Local Crew, Talent and Casting in Ethiopia

Crew who have worked with international units

The gap between a technician who is good and a technician who has worked to an international broadcaster's standard is mostly about habits: labelling, backups, call sheet discipline, radio etiquette, working to a schedule someone else wrote. We hire from the pool that already has those habits, and we have spent years building it, including through filmmaking workshops and mentoring run in Addis Ababa with visiting international professionals.

For a small documentary, that might be one camera operator, one sound recordist, a fixer-translator and a driver. For a commercial it might be a full unit with an Ethiopian DoP, a local gaffer with a lighting truck, an art department and thirty-five extras. Same bench, different depth.

Roles we place

• Director of photography, camera operator, focus puller, DIT
• Sound recordist, boom operator, playback
• Gaffer, best boy, grip, generator operator
• Licensed drone pilot with in-country registered aircraft
• First and second assistant director, production manager, production coordinator
• Art director, props, set dresser, stylist, hair and make-up
• Translators and interpreters for Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Tigrinya, Somali, Afar and minority languages
• Regional fixers resident in each area, drivers, runners, medics and security advisers

Casting and contributors

We cast professional actors and presenters from the Addis Ababa industry, and we find real contributors — farmers, priests, weavers, musicians, engineers, students — through the local networks that actually reach them rather than through a casting call that only reaches the capital.

Working with real people carries a duty of care. We brief contributors properly in their own language, obtain informed consent and signed releases, agree fair compensation, and we will push back if a request would misrepresent someone or put them at risk. Productions that respect this get better access and better material.