Research paper on managing a TV crew - Who can help?

jassian

jassian

Hopeful Maker of Art out of Daydream Dust
Oct 15, 2008
929
13
18
Germany
Hi guys.
Did anyone on this forum ever take part in a TV or film project (preferably something that was aired, or even just podcast) in a role that required you to manage the crew to some degree (Producer, Director, 1st AD, AD, even PM or PA or anything I forgot)? It can have been a very small thing (a small doco for local tv, an ad, anything)

Or could you point me in the right direction of where to ask?

My next assignment is a reasearch paper that requires me to consult people with experience. It's due next monday 4th May Australian time (so more like sunday US time). I have only one person replying to my survey so far and I would need a few more, quite badly.

I'll attach the survey or perhaps post it, too.

Even just a few answers would help, doesn't have to be the whole thing.
Any bit of help would be very appreciated:hurray:

post here, pm or email if you like
jassian_terri@yahoo.com


Thanks! :D
 

Attachments

  • research paper survey.doc
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This is the survey for my paper :)

jassian said:
Thanks very much for helping out! Please fill out the survey and be as generous as your time and patience permits with ‘Any advice you’d like to give?’ as it will surely be full of pearls of wisdom that will serve me well in the future.

About myself:
I am currently finishing my last year in TV Production at Charles Sturt University Australia, and am hoping to start working in the industry or independently within the next few years. I graduated with a BA (Acting for Screen and Stage) last year. Not surprisingly, my main interest is Drama (especially sci-fi) and I will attempt to juggle my wish to eventually (long term project) direct/produce with getting acting work. While directing/producing several university assignments and independent short films I ran into quite a few problems ranging from recruiting crew to motivating crew that was assigned to me in the university projects. I feel I have a lot to learn in that regard, so it became my research project. This is mainly about work with crew for me, as I was quite happy about my rapport with the actors. Should you have any word of wisdom about working with actors that you think might be useful for me, though, please share them.
My topic is
"People Management in the TV Production Industry
- Experience vs Machiavelli"

What I’d most want to find out is how to create a pleasant and productive atmosphere, inspiring each crew member to do their best or even motivate them to challenge their set boundaries. How to make sure your team believes in your vision and themselves without having to put on airs and pretend that you always are in control (nobody always is). Or is the opposite true, and one you must create some kind of director/producer persona? Are there Do’s and Don’ts that I should know about?



Survey
Your name, as you want it to appear in the paper.


What were your latest and/or most prominent projects, and what were your production roles in regard to crew management?



Do you believe that a TV/film crew or perhaps just the head crew has the following elements of a true interdependent TEAM as defined by:
- Individual and mutual accountability
- Frequently coming together for discussion, decision making, problem solving, planning
- Produce collective work products
- Individual roles , responsibilities and tasks to help the team are defined (probably not rotated though J )
- The concern is with everyone’s outcome and the challenges that the team faces
- Purpose, goals, approach to work shaped by team leader with team members
(which ones do you feel do or do not apply)



How do you combine private and professional interaction with your crew?



Did you take any actions to improve crew morale and motivation? If so which?



Who communicated with the crew involved in pre- and post production, during those phases?



Who communicated with the crew on set/location (Director, 1st AD, other)?



Did you find the communication effective and motivational?
What would you have improved?



Do you believe that a persona of confidence or even infallibility is needed during production? If so, or not, which factors would it depend on?



Any advice you’d like to give?
Click to expand...
 
Although I do not have the slight bit of experience, I did see how film making kinda works when I was in centre place.

How do you combine private and professional interaction with your crew?

From what I saw - Everybody kept things separate. Private life at time off. Say lunch, dinner. Professional - if this means work, then, thats where interaction is kept at - work. Neither are mixed together at all.

Did you take any actions to improve crew morale and motivation? If so which?

I saw everyone having a lot of fun during filming - everyone chatting to each other, being friendly, getting to know each other. The thing that caught my eye most was that no body got upset when people got their lines wrong - everyone was nice about it and just moved on. Everyone also said nice things to each other all the time. Like "Great reading of a line". Stuff like that.

I know my words here don't count for much because I'm not experienced in films or tv.

So sorry if my words here are useless. But I hope to have got you thinking here in regards to how to answer your questions.

:)
 
Oh dude, everything helps! Thanks! I can use your observations quite well :)
 
No probs , you're way ahead of me for observing a professional crew, the only time I did that i was a kid and din't pay attention :)Thanks again, mate!
 
Do you believe that a TV/film crew or perhaps just the head crew has the following elements of a true interdependent TEAM as defined by:

- Individual and mutual accountability
From what I saw at centre place, everyone is accountable for whatever they do. Individuals have to study lines, perform them the way other people want. Then theres the techies, who have to do their things like the gaffer, or lighting, etc....

- Frequently coming together for discussion, decision making, problem solving, planning
From what I saw, everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY spoke all of the time. A days shooting would always be organised in advance. In that way when the days shooting comes, BOOM, its done easy peezy. Everyone had their own decisions to make. How to act, how to use lighting, etc....

Problem solving was done at the time there was a problem. Normally everyone would help.

- Produce collective work products
I'm not so sure what this means sorry :(

- Individual roles , responsibilities and tasks to help the team are defined (probably not rotated though J )
This I didn't get to see so I'm not so sure sorry :(

- The concern is with everyone’s outcome and the challenges that the team faces
Everyone's outcome and challenges depend on how much time a shot needs to be done in. The challenges I saw were acting, and jobs the crew had to do, lighting, sound, etc. Orginisation is a big help. Believe me!

