Tag Archives: Management

Running a Studio vs. Production Company [Film Friday]

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Most businessmen and women in Hollywood think they have what it takes to build the next big label. Most producers think they know better than the studios and can do one better. But there are fundamental differences between building a studio and building a production company.

Production companies see life picture to picture and rarely lock their future in place. Some production company heads have long-term goals, but most are contingent on the success of the company’s material slate. That’s true for all content creators, but production companies fall short by investing all eggs in the movie basket.

Studios take a bigger piece of the pie. The difference between production companies and studios? Studios have assets and scope. Successful studios operate more like landlords and parents than artists or producers. They own backlots, prop houses, sound stages, post production facilities, restaurants, libraries, other companies, equipment, hardware, software, websites, networks, satellites, and more. A sizable portion of the sustainable revenue comes from operating and renting out these assets. Furthermore, most studio executives speak in slates and four year periods. They work hard to see into the future and see past the big fat movie release in front of them. Strong studios invest in things other artists use to tell stories, and they also invest in long-term strategy.

Are you in it for the movie game alone? Or are you in it for the big picture? The long haul? Decide what you want to build. Do not lie to yourself about what you care about.

Drive + Joy = Productivity

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Sure, hard work gets things done. It takes drive, inspiration, and commitment to fuel hard work. But hard work alone cannot generate continuous, sustainable results. It takes a magic ingredient and one far too many large corporations fail to mix into the recipe: joy. Employees need to be happy, and you need to be happy to succeed. If a job is a constant influx of hell and bad tempers, people will burn out and crash.

It is not the employee’s responsibility to find or build that joy. In fact, most workers are too afraid to have fun in the office – like children kicking a ball around indoors, they are afraid they’ll get in trouble. It is the responsibility of the boss and the managers to enable an environment of fun and happiness. Not scheduled, forced happiness like luncheons or copy-room birthday parties. I’m talking arbitrary, unrestrained fun. Random field trips, marshmallow fights, grill days, action figure theft, whatever.

We purchased nerf guns for the office. Random shootouts happen daily now. I see endorphins flowing and smiles forming again. You’ll never know when you’ll get four inches of cold styrofoam to the skull. And I’ve gotten more done on one war day this week than all of the truce days combined.

Shape a culture in your office that enables and promotes joy. You can measure the results.

Good Leaders Decide Quickly

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If you want control, take control. If you want the final say, speak. Do NOT make people wait for your opinion, orders, or perspective. Why? They will lose your respect if you waste their time.

If you think you deserve leadership, then lead as promptly and efficiently as possible.

Overtime Pay Is Unhealthy

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Time and a half or double pay was designed to compensate you for working unreasonable hours. Depending on the rate, it can even make extra hours appealing. That’s a problem. Why?

Money does not actually compensate you for the added stress and sacrifices. Money does not buy you your time back. Money does not keep your health in check or award you sleep at night. Overtime pay does not give you your life back. So what’s the point? Just call it a day and go home.

Only work as many hours as you need to get the job done well enough. Do not be seduced by the extra cash to compromise your well-being. You’ll burn out, and it will not be worth it long-term. Cut yourself off, quit for the night, and come in fresh the next day. It is the only sustainable course of action.

Why Stress If It’s Not Your Fault?

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Perhaps harsh survival advice, but It is not worth hurting yourself over the failure of others. If someone else makes a mistake, why give yourself a heart attack? It is not your fault, so do not pretend like it. And it’s not your responsibility to clean up another person’s mess, whether you know how to or not. So relax; offer a helping hand, and take comfort in the knowledge that you are doing everything that you can to help. Do not stress.

If his or her failure effects you or makes your job harder, it does not resolve the issue to get upset. Anger, frustration, yelling, pouting, and blaming do not smooth things out at all. Stress is almost as unhealthy and contagious as the flu. Your stress will snowball into other people’s stress, which will only come back to hurt you more and make the situation worse. Objectify the problem, take new obstacles at face value, forgive the mistake, and move forward. Do not stress.

If the mistake was made under your leadership, then it is your responsibility. That is one of the risks of leadership, and you need to be prepared to handle the failures of your staff. That said, it is also your responsibility to facilitate recovery from said mistakes. Losing your cool will lose you the upper ground over your problems. Stay focused, think through the situation objectively, realign resources as needed, and act. Decision making is math, not drama. Do not stress.

