For many years, productions could easily bring their crew to the US. It was fantastic! 

As a Director of Photography (DoP) I personally did approximately 30+ trips to the US from the UK and over the years have had at least 3 ivisas.

Now with streamers and the way the TV landscape has changed, the lawyers are far stricter and the classic ivisa (which is essentially a press visa) sadly from a legal perspective doesn’t always cut it anymore…

Productions can apply for O1 Visa’s for their crew. The applicant has to tick many boxes to be classed as ‘A person of extraordinary ability’. 
This is costly, time consuming and there is no guarantee that the applicant will be awarded one.

For The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy (Apple+), I was living in London and was the DP for four episodes of season 1, Maldives, Venice, Utah and Costa Rica. The UK production company managed to get the showrunner an O1, then the rest of the team an O2 Visa. 
The O2 allowed everyone to work on that one particular show as ‘an assistant’ to the showrunner. 
This route is a good possible option. The only draw back is that it’s expensive and you do need a lot of lead time, probably at least 4-6months.

Filmcrewinusa.com avoids this problem as all our crew are US based and have the relevant paperwork that allows them to legally work in the USA. It’s no secret that UK productions tend to prefer working with crew who have come up through the UK industry. That’s usually because there’s a short hand and the ways of working and sensibilities are similar.

To put it into perspective, US and UK budgets have always been wildly different and American crew are just used to having more crew members on set and not used to doing as much work crossing over departments.
For a standard UK BBC Doc/ factual show on location we would have a Director, Assistant Producer, DoP, Sound Recordist and if lucky a Camera Assistant with a max 5 of people.
In the US the same documentary would consist of a Director, Producer, DoP, B Camera Op, Sound Recordist, A2 (sound assistant), Gaffer, Key Grip, Swing (works non-union between electric and grip), at least one possibly two PA’s (runners) and potentially drivers so it would likely be between 11-13 people. More than double!

Filmcrewinusa.com consists of a lot crew from the UK (including founder DP Harvey Glen), Australia, New Zealand and of course hand-picked Americans who totally get it and understand working on a smaller scale, but high production values.

Directors get attached to their crew, especially the DoP and it’s understandable they want to travel with them and film the entire show/series. 
We get it! That is the ideal!
However, now that viewing rushes (dailies) is so much more convenient, it’s a lot easier to understand the DoP’s style and intent and for the main DoP and filmcrewinusa.com to collaborate remotely to ensure the lighting and lensing styles match, preserving the integrity of the
photography.

Filmcrewinusa.com will also supply the exact equipment used prior, so there’s no inconsistency.  
We have everything from Arri to Sony and beyond.

Filmcrewinusa.com is here to help foreign productions coming to the US and ensure they come away with the highest quality material and that it
cuts in seamlessly to existing projects. We are here to reduce your excess costs, provide local knowledge, experience and overall great vibes!

Reach out with any questions and lets get your US shoot underway!
info@filmcrewinusa.com
+1 213 910 4034