Cast or Crew first?

In pre-production for a micro budget short does it matter if I assemble the crew first or the cast first? Is it easier one way or the other? Thanks!
 
Any chance you could assemble both at the same time?

Offer the parts to people you know as you are putting together your crew.
Set up and hold auditions as you are looking for crew.

However if you want to do one, finish it and then do the other I would
suggest putting your crew together then hold audition closer to the shoot
date. But it really doesn't matter. Secure your cast then put together your
crew is just as effective.

Sorry my advice is so "middle of the road" but I would do both at the
same time.
 
Casting will generally take longer. Finding the right actor for each role can take longer thab the right key people for yourr crew.

There are always "Personalities" on set.

A crew person's demo reel says a lot about their work. With actors, too many don't have demo reels and the ones that do may not have demo reels that really reflect what they can do.

Depending on what type of production you are shooting, you may also need to rehearse actors for say an action film. Actors tend to ignore posted schedules. They like to make up their own schedules. Those you don't need. They also try to get you to change a shooting schedule and sometimes an audition just for them. Crew people, for the most part, are not that disorganized. It takes time to filter them out.

Megan Fox got fired for trying that stunt with the last Transformers movie. Steven Speilburg fired her for trying to set her own hours and spending too much time on her cell phone.
 
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I have a friend who is a SAG actress who got fired from a Broadway play for trying to set her own hours too because she got wasted at night partying after work and could not get out of bed to go to work the next day.

Even in my last production, we had actors with attendance issues. One dropped out. Another had to be fired. And, a third I pulled aside and told her what happened to my friend with the Broadway play and Megan Fox. She straightened out. But, this is what you run into.
 
I tend to do key crew first as well. Once I have key members of the team who become well versed on the project, they help with the casting process. I can rent a studio for the auditions, but I'll have crew members there to help out with signing actors in or even helping with the recording of the audition as I communicate with actors. Sometimes they'll have questions of their own. Then we talk about the auditions afterwards. It gets the crew more involved with the project, I find. Sometimes they feel personally involved when they help pick a cast member.
 
We always put out notices for both at the same time and start recruiting for both once the project is a go. Usually the key members of the crew somehow get lined up before the first round of auditions, with PAs and misc crew usually on board just before filming.
 
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