A little about me. I’ve been working on set in primarily television for more than 10 years. I started in reality during the late 2000’s, entering the business just as the 2008 WGA writer’s strike went into effect and while reality was booming. In 2011 I took a leap of faith and moved to Atlanta to enter the then developing Georgia production industry as a production coordinator in scripted episodic television. In the ensuing years, I’ve helped produce over 250 hours of content as part of a small production services team working on multiple scripted television dramas, movies of the week, and independent film.
I love working with passionate people who love what they do. I love creating something out of seemingly nothing – we are given a script, and then transform the blank slate of an empty warehouse into mesmerizing sets and fake worlds. I’ve happily spent most of my waking hours at the office, digging into cost reports and budgets and working as a trusted member of the production team to solve day-to-day production problems.
But sometime in 2014, I almost burnt out. I was working simultaneously on the first season of MTV’s Finding Carter and a movie of the week for VH1 – Drumline: A New Beat. I was also managing the production companies’ finances and working with a CPA firm to issue the years of taxes – which had gotten complicated as there were multiple single purpose entities set up to spend but not earn money. It felt like the work was piling up, and I had a seemingly endless list of questions to which I had no answers. I knew I need guidance, but I wasn’t sure where to get it. We were on location at Clark Atlanta University when I had an AHA moment.
My solution was to enroll in an executive MBA program at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Surely loading a demanding educational course load on top of the demanding work schedule would solve all my problems!!! I went into the program with expectations of diving into all things finance with a side of economics and marketing. What I did not expect was the deep dive into leadership and team building with courses titled “leading people and organizations” and “transformational change” that accompanied the hard science of business.
It was here that the thoughts forming the basis of this blog developed. Wait a second, I thought, during a conversation about women in the workforce, these people think THAT action is bad? Have they ever been on a production set? That is just the tip of the iceberg of the behavior that is considered culturally normative on the many sets I’ve worked on!
I found myself full of curiosity about the work of Human Resources – a discipline I had no experience with on my productions – where ‘on boarding’ consists of finding start paperwork somewhere in the office and returning it to an accounting clerk. I brought back this new awareness to the production office; and started finding myself having long conversations with members of the production team about all sorts of issues in their daily production workflows.
Curiosity and inquisitiveness ruled the day; but in truth most of the time I felt insecure as I was not contributing to a singular role such as Production Accounting or Production Coordinator, nor was I leading a department. My title had morphed into Associate Producer; one of the most ambiguous titles in the production industry. I didn’t lead post production, nor did I execute the primary functions of the Line Producer. I felt a little lost – as I wasn’t sure what direction I was heading in.
However, on each production, I would spend hours coaching the Executive Producer privately on the various issues and challenges the production faced. I helped him uncover new ways of looking at problems, and many times guided him in making decisions not based on “win vs. lose” or “wrong vs. right”; but creative solutions that solved for why the issues were happening in the first place. Looking back now – those discussions were surely more rewarding and impactful to the overall production than any productivity I could deliver as an Accountant!
Now I’ve learned that there is an emerging discipline in production – production human resources! In the past, I have worked with one team – industrial relations – but the team was made up of lawyers, and largely served as a defense against law suits. What the industry needs is an offensive team, stopping the bad behavior through at its roots.
Lynn Hylden 