Better than The Hills

I’m not too sure how I got to be a reality queen but somehow I’m finding a niche for myself in this field.    This project is pretty exciting and looks set to be bigger than The Hills…not that I watch it of course                                                     

 

 

I’m definitely learning a lot at this place, partly because I’ve taken a smaller role so I have some time to step back and observe how the pre production is coming together. Mainly though, it’s that organizational thing I mentioned before of working with people who are across the needs of the network that gives the project such clarity and focus.

Of course that’s easy for me to say as we’re only in week two!  But it really is a pleasure. Today we had an extremely long but very productive editorial meeting where we were through detail by detail the format and plan for the shoot. It may well have been the first time I’ve ever had a production meeting so far in advance and not under extreme panic.

However my supervising producer and line producer are both MIA till next week while I throw together a company move, hire staff, book the facilities install phone lines and keep across everyone updated of every change as it happens. I’ve gone from 0 to 60 in one long meeting but I sure am happy to be working and I think this show is going to be a good one!

 

One step forward, two steps back

So I end up getting the MTV job which is pretty lucky in this economy so it seems. I’ve had to take a pay cut and reduce my title but it’s a small price to pay for a three month contract. 

My grandfather once told me that you sometimes have to take a step back in order to take a step forward and it’s something I’ve come back to in my career time and again.

Of course everyone wants their career to follow a linear path but it’s not always possible to move smoothly up the ranks. One colleague of mine did just that and found himself running a department only four short years from his first PA position. Needless to say he was out of his depth having missing out on the confidence you get from having worked in the same position for a while.

When I was first starting out and had worked mainly in factual programming, I found myself struggling to find that elusive third job. When the opportunity came to apply for a production secretary role on a scripted comedy at a rather prestigious company, I reluctantly applied. This turned out to be an excellent career move as I not only got experience in a totally different genre, but I also got my foot in the door with the company and was able to move quite seamlessly into two further projects as a production coordinator.So you really never know where one job will take you.

No-one really wants their resume to read as anything other than career progression, but fortunately in our industry it is often the shows you have worked on rather than the role you held there that counts.

Interview time

So I’m back on the job market and it’s Slim Pickens out there! I’ve had a couple of interviews, both went really well and told me I all but had the job, however no firm offers yet.

It’s funny how you can tell a lot about a job from the interview process. For example, any good production person knows that “the budget and schedule are a bit tight” translates to “you’ll be expected to move heaven and earth to fit the show into this painfully optimistic budget and schedule”. I learned that one long ago!

Ironically one of these jobs is for a new MTV reality series so I’d be right back in the saddle that I just left. Unusually the management team on this show is male and I definitely got a great vibe from them. I’ve had great luck in the past working with male Line Producers; they tend to handle the stress a bit better than the women I’ve known. Before anyone cries sexism at me, sorry but that is my experience!

The other job doesn’t start for a couple of months and while it’s for a small cable channel it is with a better known company. However I’ve heard the words ‘nightmare show’ uttered far more than once and I know a few people who have already quit the show, which does not sound appealing.

But times are tough and this is the profession I chose. Some jobs will be harder than other jobs and others will be more fun. Right now I think I’d be happy just to be able to call myself a production manager and actually be working on something to back it up.

Fingers crossed on this MTV one. It sounds both fabulous and mega trash all at the same time!!

Network Rules!

Well am I ever glad that job is over! It’s been horrendous, from the insane hours to the ridiculous people it’s been a real ‘for the money’ job. And if there was ever a time to be accepting jobs ‘for the money’ it’s now.

That said there were some really great learning experiences to be had on that job. One of the things I find to be a real problem with production work is that so much of it is learned ‘on the job’ i.e. from other people who work in the industry but aren’t necessarily equipped to teach it, without proper structure or guidelines. So it’s actually a unique experience to work with someone who has formal training in the position, as some of the team on this job have.

When I say formal training I mean brought up through the ranks at a network, because people who work at networks tend to have very different skills (and usually big egos to boot).To be honest, from my first time seeing it up close and personal it’s true, they do seem more comfortable in their role, more sure of themselves, with everyone using the same language.

Sadly though that seems to be where it ends because there is also something missing, something that tends to be missing a lot from the larger productions I’ve worked on in the US, which is the ‘at all costs’ spirit that I’m used to from my home town. Here people are inconvenienced by working late, everyone stuck closely to their role and I felt confused on more than one occasion about the actual hierarchy of the team, as everyone seemed to make their own decisions and complain incessantly about each other. Fortunately I had no allegiance to anyone and kept my head sensibly down.  

But something odd came out of this, somehow the professionalism and the uniformity of the network gang kept the show organized – as much as it is possible to do with reality. More importantly, where it is sorely lacking in my country there was a framework for the various characters to act out, complain and be badly behaved, because there was always a guideline for us to work within with rules to point to and that really made a difference.

Sure, I had PAs who felt it acceptable to assign themselves sleep time, to back talk the senior members of the team and sidestep production management when it came to decision making but who doesn’t?

I’m a convertee to network productions, let’s hope more come my way soon!