I overlooked one of the smallest details during pre-production and it almost jeopardized this entire campaign.
That detail: overnight parking at the trailhead
Here's how I fixed it without the client ever knowing (yes, if they read this it will be the first time they ever know about this mistake).
Arriving the day before production to iron out the final details, pick up permits, etc. I found out we could NOT park our vehicles overnight at the backcountry trailhead.
Pause, have you every heard of a backcountry access trailhead not allowing overnight parking?
I had not.
Online said you could park there.
But, a new local law changed overnight parking for the entire area, which I only would have known if I called the ranger station and specifically asked about parking.
Easy fix for the future, but I only had 12 hours to come up with a solution before the full production crew arrived and the shoot started.
So, here were my options:
1) Park and take the ticket.
2) Find new parking, there were a few campgrounds about 20-30 minutes away, and find a shuttle of some kind for the final person.
3) Find BLM land to park the cars and risk getting broken into while unattended.
The final catch, we needed the production van at every trailhead to swap batteries, dump footage, access different cameras (mostly drones that were only allowed in specific areas).
Here's how I weighed the decision:
Option 1: Terrible idea! The client surely would not be happy, the crew would invoice for the ticket, and
Option 2: We were already at the ceiling for this production budget so our quote for parking all the vehicles was roughly $2k because the campgrounds were "full"
Option 3: Where the heck was I randomly going to find some trustworthy BLM to park vehicles for three days while we shot this backcountry project?
At a loss, I called the local fixer. They new of a spot, kinda. It was an abandoned mining area that was popular for dirt biking.
With the new beta, I headed there to scout. It was perfect and dropped the pin into the group chat, "Hey everyone, which update on parking, this is the new spot. See you all there tomorrow."
Then we used the van to shuttle everyone to the trailhead.
Utilized a crew member to drive the van to each intersection, providing the support needed with gear, food, water, etc.
When the van wasn't supporting the project (we did have lots of biking to do), they went back to the mining area to look over the vehicles.
Turns out everything worked out and the client never knew, until now.