We tapped into the wisdom of Amber White and Tim Semon, stage management superstars with a combined 22+ Broadway shows under their belts (and that’s not counting national tours and Off-Broadway!). They’ve shared their battle-tested secrets for streamlining rehearsals, ensuring every minute is maximized for maximum impact. Here are their top tips for keeping your rehearsals running as smooth as silk.

1. Prioritize the music

“The first thing that needs to be tackled is to be able to sing through the show,” says Amber. It’s like building a house – the music is the foundation. Once the cast feels confident with the score, then the staging, choreography, and other elements can seamlessly build on top of that strong base. This not only makes learning easier for everyone, but also ensures a cohesive and powerful performance come opening night.

2. Create a detailed schedule

Don’t leave your cast and crew guessing! Whether it’s a daily breakdown or a comprehensive production schedule (or both!), Tim recommends ditching the “need-to-know” mentality and creating detailed plans that everyone can access. “I truly believe that anyone who works on a production should get [that information],” Tim explains. “Inevitably, there’s something on there that someone will need to know.” By making the schedule transparent, you empower your team and ensure everyone’s on the same page, leading to smoother rehearsals.

Looking for a good rehearsal schedule template? We have one just for you. Sign up for our mailing list and get access to FREE downloadable schedule templates, plus more!

Bonus tip: Make sure to update the next rehearsal schedule after every rehearsal and send it to the cast and crew ASAP. This way they will know what’s expected of them before they walk in the room!

3. Start by doing the most first

Time is of the essence during rehearsals, especially for your busy cast who juggle outside commitments. Amber and Tim recommend a strategic approach: tackle the most complex scenes (those involving the largest number of actors) when rehearsals start. This ensures everyone gets the most out of their rehearsal time. Once those scenes are at a good stopping point for the day, you can gradually release actors as you move on to scenes with smaller groups. This maximizes efficiency and keeps everyone focused on the most demanding material early on. By opening up rehearsal slots throughout the process, you accommodate your cast’s schedules and get the most out of every minute.

4. Break the script down

Amber and Tim emphasize the power of a good script breakdown. This involves splitting the script into scenes and identifying the actors involved in each one. Think of it as a blueprint for your rehearsal schedule. With this breakdown in hand, you can ensure you’re calling the right actors for the right scenes and musical numbers, maximizing rehearsal efficiency and keeping everyone focused. It’s a simple step that pays big dividends in terms of organization and productivity.

Bonus tip: If you have an MTI license, there’s no need to break the script down yourself! Click here to see how ProductionPro provides script breakdowns for all MTI shows.

And that’s a wrap on part one of our Q&A with Amber White and Tim Semon! We learned some valuable tips for streamlining rehearsals and making the most of your time.

But wait, there’s more! In part two, Amber and Tim delve deeper into the world of tech week, sharing their insights on things like effective collaboration, headset etiquette, and staying calm under pressure.

Sign up for our mailing list to unlock more Stage Manager content:

• Read Part 2 – Tech Week
• Download FREE Stage Manager templates
• Watch the full conversation with Amber White and Tim Semon

The post Unveiling the Magic: Rehearsal Hacks from Broadway Stage Management Legends appeared first on ProductionPro.

A Start in Film

Final Thoughts

The post Production Pro Spotlight: Director Sam Hargrave appeared first on ProductionPro.

A successful film requires a lot of creative collaboration between producers, directors, and the entire production team. To ensure everyone is working together towards the shared goal of making a great movie, Winter believes that a great film producer should first and foremost establish clear, concise communication with all parties involved. 

“Sharing notes, keeping people up-to-date with script revisions and schedule revisions – all of that becomes critical when you’re moving fast. You’ve got a lot of people and communication becomes vital,” he says. 

The post Production Pro Spotlight: Producer Ralph Winter appeared first on ProductionPro.

Effortlessly Import Annotations into the Latest Script Version

Just like all other features in ProductionPro, importing annotations is incredibly simple. There’s no need for users to manually download the latest script version from an email and re-upload it into the app. Instead, the new script version is securely uploaded by the Production Office for all and clearly marked as the “Current Script” in ProductionPro’s neatly organized binder. In just a few clicks, users can select the old script and the desired note categories to import, and voila! Within seconds, the user’s notes are imported into the latest script version.

