How to Build Your Show Using Crew Lists and Show Management

If you're a production company managing multiple shows with freelance crews, you know the drill: spreadsheets, text message chains, and a lot of "hey, are you available?" phone calls. FreelanceAudioVisual.com's show management tools replace all of that with a single workflow.

Step 1: Build your crew lists

Before you even have a show, build your go-to lists. Think of these as your speed-dial for crew.

• Favorites — Your first-call techs across all disciplines
• Travel Crew — Techs who are willing to fly and have passports
• Audio Team — Your A1s, A2s, RF techs
• Video Team — V1s, camera ops, graphics operators

Add techs from the directory, from search results, or from previous show rosters. Each crew list member can have private notes, a day rate, reliability rating, and tags like "travel ready" and "own gear."

Step 2: Create the show

Go to your Shows dashboard and create a new show with:

• Show name and client
• Venue, city, and dates
• Budget and labor lead
• Call times and notes

Step 3: Add positions

Define what you need: 2 stagehands, 1 A1, 1 L1, 1 video engineer. Each position gets a specialty tag and optional department label.

Step 4: Staff from your lists

This is where it comes together. Open your crew lists and add techs directly to show positions. The system tracks their status through the pipeline:

Shortlisted → Invited → Confirmed → On Show → Completed

When you invite a tech, they get a notification on their dashboard. They can confirm or decline right from there — no phone tag required.

Step 5: Manage logistics

For each crew member on the show, you can track:

• Agreed rate and travel day rate
• Hotel, flight, and parking information
• Per diem details
• Invoice and payroll status

Step 6: Use templates for recurring shows

If you run the same type of event regularly, save it as a template. Next time, clone the template and you've got your positions pre-built. Just assign crew and go.

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The companies that staff efficiently are the ones that get the best techs — because those techs prefer working with organized production managers who don't send 15 texts to confirm a call time. Build your workflow here and watch the difference.