The story could make a blockbuster movie: A project manager leaves a secure, well-paying position at a respected information technology corporation to pursue a professional career in the motion picture industry. Could a PMP survive the Hollywood machine?
The drama began in May 2001, as this newly “starving artist” landed a job with Purple Rose Films in the role of transportation coordinator on the production crew of a $2 million feature film, Super Sucker. The transportation coordinator was charged with procuring all vehicles used in the film, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. This entailed managing the schedule and budget for the transportation activity and working closely with the people who were responsible for managing the overall project schedule, budget and operation.
As transportation coordinator, this project manager gained an insider's view of a motion picture set, seeing first hand how project management facilitates the creative process while maintaining tight business objectives. Film production is an incredibly intense effort, one that can only succeed with effective project management across all phases.
Project management held a starring role in this film's life cycle, helping to deliver the picture on time and on budget.
Opening Credits
Super Sucker, a comedy written, directed by and starring Jeff Daniels, is about rival door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen and the lengths to which they will go to prevail in a winner-take-all sales contest. The film's screenplay dictates how the end result will look, so it serves as the primary requirements document for the project.
Right: Super Sucker Transportation Coordinator Diane C. Cheklich, PMP, and Executive Producer Bob Brown at Farmington, Mich., USA-based Purple Rose Films.
PHOTO BY JOHN SOBCZAK
However, before the project can proceed, funding is a driving concern. The executive producer develops an initial budget (financing is secured against this budget), which includes a contingency amount. Although $2 million is considered a “low-budget” film, it's still a substantial amount. “We sat down and said, ‘The economy has slowed, the stock market [is down], and we didn't pick up a national distribution deal for Escanaba [Purple Rose Films' previous movie],’ so investors were supportive but not overly anxious to jump back in,” says Bob Brown, managing partner at Purple Rose Films and Super Sucker's executive producer.
The project's department heads are responsible for working within the limits of this budget. The scope of Super Sucker changed several times over the course of the project. Each round of script changes was printed on different colored paper (the affected pages only) and distributed to the crew. By the end of the film's production, the crew had a rainbow script with eight different colors in it. The last script change was made four days before the project was scheduled to complete shooting.
The producer and/or executive producer, however, review and approve or deny requests for variances from the budget. With his industry experience, Daniels recognizes that compromises are necessary on low-budget films. “When the money's gone, the money's gone,” he says. “When the days are up, the days are up, and you better have it all in the can.”
Because film productions are temporary concerns, it doesn't make sense to set up long-term accounts with vendors, and there isn't time to create and execute a formal bidding process for selecting vendors. Primary resources for locating potential vendors are word of mouth, a state's film production resource directory and the local telephone book.
Most procurement work is done on the honor system, with some checks and balances to control expenses. This is tricky to maintain, especially on low-budget films where the money is tight.
Timing is Everything
Creating a film work breakdown structure begins with a detailed analysis of the screenplay. Each page of the script is broken down into individual scenes. Within each scene, key required elements are physically highlighted on the paper through color-coding. The script breakdown information directly affects a film's production schedule. Industry-standard scheduling software facilitates the scheduling process, which also must take external constraints into account.
On Super Sucker, as on many other feature films, a software budgeting and scheduling product was used to interface with script-writing software to automatically set up a baseline schedule driven by the written scenes and their various elements.
The first assistant director (first AD) assigns each scene or part of a scene to a specific day in the shooting schedule. Though the scheduling software assists in the process, the complex algorithms for making these assignments are mostly in a first AD's head. The algorithm is similar to that on a manufacturing assembly line, where the work-in-progress is block-processed to minimize the number of changeovers in tooling. In film, the block-processing concept applies to locations, where all scenes at a given site happen adjacent to each other, minimizing the number of film changeovers required.
As in the screenplay analysis and breakdown, color plays a big role in creating production schedules. The master film production schedule consists of a series of colored strips, one strip per scene, laid side-by-side on a long board and grouped by day and week.
When the money's gone, the money's gone. When the days are up, the days are up, and you better have it all in the can.
—JEFF DANIELS,
WRITER, DIRECTOR AND STAR, SUPER SUCKER
The final shooting schedule for Super Sucker was six weeks long (30 days), and it assumed 12-hour workdays.