The post Say Goodbye to Script Revision Suffering: An Easy Solution for Transferring Notes appeared first on ProductionPro.

Salvador’s career began to take him places. From working in London on the hit TV series Four Weddings and a Funeral to creating his own jewelry line for The Mindy Project, to running the costume workroom in Mexico City for one of the biggest movies in the world, Titanic.

Yet it was from this project, which most film crew would gladly have given everything to be involved with, that Salvador made the difficult decision to leave. Taking a leap of faith, Salvador risked leaving a more high-profile job for a project that could make him a designer. And it worked! 

Taking up the opportunity to head up the costume design department on the much smaller budget film Soul Food, Salvador was able to have creative control over the project and make the transition to becoming a fully-fledged costume designer. 

Helping the Industry Grow

Salvador regularly talks to students about what costume design work really entails, helping them understand that a costume designer’s job involves more than just fashion and making costumes look aesthetically pleasing. 

“You need to know not only how to make a beautiful dress,” he says. “[But] you need to know how to deal with an actor when they are feeling bloated that day.” Alongside his people skills, Salvador’s costume designing usually goes far beyond the aesthetic, as he is tasked with helping to create a believable world through clothing. 

Salvador starts by breaking down the script into what actors will need to wear throughout the story, then goes on to research period costumes and fabrics to be used in the film. He is constantly creating designs from scratch or making prototypes, liaising with other costume illustrators, and deciding on materials, accessories, and other pieces for each costume. Outside of his own department, he also needs to be in constant communication with set designers, production managers, art directors, show runners, and directors to ensure the costumes fit into the overall vision of the film. 

When asked what a great costume designer needs in their toolkit Salvador quickly points to two skills: creativity and the ability to collaborate. “It’s amazing how much of our job is making a visual representation that needs to be passed on to multiple people,” he says.

And this process can become quite complex when you consider how many departments are working together in order to create a product. So, when you need to update a design or inform about a fabric change, multiple emails and reminders have to be sent out. Using ProductionPro, lets users like Salvador break down the script to their needs and form a common language that allows information from multiple departments to be distributed across the production in manageable pieces. 

The post Production Pro Spotlight: Costume Designer Salvador Pérez appeared first on ProductionPro.

The Journey from First Gig to Art Director

Iain White’s journey from art department assistant to established art director for both television and film projects almost seems like it was his destiny, although it didn’t always appear that way. No matter how anyone finds their start in the film industry, talent always seems to find a way. Iain always had an inclination for the arts and began his path toward art direction by building and painting sets for theatrical productions.

“Largely an accident” is how Iain likes to summarize his start in the industry. “I trained in theater, that was my background. I did lots of low-budget theater work…I was a scenic painter.”, he reminisces.

The film industry is one where creatives of all types can contribute their talents and collaborate in the shared vision of cinematic storytelling. As an astute set designer, Iain was able to translate his skillset in stage productions to the medium of film. “I kind of fell into the art department. It was the 90s, and it made more sense to do a film. And [my first film] was in Italy, so it was nice to go away…It wasn’t planned or anything.”, he shares.

The project Iain’s describing is Othello (1995), his first as an art department assistant. Starring Lawrence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh, Othello was shot on location in Italy. “We shot in Venice, up and down the grand canal.” he described. As a first-time crew member the experience sounds like it was right out of the movies. Establishing his foothold in the film industry, Iain quickly followed up that project by working on the critically acclaimed Kenneth Branagh adaptation of Hamlet (1996).

The rest is history: Iain climbed the ranks and established himself as a well-regarded art department professional working on projects such as Game of Thrones and Call the Midwife.

The Process and Challenges: Daily Life in the Art Department

Iain has a vast amount of experience under his belt after working within the art department for decades. When asked to reflect on his process, Iain shared that it has remained relatively consistent: 

“You usually come in, you break down the scripts, you look at the schedule, and you look where the locations are, and what the budget is. You do that on all [projects] to an extent…it usually starts with the script.” 

However, sometimes even a script has been too much to ask for on productions. This is where many of the most challenging aspects of Iain’s work originated. “I’ve been on a few things where the first day of shooting, we don’t have a script…it makes it incredibly difficult.” 

