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Category: Management

Oct232009

Link to Free Templates

Gosh you gotta love free document templates!

First of all, I have to say that I’m in the process of writing an updated edition of my book “Film Production Management 101“, and therefore also updating the free downloadable forms (http://shop.mwp.com/pages/film-making-resources), making them available in a more interactive format. The new edition – and links – won’t be on the market until sometime in 2010, so I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, I found this great site with template documents like call sheets, release forms, location agreement, DPR, and so on. So surf by and enjoy: http://www.vancouverfilmproduction.com/contracts.html

Remember, of course, that template contracts, releases and agreements do not replace the need for a lawyer, but they can help you to draft an excellent first draft for your lawyer’s final pass – thereby minimizing legal fees.

Cheers,
Deb

Oct22009

5 Tips for Handling Business Cards at an Industry Party

With festival season still upon us, I can’t help but think about all those industry parties and about meeting both old friends and making new contacts… and handling the inevitable business cards that come along.

1. Use Two Pockets – A blazer works well. Keep your cards in one pocket – the “out tray”, and cards you receive in the other – the “in tray”. Your cards will always be instantly accessible, and you’ll never pull out a stack of other people’s cards when searching for the last few copies of your own.

2. Set Yourself a Quota – Nearly everyone I know finds it hard to meet new people, especially at industry parties. Set yourself a quota for the party, like: “I’m going to hand out 5 of my business cards tonight“, or “I’m going to collect at least 3 business cards at this party“. Yes, this type of quota requires you meet people, but is focussed on the goal, not the people, so may be easier for you to strike up conversations with new folk. You may then find yourself on a roll and exceed your quota… and have a great time doing so.

3. Carry Spares of Your Card & a Pen – People do forget to bring business cards, run out of copies, or not have one. Bring extras of yours, and a pen. The back of your business card will do to write contact information of these folk. The pen is also useful to customize notes onto their card (that you receive) immediately to remind yourself later of the conversation or the topic you two want to follow up on together.

4. Research Who’s Attending – In advance, you should have at least a sense of the people who will be attending the party by who is hosting. Is there anyone in particular you really want to meet? Plan what starting conversation you may use to break the ice with that person, and target to exchange business cards. You don’t have to become fast friends at the party itself – you might even meet at a later party and can follow up on the conversation from the first one.

5. Use the Cards Soon Afterward – Finally, as soon as you can after the party (though not necessarily that night!), use the contact information on the cards to follow up with at least a “nice to meet you“.

So, dust off your business cards and start trading. Happy industry partying!

Cheers,
Deb

Sep252009

5 Expensive Budgetary Items – III

There appear to be no end to expensive expenses in the production budget… here is another round of “favourites”:

11. Lots of Set-Ups – There could be two reasons why there are lots of set-ups: either you have multiple cameras running (so there are extra expenses in labour and equipment, and more time to choreograph it all, plus more editing time to sift through the footage); or you have lots of coverage and camera moves planned (so you are not capturing much of the script as you move the camera around for all that coverage, and need more shoot days). Either reason is expensive!

12. Lots of Unit Moves – Not only do you have more costs associated with location rental and management, but you are spending precious daylight hours in vehicles moving from place to place instead of capturing images.

13. Name Stars – Their salaries are obviously high, but what about the extra costs? Do you have fly in their entourage? Send them home every weekend? Do they want a car for themselves, separate from their car and driver on the set? Will they only work for a certain number of hours? Does their limited schedule on your set force you to schedule around them? And yet, aren’t they so worth it? Oh yeah.

14. Weather-Dependant Scenes – Waiting for makeup and hair to be completed is one thing, but to have a whole cast and crew wait around for clouds to clear (or to arrive) feels really silly, and you can feel the money being spent. If you can help it, do not get caught with unfilmed exteriors at the end of your shoot.

15. Rush Hour, Hockey Season & Other Fun Times – There are times when a downtown street cannot be locked, or a hockey rink cannot be closed, for filming. In some cases, you can pay the premium to secure what you need for these “fun times”, but that’s expensive. Typically, instead, you have to schedule around these “fun times” and find yourself locked into shooting on weekends or at night (expensive item #3).

