Filmmaking & corporate life

Last week I took what I thought would be vacations and volunteered with my wife to help our son Teo shooting is first short film. This experience changed the way I now look at "Le 7eme art" and wanted to share some of my learnings.

Common language of Filmmaking

Shooting a film obeys to rules as I could observe on this international set with French crew, English actors and an American producer.

Main job functions

• At the top the Director, he owns the artistic vision. He has the "Final Cut". He may or may not get involved with what is going on the set but directs the actors and decides for each take when the "Action" starts and ends. The Director has to listen to the Producer who has worked ahead of time to organize the shooting, select the teams and if Executive Producing would have gathered funding for the film. Each scene gets multiple takes. Actors wait for the word "ACTION" to pivot into their world until they hear "CUT". This is a universal language understood on all sets across the world...

• 1st AD or Assistant Director whose job is to plan ahead of the shooting and organize call sheets and detail documents for each of the shooting days. The AD acts as Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde and needs to play good cop/ bad cop in order to guarantee 100% of deliverables every single day according to the master project plan.
• DP or Director of Photography, owns everything that has to do with the Picture. They are the one selecting and managing all technicians on the set, Camera operator and AD (assistant camera), Gaffer in charge of Lights, Grip who assists the Gaffer, Sound Mixer, Props, Hair and Make Up.
• The Actors. There are the super stars on the set. The AD and Producer are in charge of making sure that they have all they need to be on top of their craft.Our experience consisted of 5 days of shooting. We had 3 wonderful actors from the UK. My wife and I were Production managers which means that we were in charge of catering and making sure that actors and crew had what it takes to do their job in the best possible conditions. Let me tell you that this was not an easy job and days were long... and tiring... The director is pretty much king of the hill during the shooting so he does not get distracted by the day to day logistic. The AD reigns on the set and will dictate who does what and when.

Learnings

The way I witnessed the planning and shooting of this film could inspire I think great corporate projects. I can only command the teamwork and great spirit we experienced on this set. Acknowledging at the same time that the film industry carries a bad reputation at the origin of the "me too" scandal.

For one, planning and structuring of scenes and military execution of the plan would benefit many of our corporate initiatives. Having diversity of teams gathering for a common project and immediately speaking the same "language" would drive huge efficiencies.

The crew accepts for the duration of the shooting that the Director is the boss and everyone stays in his role in an harmonious way, working long hours until the job his done. I can't imagine how stressful and tiring an 8 weeks shooting would be...

In corporate life you need to endure the distance but we could get inspired running specific projects with the dedication and respect of fimmaking...

As a Cinema enthusiast I certainly look at film making differently now. I can only admire the vision, passion, energy and professionalism of that industry. I send my love to the wonderful Kern River film crew!