In Iain’s experience, the difficulty or ease of a project really comes down to the communication between different departments on the project. “A big portion of my job is planning and implementing…you need to have all of the information you can. If you’ve got all of the information, then it’s easy to plan.” 

This sounds like this could be ProductionPro’s motto. With the many moving pieces involved in a production, keeping a clear and simple-to-use channel of communication between departments can be the difference between a successful project, and one laden with headaches. 

Iain agreed, and pointed towards a recent experience in production that brought him to this conclusion. “I was on a road movie a year ago…we were traveling up England. It would have been great if we had a central resource…a digital version that could tell us…where everyone was, [and] where all of the documents were. All of that would [have been] really helpful.”

Used by Hollywood’s biggest studios, ProductionPro offers a variety of different services designed to make communication on a film production more synchronized. The platform allows all creative departments and studio executives to have the latest version of scripts, schedules, breakdowns and released designs in one secure location. 

When discussing the benefits of some of the features that ProductionPro can provide, Iain had this to say: “You need something like that…Those of us who work ahead need to know what’s happening.” 

What's Next for Iain White?

Iain’s extensive career and journey has allowed him to leave his mark in the industry already. Yet his career is far from over. When asked about what he predicts his next projects to be, Iain had a very candid response: “I haven’t made any plans, professionally…if the project is interesting, I’d do it.” He also remarked on the unpredictable nature of the industry. “Some of the stuff you put loads and loads of work into disappears. Other stuff is successful and you go ‘really? Ok.’…I don’t think you can guess it.” 

Iain is the Art Director of the popular television series Ted Lasso which just finished filming its third season. It features Jason Sudeikis as an American college gridiron football coach who is suddenly relocated to England to coach a failing English Premier League team. The series has received critical acclaim and has won four Primetime Emmy Awards ahead of its third season. 

White described the process of signing on with Ted Lasso in his typically candid style: “When I met [Paul Cripps, the Production Designer] I thought it would be fun to do a football thing with him. That’s been successful, but there was no expectation it would be particularly successful.” 

All in all, we’re in awe at the success of Iain’s career. The film industry presents a world of opportunities for rising talents, and Iain’s skill set allowed him to seize them to develop his career and prosper. 

We’re excited to see where Iain goes next and happy that ProductionPro can support him and other creatives throughout the production process. We’d like to thank Iain for taking the time to share the story of his career (so far!) with us.

Ready to sync your production team?

The post Production Pro Spotlight: Art Director Iain White appeared first on ProductionPro.

Keys to the Production Office

Unlocking Success as an Office Production Assistant in Film & Television by Jennifer A. Haire & Gilana M. Lobel

Save 20% with code ESA22 through Dec 31, 2022

Get the Book

Organizing within the Production Office

Artwork by G.W. Haire

For those working in the Production Office, if files are organized with a traditional hierarchy (Folder, subfolder, document) and properly labeled (Cast, Cast Contracts, Contracts A-Z) it allows for any (approved) member of the office to have access to what they need, when they need it. Keys to the Production Office includes examples of how to design your digital file landscape so your team can easily access the information they need over the course of pre-production, principal photography and wrap.

The post Do you have the keys to the production office? appeared first on ProductionPro.

Almost without doubt, the number one issue plaguing workflows on film productions is people incessantly looking for things and then wondering if it’s “the latest version”. Maybe what they’re looking for is buried in their inbox as an attachment to a never-ending email chain. Maybe it was in that Dropbox link the Art Department coordinator nicely texted them last week. Maybe there’s a more final version of the V4-final-final-for-real.pdf file they saved to their desktop.

Crazy as it sounds, as a courtesy, we should just tell the truth to students in film school: that they’ll spend a sizable chunk of their career just “looking for stuff” in a meander of dropbox links, asset managers, email chains and production reports. What’s crazier is that almost everyone is searching for the same thing around the same time. To put things in perspective, on an hypothetical 6-month-long 50-crew production, if everyone is wasting 10 minutes per day looking for things (we’re being generous here), that’s a combined total of 1,000 wasted hours, or close to 42 days! You could shoot another feature film with that time!