Happy budgeting!

Cheers,
Deb

Aug282009

Industry News Sites

So where do you gather your news about the film industry? There are so many sources, you could spend all day reading and tracking down information in the trades, blogs, newspapers, magazines, journals and so on. You can find them on Facebook, Twitter, through enewsletters, print subscriptions, the list goes on. Sticking with free enewsletters, these are my favourites:

Variety (variety.com) – Not only do they have an excellent enewsletter that covers USA and international news, but they also have an super “Slanguage Dictionary” so you can understand phrases like: Prexy inks a skein in Gotham.

Hollywood Reporter (hollywoodreporter.com) – Another great enewsletter for USA and international industry news.

ShowbizData (showbizdata.com) – Super for to-the-point news, and lots of stats.

Playback (playbackonline.ca) – This is the trade to follow for Canadian industry news, and they highlight career postings on each enewsletter, as well as the front page. Nice touch.

Screen International (screendaily.com) – This enewsletter is from another premiere magazine, and rounds out perspectives perfectly for me, with the UK point of view.

After a healthy dose of the trades, I also include Mediapost Publications (mediapost.com). You need to be a bit selective with your choice of news and blogs or you will overload on information and emails in your intray.  With the convergence of technologies and medias, the information these fellows provide is a much needed, wider, different perspective, and often a glimpse (or guess?) at trends as they are evolving.

So… where do you read your industry news?

Cheers,
Deb

Jun272009

Treasure Box of Free Management Resources

If you love a good treasure hunt, the Free Management Library for non-profits is a fabulous place on the Internet. Yes, the collection is designed primarily for non-profits, but not everything we learn is from sources written specifically for the fim and TV industry. It’s worth learning from more traditional sources too… they share some of the same management issues we deal with, just from a different point of view. And sometimes it’s the other point of view helps solve the problem.

Some of my favourite finds (in no particular order) are articles on: guiding skills (delegation, boosting morale, motivation, mentoring); the PR kit; conflict management; project management. What treasures do you find there?

Some of their links are internal to the Library, whereas others are agregated from all over the world. Good stuff! Enjoy!

Cheers,
Deb

May292009

5 Expensive Budgetary Items – II

Here are some more of my “favourite” expensive expenses…

6. Stunts & Special Effects – Well, any of the special departments really. Lots of planning (read “money in prep”) has to happen to make sure the “special” shots happen with all their movie magic on-the-day. The many logistics on set to address issues like safety will also slow down the speed of the production on-the-day.

7. Prototype Equipment – Prototype means there is no backup when it goes wrong or breaks down – you have the only one. You  may need 24-hour fix-it crew to keep the equipment in working order for the set day. If you are fortunate enough to work with a prototype when there is two – one will be being repaired while you’re on set with the other one… Murphy’s rules.

8. Large Vistas – The more you see in a shot, the more it costs. If it’s a country vista in a period piece, there will probably be telephone poles or the like to digitally remove. If it’s a city vista, you may need to close a number of streets with all the permits and personnel required to do so. If you have crowds of people in the vista – that’s a lot of (paid) extra vouchers.

9. International Co-Productions – Granted that structuring a coproduction may be necessary for the Producer to raise sufficient funds to make the movie, but the costs of travelling cast, crew and/or equipment, immigration & customs, the extra sets of accounting books, the extra legal costs to set up the necessary documentation, etc. bring unique expenses to a production that non-copros do not typically have to deal with.

10. Music Rights – There are rights to use the “sheet music” (kind of “author rights”) – that allows you to perform your own version of the song… but there are also “master recording rights” that you also need to purchase if you want to play a certain recording of that song… and sometimes there are also artist rights that have been held back by certain performing artists that you have to purchase too. If the song you want is in the public domain… someone can still write a particular arrangement of the P/D song and therefore attach new “author rights” to the song you thought was going to be free. Research the origin of any and all music you want to include in your film in any manner.

Happy budgeting!

Cheers,
Deb