AICP training seminar packs knowledge punch for new and old production people

For people new or transitioning into the commercial production industry, AICP‘s three-day training seminar, the most recent of which took place August 8 – 10, should not be overlooked. It’s amazing how much can be learned in a few hours from the stories of seasoned veterans that can save months of pain and suffering reacting to fire drills on the job.

Session I: The mechanics of the production business

This session took place at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood. Executive Producer Carl Swan and Head Of Production Alexandra Chamberlain, both from HELLO!, led the session. Carl went through an in-depth overview of the changes in the industry and even mentioned to the group how Wiredrive has helped HELLO! stay agile with the ever-increasing speed of today’s productions (shameless).

It was surprising to learn about the extent to which sales has become a part of the EP’s job in modern production companies. “What makes me an effective EP,” Carl said, “is my ability to close the sale.”  Selling is only a subset of the overall client relationship management strategy, which is the key to an EP’s career. Producers can know the ins and outs of bidding, scheduling, resourcing, etc., but if they’re poor at building relationships with crew, agencies and clients, they might as well manage projects in a different industry.

Alexandra was also forthcoming as she discussed bid estimation. “With cost consultants now the new norm, I need to be extra careful where we show the money being spent,” she said. Art departments are notorious for over budgeting, but if agencies see 35% of the budget allocated to art direction, the cost consultants will jump on it. As Head Of Production, Alex knows she has to find room to pad other parts of the production, which can be a very tricky endeavor on firm bids.

One of my mistakes early on as an AP was assuming that budgets needed to be exact. That’s just not possible. I learned from Alex the importance of noting in the bid comments that this is an estimate, what the agency and production company are responsible for paying and how overages will be handled.

Session II: Partnering with the financial department

During Tuesday’s session hosted at Kodak’s Laser Pacific theater, Aileen Ashley, CFO at Gartner, presented on partnering with the financial department. I learned more from her stories than from the handout. One bit of advice that stood out was her recommendation to reach out to your colleagues and peers when you need help. “We’re all in this business together and I often pass on cheat sheets that I’ve developed over the years to help bridge the budgeting and wrapping challenges on the job,” she said.

Aileen’s resources include industry-tested and refined cheat sheets on day rates and overage comparisons for 8-, 10- and 12-hour days. She also mentioned best practices when dealing with timecards, union versus non-union, P&W (pension and welfare contribution) rules, you name it. She’s a person you must know in the industry.

She also made it clear that building a relationship with your accounting team is key to better project estimation, production management, as well as gaining access to a vast knowledge base. The concept that account teams don’t make commercials is way off. They are often the first line of defense between the life and death of a production company, period.

Session III: Pre-pro and production: Production staff roles

Wednesday’s session at Green Dot Films was lead by the production company’s Managing Director Rick Fishbein. Rick’s presentation was a great closer to an all-encompassing seminar. He reinforced many of the previous presenter’s key notes: building relationships, knowing the rules, closing sales, estimating jobs, wrapping jobs accurately, overcoming audits, navigating cost consultants, and building and managing relationships with crew, unions and clients.

The concept of knowing your role and when you’re being asked to do something over your pay-grade in Rick’s presentation really stood out. As an AP, I was constantly learning on the job and had no idea where my role ended and the senior and executive producer’s job began. Rick broke it down, “If you’re asked to do something that feels over your pay-grade stop what you’re doing and communicate it to the EP. Act as a conduit of information and make it known at the time, not after the fact.” EP’s need a constant stream of information, even when offsite, so they can judge the state of the job and anticipate any problems. This will save us from getting stuck holding the bag for a decision that was never ours to make.

Rick also walked us through a director treatment, storyboard, project bid to final spot, which were shown through his Wiredrive Library. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to enable the best in the business with the best in technology.

The AICP seminars are an industry education must. I wish I had attended these courses ten years ago as an assistant producer, but alas, I was unaware of the AICP. It was important for me to attend the seminar as a representative from Wiredrive, because although we don’t produce commercials, we care about the workflows of those who do. We need to know as much about your business as possible, so we can continue to evolve our solution to meet your changing needs. It’s just the Wiredrive way.