Ambiguous Job Titles

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The point of a job title is to communicate clearly where you fit and what you do to others inside and out of the company. Clear job titles really help co-workers and clients navigate information and inquiries. Without question, the efficient trafficking of information is necessary to a company’s success. So why, then, is it so common to a) have no idea what your co-workers do and b) have difficulty finding the person responsible for certain categories of business? Well, because we fail to assign each other effective titles.

 Perhaps stemming from a conservative military hesitation from awarding rank, few business leaders give out new titles to employees – except on grounds for promotion. Corporate titles are status symbols and need to be earned. God help you if you try to pick your own. While I appreciate promotions, I do not understand the reservations business leaders have with re-titling employees to better-fit their position. “Well, if I change their titles, then they’ll think they should earn more money.” Just tell them no. It’s your responsibility as a boss to orchestrate and label your resources in a way that optimizes the efficiency of your enterprise. Employees can deal with it.

Infostructure

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Problem numero uno for companies of any size: communication. Far more important than expensive tech IT, companies need to optimize precedents for the exchange of ideas and information between employees and the outside world. Far too often, people who need access to information fall out of the loop. This negligence results in stress, delays, and broken product.

It’s worth time and money to sort out and establish systems for internal communication: who talks to who, where ideas go, who listens to what, who ignores what, where certain types of exchanges occur, when certain types of exchanges occur, and how it all flows together. Create small rules that guide efficient exchange. Paste them around the office and fall into a company-wide routine.

With enough strategy and planning, all employees will know everything they need to know and be on the same page all the time. Utopian? Not at all. All it takes is a little thought and organization.

Talent Is the Most Valuable Resource

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People are important. To a business, their skills are important. Skills + People = Talent. Talent should not be undervalued or underappreciated.

I understand that most businesses and projects must start small to afford necessary tools and have room to grow. Money runs out, and you need to work within your budget to avoid the crash and burn.

If you ask for a favor, make sure to repay the favor with a service or a raise. Raises demonstrate that the sacrifices made are appreciated. Appreciation is key. If you do not demonstrate appreciation in some way, your talent will burn out or resent you. Your “savings” from not paying them more will end up costing you more long term. You will run out of favors eventually and you will fail.

If you cannot handle giving people money, do not be an employer for a living.

Relax

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Anxiety and stress work like ripples through the water. If you are stressed, other people will pick up on it. Stress spreads like a disease. Your day can become everyone else’s bad day. Social physics, my friends.

If you do not enjoy other people being stressed out, one piece of advice: calm down. You first. Set an example. Be the monk. Be a rock in the pond.

If you want to be a great leader, learn how to keep your cool.

Film Friday: The Project Triangle

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Project TriangleThe Project Triangle concept was first conceived in the engineering world and has helped me navigate countless managerial decisions in Hollywood. For those not familiar, the Project Triangle rules that you can only pick two of the three: Good, Fast or Cheap.

The logic makes sense and can help you rapidly prioritize through difficult, urgent decisions. In film, there are many – especially as a studio executive, producer, or coordinator.

If you want quality work done quickly, you cannot expect things to be cheap. Talented artists who can move fast without missing a beat are extremely rare and therefore extremely expensive. Want a Director of Photography who can make 45 setups a day look like Leibovitz? Start at $3,000 per day. 3D conversion of a feature film in 45 days? $12-15 Million base.

If you want the project resolved promptly and to cut costs, do not expect top-notch work. Running and gunning a show with cheap labor opens the door for creative and technical mistakes. Many independent films do not gain traction because they simply lack the resources and time to reach distributable or marketable quality. Entire companies like The Asylum have embraced mediocre output to sustain business and cut substantial costs.

If you want to win awards and save money, be prepared to wait a very long time. If you are lucky, the material is strong enough to inspire great talent for scale cost – but you have to work around their schedules. Everyone needs to pay the bills – and my pro bono contribution to your breakout short will take the back seat to my full-time job. Sorry.

I think you can accomplish all three triangle points in one project, but most likely as a weekend passion project or a random conceptual twist of genius. Very rarely, great work is created in little time with no money. As an administrator or producer, you cannot bank on that roll of the dice.

Be prepared for only two of the three; hope for the third.