The Production Manager - A Better Tomorrow

The other day I asked, what’s all the brouhaha about Leno? And one of you kind people out there was kind enough to answer.  

It seems that because NBC have replaced 5 hours usually reserved for scripted shows with a cheaper format, all the people who would have worked on the 5 different shows are now out of work. There are those who might point out that it means job security and consistent work for the people who do work on Leno or that relocating Conan brought more jobs to the west coast while putting East coasters out of work and that changing from scripted to reality has already pushed a whole lot of people out of work already. These are all true points but not really relevant right now.

The sad truth is that it looks as though there will be a lot less work available in broadcasting in the future, so what is going to happen to those who don’t make the cut? By rights it should be that the best workers remain in work while those who are differently able are cut out. The truth is more likely to be that those who are best connected and those who are able to turn in projects on miniscule budgets are going to make the cut while everyone else, talented and deserving or not will be pushed out.

It can be very hard to consider giving up on production but it is starting to look more and more like ‘an expensive hobby’ as unemployed television freelancers now refer to their once glittering careers. A producer I know back home who has filmed the world over twice, is now 4 months out of work with nothing on the horizon.

On the reality front, it’s not all doom and gloom. Just last night I was at a wedding between two industry people and met a producer who is still moving from job to job without a breath between them (oh how I remember those days), while her editor boyfriend goes from MTV to RDF to Granada and beyond. So people out there are still gainfully employed and PAs I hear are in hot demand. But there don’t seem to be very many jobs for reality Production Managers and Line Producers at the moment.

While reality producers are still very much in demand, the support staff is considered more of a luxury. This is evidenced by a job I saw advertised online this week for a production coordinator to pull together 7 days of filming in LA and Chicago managing both locations in person. That’s pretty much insane.  You can see already that this poor coordinator will be on location in one place, spend their entire time setting up the next shoot, arrive to the second location exhausted and work 7 straight days with no over time and what will overall amount to less than a minimum hourly wage, once the number of hours worked are factored in.

That really does seem to be the future – and the reality for some – of working in television. I am used to doubling up or tripling up on shows and know how wearing the pressure and stress of managing every little detail of up to 40 or 50 episodes or web clips at a time can be on a production manager.

That’s why I’m waiting to see what happens in the next couple of months with production. While I’d be sad to give it up, the thought of running myself into the ground covering multiple productions, without a coordinator and taking on way too much in a bid to save a couple of thousand dollars is worse. If that sounds far fetched I’ve actually experienced this, overseeing two multi episodic shows shooting across the country requiring extensive travel without a coordinator for either show not to mention overseeing post at the same time.

There was a (more sensible) time when you would have had two coordinators, two PMs and two weeks to shoot a bi-state shoot. A coordinator in each place to oversee the shoot, organize the details and be on hand to manage the PAs, keep the schedule on track, dole out the cash, collect the clearances and make sure the projects are fully permitted when the police come to pay the set a visit.

It’s very easy to over look the role of the Production Manager and coordinators but this is a false economy. Not only are we masters of logistics and research, able to source whatever the production needs at a moment’s notice usually in the middle of nowhere. We keep the projects on budget and there has never been a more pertinent time for that particular skill to be put to good use. We’re also masters of the legal minefield of broadcasting compliance, the last line of defense between a production company and a law suit.

Very recently the Alexa Chung show on MTV in the US was pulled from airing in the UK on the day of transmission from airing due to ‘clearance issues’. And every PM in the land rolled their eyes.

Fortunately I’ve been asked to teach a class on the production office to a group of young hopeful PA’s. It feels good knowing I can instill some of the basics while they’re still at the impressionable stage.

Maybe one day in the future a PM won’t have to pull a program out of the online because someone neglected to get a signed appearance release from the interviewee filmed standing next to a Star Wars poster with Nirvana playing in the background… Well a Production Manager can dream can’t they?

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