Risky Business
In any given shot, the acting, set, props, electricity, lighting and camera must be in precise harmony. To reduce the risk of problems, key crew members from each production department go on location tours called “tech scouts.” Tech scouts present an opportunity for the film's director to describe the vision for each scene on location. As a result, crew members can better visualize how their parts should work. On Super Sucker, Daniels and several other crew members drove around Jackson, Mich., USA, in a van for two days, visiting all 32 shooting locations.
Although the Super Sucker project had an aggressive 12-hour-day, five-day-a-week schedule, there was room in each workday for overtime, and Saturdays were optional workdays. The team worked several 14- to 15-hour days and one Saturday to make up for some lost time.
Weather also is a wild card on film projects. Whenever there is an exterior shot scheduled, the first AD always has an alternative interior location, known as a “cover set,” that must be ready for shooting in case of inclement weather.
Fortunately, an exterior funeral scene at a cemetery was scheduled the one day the Super Sucker crew experienced torrential rain. The dreary weather actually enhanced the impact of that scene.
A Coordinated Effort
While the first AD dictates which scenes are to be shot on which day, the second AD makes sure all the elements required to shoot those scenes are mobilized on schedule and that they are managed effectively in real time through the production process.
Many of a film's crew come together in a just-in-time fashion without ever having worked together before and disband just as quickly when they are done. They are expected to perform together as a finely tuned machine under grueling conditions. Figure 1 shows a typical organization for a feature film.
On any given day of Super Sucker there were at least 70 people (cast and crew) who participated in the production of the film. On one day there were more than 1,000 people (mostly extras) required for a particular scene. With such a large crew, it's crucial that the production schedule facilitates maximum efficiency while accommodating other constraints. Specific constraints on Super Sucker included:
- Five-day work weeks
- Actors' schedule conflicts
- The potential strike on 30 June 2001 by the Screen Actors Guild.
A key report called a “call sheet” (Figure 2) detailed instructions for the day. For example, the daily call sheet told the transportation coordinator (project manager) which vehicles were required to be in the film that day, where and when. A typical call sheet also details: which actors are required that day and when they should report for make-up/ wardrobe activity, when meals will be served, which props are required, what the day's weather report is and the phone number of the nearest hospital.
Call sheets are distributed 24 hours in advance of the shooting day. There is a very small window for making changes to the next day's plans, and contingencies do arise, such as changes to the script. In Super Sucker, a scene was added that required a 1970s convertible car with hydraulics. When this happened, an informal change control process took place—the producer considered the requested change's impact on budget and schedule and its importance to the story before approving or denying the change.
The Super Sucker production crew prepares to shoot a crowd scene.
Communication is a constant challenge because of the logistics involved. People must be reachable anywhere, anytime. Walkie-talkies are standard fare on film sets, as are two-way wireless telephones. The call sheet also is an important communication tool, as is a daily production report that details hours worked, amount of film used and number of script pages that were covered during the day's shoot.
And the Award Goes to…
In movie-making, there is no “testing,” per se. The whole goal of the production process is to translate the written word into an effective motion picture, and that is the primary determinant of quality. In defining film quality, Daniels says, “It's all about, was it a good movie? Did the story work? Did you believe the people? Were the actors good?”
Tech scouts represent one form of quality assurance, by improving the crew's understanding of the director's vision. During actual shooting there are two opportunities to monitor quality. One is through real-time screening, where several wireless monitors broadcast the cameras' signals so key crew members can watch the action as it happens.
Another important quality manager is the script supervisor, who studies each shot to make sure continuity exists from one shot to the next. For example, if a character has his hand in his pocket on a close-up shot, the script supervisor watches to make sure that character has his same hand in the same pocket for a different-angled shot of the same scene. If a given shot is not satisfactory for whatever reason (creative, technical or continuity) another “take” is necessary.
The second opportunity for quality monitoring occurs the day after the film is shot and processed. Crew members watch the processed film, called “dailies,” to ensure not only that the script is brought to life, but that the technical quality of the film is satisfactory.
A Picture is Worth…
Although there may not be many formally trained project managers in the motion picture industry, the key elements of project management come naturally to the industry professionals who make feature films.
“It doesn't matter if you're in front of the camera or behind the camera, in the offices or on the set, all of us are problem-solvers, and creativity is needed whenever you're going to manufacture a product in a relatively short period of time,” Brown says. “If you're going to make a 90-minute film and you're going to do it in 30 days, you better have creative minds working, because that's what it's all about.”
The world premiere for Purple Rose Film's Super Sucker was held in Jackson, Mich., USA, on 23 February 2002. PM
