Film Industry Management as it Exists
If
you are a professional who wants to make a living in the film industry,
this is where you do it and what you are getting into.
The
current film industry is
dominated by established funding, production and distribution bodies,
strict
managerial principles, tight script control, tight schedules, and
heirarchical production structures. All of this controlled by
unions, guilds, producers organizations, and distribution companies and
marketing specialists. In television and movie
production as it is practiced in the industry today you'll find:
- the
executive producer(s) (Nobody is sure what they do but they're
somehow connected to getting the money)
- the producer(s) who hire above the line and
controls the whole production
- a production manager who generally hires below the line and takes care of rentals and cost
control,
- a First AD who sets a schedule that allows the production to
come in on time and on budget
- a director who desperately hopes
he has enough resources to put the film "in the can"
without make mistakes that destroy his chance of ever getting another
gig.
- Under the director is a whole heirarchy of technicians and
artists, each with a specific job, function, and place in the
organization. For
example, there will be a director of photography, and under him/her a
camera operator, and a camera assistant or two, and a clapper
loader. Each position is strictly defined and assigned.
- And finally there are performers who have no room
for improvisation or expanding their roll from an extra to a special
business extra to a bit player to a lead.
Every
second on set is precious. Time is money. Mistakes can
only be made on big budget pictures where there is room in the craft
services budget to make a little movie like the one you are working
on. For the movies and budgets that first time directors get to
make, the game is stacked against you. When the shooting is
over, the whole mess is turned over to an editor, or a team of
editors, who try desperately to make it all look like a movie, or
like television.
Watch any mainstream movie credits and you will see how extensive this list of jobs and functionis is. It's industrial management in the Frank
Taylor (father of micromanagement) tradition and it is ANTI-ART.