?
You have a build, a two-day show and a de-rig, with site managers, stage crew, registration staff, hosts and runners. You rely on a pool of freelancers you know. The production manager sends a message to a WhatsApp group: "Anyone free 13 to 16?" Replies trickle in. Some people are pencilled for another company. Some say yes to you and to someone else. Someone you rely on has been "on hold" for weeks without a confirm.
Then comes the call sheet: who, where, what time, parking, dress code, radio channel, catering, contacts. It is built in a document from the replies, and then changed six times because two people drop out and the build moves by half a day.
Why crewing is so manual
Freelancers work for several companies, so availability changes by the hour, and your pool's details live in phones and group chats.
- Availability is asked for each event in a group message.
- Holds and confirms are informal, and nobody knows which holds are still valid.
- Skills, day rates and preferences are in the production manager's head.
- Call sheets are built by hand and resent after each change.
- Hours worked are reported afterwards from memory, which matters for pay and invoices.
The cost of crewing by text
Good crew are lost to other companies because your confirm came a day late. Holds that lapse without anyone noticing leave you short in the week of the show. Crew turn up at the wrong entrance or the wrong time because they had an old call sheet. And the production manager, who should be planning the build, spends a large part of the week on messages.
There is also a gap in what you know about your own pool. Nobody can easily say who has worked the most shows for you this year, who has the right training for a particular venue, or which crew have not been offered work for months and may have drifted to other companies. That knowledge matters when the calendar fills and you need people you trust.
And when a freelancer is ill on the morning of a build, finding a replacement from a group chat, at six in the morning, is slow and stressful.
The crew system we build
- Your freelancer pool has a record each: skills, roles, day rates agreed with you, contact details, and any documents or training records you require.
- Crew set their own availability through a link, and update it when they take other work.
- For each event, the production manager selects roles and dates, sees who is free and suitable, and sends holds.
- Holds have an expiry you set; crew accept or release, and the system reminds you before a hold expires.
- Confirmations are sent with the dates, role and rate, and recorded.
- Call sheets are generated from the event schedule and the confirmed crew, and each person gets their own version on their phone, updated when anything changes.
- On the day, crew check in and out through the same link, which records hours for pay and invoice checking.
| Stage | Old way | With the crew system |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | Group message | Crew keep their own calendar current |
| Hold | Text, then forgotten | Hold with expiry and reminder |
| Confirm | Text | Confirmation with dates, role, rate |
| Call sheet | Document resent after each change | Personal, live on phone |
| Hours | Recalled afterwards | Checked in and out on site |
Crewing a show week
The production manager opens the event, picks roles and dates, and sends holds to the right people in minutes. By the next morning, most have accepted. Two decline; the system shows the next suitable people. The call sheet goes out a week before, and when the build moves by half a day, each person's call sheet updates and they get a message. After the show, hours are already recorded, which makes the invoices from crew straightforward to check.
Is crewing like this for you?
- You ask for crew availability in a group chat.
- Holds lapse without anyone noticing.
- Call sheets are rebuilt and resent after every change.
- Crew have turned up with an old call sheet.
- Hours worked are reported from memory after the show.