Najeeb Tarazi is an independent filmmaker and technologist pioneering new tools for cinematic storytelling. With projects ranging from intimate portraits of makers on the verge of success to surreal explorations that push the boundaries of 3D motion capture, Tarazi’s work finds the balance between technical mastery and subtle insight into his subjects.But it takes more than innovative ideas to make a film project possible. Tarazi turns to Airtable to manage the minutiae of the production process so he can focus on the creative breakthroughs that are his speciality. Take the short film Shaman, which Tarazi produced in 2015. Though only five minutes in length, it required 5 locations, 12 crew members, 16 scenes, 50 shots and over 500 takes. As producer, Tarazi was responsible for bringing together all of these disparate details to fulfill the director’s vision and get the film done on time and within budget.
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Tarazi started by creating a simple set of tables to manage both the cast and crew. Instead of maintaining crucial information in a series of scattered emails or across multiple specialized pieces of software, he was able to combine all pertinent details into one unified record including each person’s contact information, legal paperwork, day rate and more.
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Even a five minute short like Shaman requires a large number of props, all of which must match the director’s exact vision for the scene. In order to keep track of all the required items, Tarazi created a table to track which props had been acquired, what prep they required, where they were purchased and more.
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Equally crucial were the various expense tables tracking purchases ranging from meals for the cast and crew to miscellaneous expenses like location fees, and in several cases, even parking tickets. With the tight constraints of an independent film production, every dollar had to be carefully categorized and accounted for, including details such as the purchaser and a picture of the receipt. For the latter, for items he purchased himself, Tarazi used the Airtable mobile app to take a picture directly from his phone’s camera and then attach it to the expense record in question.
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After creating the cast, crew and expense tables, Tarazi realized that he could link the tables to help streamline the reimbursement process. He created new linked record fields in the cast and crew tables that allowed him to connect existing expense records for meals, purchases and more to their respective purchasers.
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When it was time to cut reimbursement checks, Tarazi could simply check each cast and crew member’s record to see the links to their purchases all in one place.
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One of the most important parts of Tarazi’s job as a producer was plotting out and managing the interplay of scenes and shots for the film. Each scene was comprised of multiple shots, all with different technical requirements. To manage this crucial piece of the production, Tarazi created a pair of linked tables, one for scenes and one for shots. By using linked records to assign multiple shots to a single scene, Tarazi could at a glance find all the details necessary for a successful shoot.
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Ultimately, the production was a success, with Shaman being featured as a Vimeo Staff Pick. "Using Airtable meant I could always find what I needed, when I needed it— no small feat on an indie film set," said Tarazi.
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Learn more about Tarazi’s life and work over at Creators & Creatives.