Producing movies, lean start-up and project management
Don KimPROJECT-TO-PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT EXPERT| Seeking opportunitiesSacramento, CA, United States
I've been meeting and discussing the movie production and distribution process with a couple movie producers/directors (one indie and one becoming mainstream) and the process of making movies these days has a striking symmetry with the lean start-up movement in software development in the initiation phases. That is, due to the extremely easy way to distribute a movie short online, this allows for a way to utilize the "minimum viable product" method of seeing if you can generate enough excitement to secure funding to turn it into a full-featured movie.
Of course, once it reaches this phase is when the movie may get a budget in the millions and involves the process of getting a crew, locations, insurance, extras, studio, etc. Interestingly, it is this part where I've been asked to advise on how to use a more disciplined approach to managing movie projects. In this instance, from what I've gathered, it is no different than any process that an experienced and highly competent project manager would do.
I'm surprised to see so very little integration with the film industry's production management and project management as the symmetries are striking. What do you think?
[This topic was originally posted on a LinkedIn group, but I'd like to see what this great group thinks] Saving Changes...
Sort By:
Anonymous
I am a Project Manager by profession and a Documentary Producer/Director by passion. Long ago I realized how lucky I was to have the PM skillset for filmmaking.
I spent many years working on Movies on the side before producing my own films. I was surprised at the lack of adequate project management on some of the big and medium size productions I worked on.
That said, the people that make movies are a different breed and concentrate more on the creative side, while the hapless Producer is left to learn project oversight/management over time (not unlike real PM's) with little training. There is no doubt that industry could use a few good project managers on the production side. (I know they have them, but they are not what we think of as PM's). They could also use more Business Process Analysts as well, but that is another article.
All this said, I can't tell what a blessing it has been for me to have the PM skillset for producing Documentaries. I have a schedule pre-production and a project plan prior to shooting and it works well (not unlike SDLC project management. I also use the iterative development method for my Docs to make sure people like the film. This is accomplished through test screenings where people write down what the liked or didn't like about the film. I take the feedback and if it makes sense, I re-edit accordingly.
I am glad someone else has found the PM to Film Productions similarities because there are many. Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
I agree that there are similarities. I interviewed a short film producer about this: http://www.projectmanagement.com/blog/The-Money-Files/2696/. For some reason the video isn't working (I will fix it) but the transcript will tell you what we discussed. Saving Changes...
Dear Colleagues, I'm a young Creator and Producer with several years of experience in Film Production most of the time for commercials. After working for an American Reality Show and a Documentary I decided to focus my career in entertainment production. For the last three years I've been studying about the production process for big projects like movies and TV series, learning about executive production, scriptwriting and other fields. As my work comes from a creative view I realized that I needed to know a project methodology to control bigger budgets and crews and to design a good strategy to make it happen.
Currently after a year studying an MBA in Project Management I'm designing a Project Management Plan to produce a movie that I've created and written. I believe that the creative side of my brain is working with the left side in a process that is not easy but it is really helpful. At the beginning I thought that it was crazy what I was doing but then I realized that actually could work and that production has a lot to do with PMI vision and also with Agile visions (lean, scrum, kan ban) depending on the format of the content and some of the phases.
To be honest, I don't know any producer who works or has e PMI vision, but I would like to contact with some of them in order to share some of their experiences and vision.
I found your article very helpful and makes me feel motivated to keep working on that direction. If you know any colleague who I could contact with this matter I would really appreciate it.
Thanks Saving Changes...