Thankfully, at ProductionPro we believe there has to be a better way and we make it our mission to let people quickly find what they need when they need it. It starts with the script. When users open the production binder in ProductionPro, they are sure to find the latest script, front and center. The space has been recently redesigned and is now beautifully organized in sections that are tailored to each production: feature films like to have sections for scripts, schedules or various production office documents; episodic productions like to have one section per episode. Finally, an archive toggle makes it easier to access and reference an earlier version. There’s no need to partake in yet another round of is-this-the-latest guessing game: it is the latest, and it’s here with you, just a tap away. Just pull up your script for a quick search, share a note with your department and put it back in your pocket!

When it comes to media, there are even more powerful horses under the hood. In just a few words, ProductionPro has a signature way to connect information that makes finding anything intuitive: we use the structure of the story to organize information in a visual way that everyone understands. Scenes, characters, departments, schedule – all can be used to drill down into a production’s materials and the cherry on top is that it’s all connected to the script.

If you’re ready to reclaim your time, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’ll happily show you how we can save your team hours and streamline communication on your next production.

The post Marie Kondo your production documents for good. appeared first on ProductionPro.

To survive, it’s every department for themselves – or is it?

Illustration by Alberto Buscicchio & Charis Fauzi

As expectations rise and schedules feel the squeeze, ALL departments face the same dilemma: how should they allocate their limited time to guarantee their own success, as well as that of the entire production? It becomes a puzzle that’s not easily managed. With hyperfocus on their own distinct priorities and deadlines, it’s all too easy to fall into isolation and overlook how changes in one department might affect another. 

When […] we’re all in our own, different silos, people are a bit detached from the overall workings of things. Everyone’s just dealing with their own shit because people are so busy. – Andrew Li, Art Director

Often, the onus to fuel collaborative conversation resides with the Art Department, typically considered the “Hub” of any production. Art Director, Cassidy Shipley, estimates that 75% of the time, he’s initiating the inter-department discussions required to keep all parties moving forward. His dream is to see this relationship grow to be more mutual – department heads consistently checking in with each other, sharing the latest versions of their designs and finding ways to work more proactively. It certainly sounds ideal. Departments usually have a myriad of reasons why a new piece of information can’t be made available production-wide: maybe they’re waiting for creative approval or the producer hasn’t green-lit the extra spend on the requested change. As Art Director, Andrew Li, pointed out, maybe the most critical piece to the puzzle is a universal understanding and appreciation of the complexities each department faces. Without empathy for every department’s plight, how can the production truly work from a united front?

Have you ever wondered how much of your time gets wasted every day searching for current information from other departments? ProductionPro recently created a Film Crew Time Calculator to help you determine how much time you could be saving during prep and production.

Estimate the time you could save

The post The top three challenges our art departments face today. appeared first on ProductionPro.

“All roads lead to Rome” goes the saying… Well, at ProductionPro, we are fully aware that there are many ways to think about and access film department information. People from the Art Department tend to think in terms of sets; people from Costume, in terms of characters; and people from VFX, in terms of scene sequences, for example. As a result, people often struggle to find the materials they need: where’s the folder with that storyboard? Or was it a link? Who should I ask for it? Wait… is this the latest? Let’s be honest though, with production schedules more frantic than ever, nobody’s got time for this!

To solve this challenge, we’re excited to bring you Media Collections – a new feature that makes it a snap to find what you need. Media Collections are curated subsets from your Media Library, focused on a specific breakdown element such as a scene, a character, or a department. Media Collections are auto-generated: if there’s a tag for it, there’s a Media Collection for it!

We built Media Collections to let you quickly navigate using the context of your materials and the very personal way you think about them: it connects the dots, if you will. No two people think alike, but in ProductionPro, everyone can find what they need, when they need it. Let’s say for example that you are viewing Art Department materials and open a set rendering for Scene 2: you can now click on Scene 2 to see any other materials associated with that scene – pre-vis, storyboards, props… you name it. What’s more, when you’re looking at the Collection for a scene, we now also list the scene breakdown information and characters underneath and, you guessed it, they’re clickable too! You can then keep drilling down by clicking on one of the characters and so on.

“If I look at Scene 34, I can see everything that is related to Scene 34. When on a production that is not using ProductionPro, I’m having to go to three or four different locations to find that information.” – Drew Petrotta, Props Master

Media Collections make it easier for you to discover the latest references from other departments. Learn more about the other ways ProductionPro is helping film professionals save time.

 

The post Connecting the dots between film departments appeared first on ProductionPro.