- Purpose, goals, approach to work shaped by team leader with team members
(which ones do you feel do or do not apply)

I did see this:
Actors knew what their parts were - how to act, the character, everything. They come to work knowing what the end product would be and boom boom they do what they have to.

Everyone would be organised. Everyone would know what their doing and how much time they have to do it in from advance.

You'd have an on set manager running around telling everyone how to act - stand - whatever.

The big boss - Executive producer - would be overseeing everything. They'de be telling everyone what to do.
 
Just handed the thing in , with a lot of help from Ohboy on grammar spelling, formatting, wording and generally very good help with what needed to be improved writing wise. Did I forget something? Oh yeah, moral support aplenty!

Thanks to you both for helping out, even just having people get involved just trippled my energy!

It became a 5000 word behemoth. i only needed 2000 words, but the lecturer was fine with it :)
 
jassian said:
Just handed the thing in , with a lot of help from Ohboy on grammar spelling, formatting, wording and generally very good help with what needed to be improved writing wise. Did I forget something? Oh yeah, moral support aplenty!

Thanks to you both for helping out, even just having people get involved just trippled my energy!

It became a 5000 word behemoth. i only needed 2000 words, but the lecturer was fine with it :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words, I was happy to help. :) That essay was 5000 words, though? Wow. In America, essay guidelines are generally done by pages (this essay should be no less than 7 pages, for example), so I don't really count the wordage too much. Still, you must have really enjoyed the topic you were writing on.
 
18 pages with works cited :nut:D

Well, it was a big topic and would have deserved more detailed analysis, really. That's probably why there are books about it out there :) then again I haven't seen one focusing on tv production yet. "Management for TV Proddies", by ME
maybe one day, when I know what i'm talking about :b
 
jassian said:
18 pages with works cited :nut:D

Well, it was a big topic and would have deserved more detailed analysis, really. That's probably why there are books about it out there :) then again I haven't seen one focusing on tv production yet. "Management for TV Proddies", by ME
maybe one day, when I know what i'm talking about :b
Click to expand...

If you ever do write the book, then you'll have to send me a few personally autographed first-edition copies. One to keep, and one to... Uh... NOT sell on eBay. Yeah, that's it... :rolleyes
 
:lol:lol:lol

Better wait till the secons edition may have 100 things to fix :)
 
Ok, now I'll really have to write it ey? *L* give me a few more years.

And you'll probaly have to help, ohboy, you're on editing, Ang you do illustrations!:whip

We're set !:roflmao:
 
Tonight in German, we had to practice using the "um...zu" preposition, and my sentence I said to the class, remembering what we were talking about, was:

Ich brauche Geld, um eBay zu gehen!. (I need money in order to go on eBay)

To change that sentence a bit:

Ich brauche das Buch Jassians, um es auf eBay verzukaufen! :lol (I need Jassian's book in order to sell it on eBay).

In German, though, would one use "auf eBay" like an American would say "on eBay", or would I use "at eBay" instead?

But sure, I wouldn't mind editing your book. By the way, did any of my suggestions to your videos help you at all, back when you asked me to review them? I ask that because I finished the introduction to a short story I'm writing for fun, and I was debating having it reviewed before I go to much farther into the story.
 
Ich brauche das Buch Jassians, um es auf eBay verzukaufen!
is almost perfect Dude, and not an easy sentence either:

Ich brauche Jassians Buch, um es auf eBay zu verkaufen!
is bulleye :)

(we use americanized version of possession quite a bit)

the feedback was very good. it gave me a feel for audience response, and
what I neded to fix.

Sooo...
You want feedback for you short story ?
 
jassian said:
Ich brauche das Buch Jassians, um es auf eBay verzukaufen!
is almost perfect Dude, and not an easy sentence either:

Ich brauche Jassians Buch, um es auf eBay zu verkaufen!
is bulleye :)

(we use americanized version of possession quite a bit)

the feedback was very good. it gave me a feel for audience response, and
what I neded to fix.

Sooo...
You want feedback for you short story ?
Click to expand...

Just the introduction, mostly because that's all I've written. It's based on a video game, so if you think it's too boring to read, then you can say no and I won't be offended. If you don't mind, I'll e-mail it to you tomorrow. I have to type it, because I write the first draft of most stories on paper first.

On a different note, was it gramatically correct in German to use the first sentence. I ask that because I was using the genative case, and I notice that in German, "The book of Jassian's" or "Der Freund meines Bruders (The friend of my brothers)" seems to what is said in German. I did see making the dumb mistake of putting "zu" between verkaufen, though. I thought that it split. :eek:
 
dude, I was impressed by that sentence, it was really good!

With genitive I'm sometimes a bit confused myself.
You could say "Das Buch der Jassian" but it would in my perception sound either archaic or slang like.

or "das Buch von Jassian"

Where I'm from we would say Jassian's Buch.

Well, bring on the story , I'll let you know if I wave a white flag :)
I got a newsstory due and am helping some people finish theirs so
it may take a bit before you hear from me in that regard, if that's fine :)
 
jassian said:
dude, I was impressed by that sentence, it was really good!

With genitive I'm sometimes a bit confused myself.
You could say "Das Buch der Jassian" but it would in my perception sound either archaic or slang like.

or "das Buch von Jassian"

Where I'm from we would say Jassian's Buch.

Well, bring on the story , I'll let you know if I wave a white flag :)
I got a newsstory due and am helping some people finish theirs so
it may take a bit before you hear from me in that regard, if that's fine :)
Click to expand...

Okay. Don't make my story a big priority; this is purely for fun and hence there are no due dates or anything like that. I'll send it out later today, after I get some other things done that need doing.

Oh, and thanks for the Deutsch Hilfe!
 
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