Hiring a local researcher, producer, filmmaker or cinematographer for your next project must be something that you should choose carefully, especially if you are a company from Europe or USA looking for a Peruvian professional. Internet can show a huge amount of names and companies but how do you know if this person can fit your project?
Here my suggestions that can help you a bit:
- Once you have found someone online that might catch your attention for some reason, arrange a call with that person and pay attention to ‘the feelings’ this person projects on you. This must sound a bit crazy but for me this is a crucial thing, whenever you talk to a person, you can feel their energy, their intentions and whether they actually sound like a good option or not for the purpose of your project. I actually also use this whenever I talk with a new client as well, so it works in both ways.
- Keep in mind that each person has different focuses on their life and even when a person can be good for some projects, the same person can not be the best in others. This is why it is important to have it clear if your project is more towards a journalism news, or maybe more as a documentary or if you are looking for something more commercial; then to find the right direction for each one it is different.
- Nowadays that everything is worldwide, a lot of ‘Fixer companies’ have been born and many of them are from Europe or USA selling Latin American services which means that they have Latin workers below them. In some cases this works well but in others cases companies don’t do anything at all and charge a huge commission to connect you with the person in the country and you will find yourself paying a middle one for nothing. So in order to have a fair system of work and rates please track the people you are hiring and be sure you are paying the right person or company.
- Hiring a Peruvian professional directly from the country adds inclusion to your project and makes you a responsible team. Especially these days that we need to be more aware of the chain of the jobs. Paying attention to this will help the whole industry to be better.
- Same as you have respect for your co-workers, have the same respect for the people you are filming and consider a budget for them as well. I hate this line that someone created that says ´You shouldn’t pay people to have a story´ and for me this is a non-sense! I agree partially on this, because if you are filming news or something where this actually is an advantage for the person in front of the camera, then it is fine. But some international companies come to Peru or anywhere in Latin America to film isolated communities. These people in many cases don’t even have a television. Sometimes the project might not even be shown in Peru or in Spanish. So how can we not be thankful for the time of these people? I have to say that happily only once I was questioned about it in 3 years of working in this field but please be aware of this. We need to respect these communities from the first line of the rest.
- Cheap is not always the best. I have to say that ´professionals´ are everywhere from every career, but someone who has the motivation to be in your project at 200% is not someone to take it for granted. Even for me, there is always a challenge to find co-workers who go on my own speed and passion. Therefore I work most of the time just with an assistant. You don’t need to hire a lot of people but I will say, hire the right person whom you also feel comfortable with.
- Don’t be afraid to have a more inclusive team. Nowadays I see this more often from European companies that apart from looking for a professional, they are also focused on finding a local person, or a woman or someone with native roots. (I am proud to say that my surname Yarlequé comes from Tallanes pre columbian culture from the north of Peru) 🙂
- Find reviews of what other clients said about the people that you are hiring and be sure this person has international experience. This is something I share on my website as well so it gives a guarantee to future clients about my work, especially having the dates and country from each one. https://humanafilms.com/international-reviews/
- Check the previous projects this person has worked on and check the dates where these projects were done. Also having someone in your team that doesn’t do just one task can be very helpful in the whole process, especially on short projects that demand only a few days on the field. So consider this also on the person you hire.
- Finally, I hope this can help you to decide on whom to work with in your next project. From my side I can tell you that if your project is related with cosmovisions, indigenous, culture, history, environment, traditions and inspiring people for the world, I am here for you at any level! Either to do researching, production, filming, drone driver, or even short editing! I work with the highest quality of services and equipment. You can check my projects at https://humanafilms.com/
Made and written with lots of love by Lizeth Yarlequé 🙂
Humana Films - Documentary Filmmaker & Fixer in Peru 