Television Production Management

The Role of the Production Manager

In a television production, no one member of the team is dispensable.  Each person has a job to do, without which the programme could not be made.  It is the job of the production manager to tie in and oversee the process and people to ensure that the programme is made and delivered on time and that there as few problems as possible during it’s making.

The production manager is one of the first people to be involved in the process.  They have to ensure that the production is insured from the start, and that the facilities and people are in place to get the film made.  One of the most major tasks the production manager faces is to ensure that the film stays within its budget whilst also maintaining the highest level of quality within the constraint.  The production manager therefore has to balance the creative aspirations of the director with the financial constraints of the accountant and find a happy medium.

The pre-production stage is when the production manager will assemble the team which will work on the film, and the equipment that will be needed.  Contracts are negotiated and signed.  This way, the balance sheets will be taking shape, expenditures on wages and equipment will be worked out, the amount to be spent on stock can be accurately estimated and peripheral expenses estimated based on the length of the shoot.  Contingency plans must always be built into a shoot schedule, there are many unknowns which could affect the length of a shoot, with a contingency period built in, the equipment and people needed to continue working will be available at no extra cost to the original estimate  (see appendix 1 for Out and About shooting schedule.)

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The production manager by this point should be in possession of a contact book containing all the names, addresses and phone numbers of everybody who is working on the production.  Also present, will be list of the equipment ordered along with the details of the supplier so that it is easy to ascertain whether what was ordered has been supplied.  Call sheets will also be drawn up and distributed to all the cast and crew.  A call sheet lists who is supposed to turn up on which day and when.  The purpose is two fold, the production manager can ...

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