How Do I Hire a Professional Production Manager?
The production manager is tasked with the important role of watching over the finances and maintaining control of the employment needs of the film production. Accountants at heart, the production manager is charged with controlling the production budget and maintaining the various tasks of the project without going over expenditures while ensuring that production runs as smoothly and effectively as possible.
In between budgeting, the production manager will hire professionals to fill various roles or to subcontract work related to film production. Throughout it all, the production manager is responsible for budgeting, hiring, overseeing, and maintaining the various needs of the film through efficient shoot scheduling, location booking, and planning.
Hiring a production manager is like hiring a jack-of-all-trades. You need someone that can effectively strategize and develop a vision that will align key concepts of the project with the overall goals while keeping the film crew safe by overseeing insurance needs and health regulations and keeping investors happy by accounting for production budgets and hiring needs. It’s a tall order, but a great production manager is truly the heart of the film crew.
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Production Manager Qualities
Before hiring a production manager it’s important to review resumes and to chat with potential candidates about their skillsets and qualities. A great manager is not only someone that leads by example, but someone that carries a strong vision from conception to ideation and execution.
This individual will never lose sight of the overall production goal, although they may juggle many different tasks and face various challenges along the way. Their job is to solve problems, carry out visions, and communicate with the rest of the team to keep the peace.
Every great production manager should have the following qualities about them:
- Strong leadership skills.
- Excellent communication skills.
- Strong understanding of each role on the film crew and their needs/expectations.
- Knowledge of health and safety practices on set.
- Organizational skills.
- Ability to multitask.
Dealing with people all day, every day is hard. Production managers are tasks with efficiently dealing with people and keeping staff, crew, and external client attitudes in check. It’s a tall order, but a great production manager can handle it all!
Questions to Ask Prospective Production Managers Before Hiring
Before you hire a production manager, make sure that you’re asking the right questions. While some questions will have varied potential answers, the overall goal is to get an idea of how the individual deals with communication, conflict, and leading a team. Since production managers work closely with the cast and crew it’s important for them to be strong communicators with essential leadership skills.
Ask the following questions before hiring a production manager:
- Do you have any ideas about the current project? You’re looking for an answer that includes the outright offering of support on how they would tackle the key needs of the project. Now is not the time for the candidate to be quiet, passive, or otherwise uninvolved.
- Can you provide me with examples of your past work? Again, this is a time for you to get to know the individual. If they cannot provide you with work samples, they may not have the experience that you’re looking for or they may not be as proud of their work as they should be — both are red flags.
- Do you specialize in a particular style of cinema? Some may specialize in comedy, others incorporate films. The idea here is to find out if they specialize in the sort of production skills that you’re looking to fill. While this is not a game-changer, a lack of specialization may signal a lack of experience or a lack of strategy.
- What would you do if your leadership style or production style clashed with a member of the team? Has that ever happened before? You’re looking to hear about how the production manager applicant can adapt and change his or her methods to approach opportunities to support other team members.
- What steps will you take to solve any conflict between members of the production crew if there was a problem? You’re looking for a production manager that will work front and center on solving conflict among the team and offer helpful solutions to prevent future conflicts from arising.
Hiring a production manager is a big task that is very important to the overall efficiency of your production. For more information, or for help hiring a local production manager, call Beverly Boy Productions today!
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