I have not been a manager for many years, but I feel like I’ve gained some experience when it comes to managing creative types in particular. They’re an interesting breed, and while I generally admire their ability to create under pressure, it is not in their nature to give one crap about deadlines or budget constraints. And that is how it should be–if you artists spent your days worrying about the timeline, you’d be too busy to be creative.
This is where I and my fellow producers, production managers, account executives and what-have-you come in. Our job is to take care of all that junk so you can do what you do best. One professor put it as “Make it as simple as possible” for the creatives to accomplish their vision. We do the cash flows, the Gantt charts, wrangle meetings, write contracts and nag nag nag because we care. Or we’re paid to care. Or we just want it to get effing done, dammit.
So, if you find yourself in that pleasant situation where you have to get people who are not inclined to be productive on a schedule to be…well, productive on a schedule, I present to you a series of tips that have helped me through it all.
Here’s what you have to look forward to:
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