MAJOR PROJECT: Production Manager: Research/Development

As well as the role of Producer, I will be undertaking the role of the Production Manager also. This role will be crucial to coordinate everything prior to and including on the shoot days. It is essential that I communicate effectively with all of the contributors to ensure that the shoot can go ahead.

What is a Production Manager?

The Production Manager is in charge of all of the practicalities of the production, managing the budget and the contributors in particular. During the Pre-Production stage, the Production Manager would work largely with the Producer and the Director to create a provisional schedule for the upcoming production. Below I have evidenced the production schedule/timetable that I devised during the first week to keep all crew members informed of smaller deadlines for each stage of production. I colour coded it so that each of us had a certain colour for their own deadlines and responsibilities and the colour orange represented events that affected all 3 of us. The Production Manager will then devise the budget and assesses what needs to be purchased or arranged for the production. My predicted budget will be written up on Excel so that I can calculate all expenses and keep track of everything in one document.

Major Project Timetable

From my research, I found out that a specific role for the Production Manager is to organise all of the recruitment for contributors. They organise pay/expenses and conditions of employment. They also liaise with local authorities regarding filming permits and sign for location releases. It is very important that as a production manager, I am keeping on top of all the contracts and pay expenses on time to ensure that production can go ahead. I will be in charge of all of the emailing prior to filming, which I will communicate with my team to ensure that they are informed of the finer details.

I will also be available to deal with any queries or problems that any of the cast or crew members have and will need to troubleshoot these effectively. Therefore, if a contributor pulls out of production, I will need to work quickly and efficiently to find an alternative. I will also be in charge of any purchases required, including food on shoot days, props, costumes, set dressing etc. Without these, the production will not be able to progress. 

Health and safety is a vital job of being a production manager. I will need to take photographic evidence of any potential hazards prior to and during production to be able to assess how safe the environment is for contributors. With any production, contributors will expect there to be certain regulations and risk assessments completed to ensure their safety, which I will need to be considering at all times. 

Lastly, from my research I found out that the Production Manager is in charge of wrapping the shoot. This included ensuring that all locations are signed off and expenses paid. 

Before, I can begin undertaking any of the tasks listed above, I will need to ensure that I have all of the following skills. 

Communication: A production manager is in control of all of the communication with cast and contributors. Therefore, it will be essential that my communication is effective and professional so that everyone knows what they should be doing. It will also be vital to communicate effectively with the Director so I can put his ideas and vision into production. 

Problem Solving: I will need to be willing to tackle any problems or queries that arise during production and act accordingly to solve them. This will require me to be organised and rational in my decision making. 

Organisation: Organisation will be a key skill for this role as I will need to be keeping track of all of my documentation and arrangements throughout. The budget in particular will need to be updated regularly on Excel so that I can assess how much we have left. 

To conclude, I am confident with the research I have undertaken into the role of being the production manager on this project. I understand all of the requirements and think that I will be able to use my skill set to complete tasks to schedule and communicate effectively with all contributors and my team. I will also need to be analytical when communicating with the Director and offer my feedback to ensure that I can bring these ideas forward into production.