An Interview with Chris Krebsbach

We know Chris through the Los Angeles Film Studies Center, an intensive?study-away semester for undergrad students with a vocation in the film and TV industry. Chris has worked as a Professor and Executive Producer at LAFSC, as well as an actor, director, writer, and producer?in several exciting projects outside of the program.?Enjoy this interview,?filled to the brim with profound insight on life in the film industry.

Q: What is your profession and where do you work? A: I currently work in film and television - wherever the wind blows. In the last two years, I've had gigs in studio production offices, have produced interview videos and shorts, have coordinated commercials and line produced a YouTube series.

My two most recent projects were working as an art department coordinator on season 2 of an Amazon Kids show called Surprise and Seek and as production secretary on the Amazon feature, Candy Cane Lane.

Q: As an executive producer, how do you balance creative vision with budget, resources,?and timeline constraints? A: I've only ever really been considered an executive producer as a professor.? We ran one of our courses as if the students were working under a studio so, as professors, we were involved in helping them navigate and sometimes forcing decisions about all of these constraints.? But I think you run into this balance no matter what position you find yourselves in and it's always a negotiation to decide what's best for the project. There's a well-known adage of project management that says you have three points on a triangle -? fast (timeline), cheap (budget/resources) and good/quality - and that you can only have two of the three at any given time.? I would say that that generally holds true.? The reality is that we?want?all three things to be true at the same time but there's generally a need for give and take.?When you're working on your own projects where you get to make the money decisions because it's your money, I would venture to say that finding this balance is a bit easier than if you're working with a client.?I think it's always good to choose a couple of must-have elements and be flexible with most of the other creative decisions... but choose wisely.? For example, I've seen a lot of folks spend a ton of time (and sometimes cash) on a good "money shot" that doesn't even make it into the final project.?Having a money shot at the expense of time to finish elements that are more essential to story is not always worth it.?? On a recent project, there was a lot of pressure from producers to prioritize "cheap".? We would present plans after which key elements and personnel were consistently being cut for cost - sometimes at the expense of safety - and then those same elements were demanded later because they wanted "good" - but "cheap" and "fast" kept us under-crewed and crunched for time. It resulted in a lot of burnout and anger on the part of the crew, which is never good.? The major difficulty that lead to all this was lack of solid?communication?and multiple parties needing to be right instead of listening to each other and trusting the folks with experience... Don't do that.

Ultimately, I think the key is to make decisions that attempt to hold all those three things in balance.? Know early what's most important to you and what is cut-able. Be able to articulate?the whys and considerations behind any decision,?as a producer or head of a department.? Be flexible and think of creative ways to solve problems. ?

Q: What do you look for when putting a creative team together? Who do you need? A: In my general professional life, I'm not currently putting teams together but when I work on side projects or if I'm asked to participate at a higher level (UPM, producer, director) on non-union work, I'm always looking for kindness, humility, teamwork and comminication skills.? Yes, you need a talented team but if your DP can create beautiful shots but is a jerk or your production designer can create a whole new world but can't exchange ideas (etc.), you won't get a good final product and the process will be more difficult than it's worth.? Making content is hard.? There are long hours, creative differences, last minute issues to be solved.? A team of good people who can communicate well and get past bumps together is the most important thing to me.

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Q: Much of your work has been in short films. What makes the shorts genre unique and why are you drawn to it?? A: Short films are a good training ground. They can be a cheaper way to practice whatever craft one is interested in pursuing. The reality is that, for me, a good amount of my experience is in supervising short films because I was a professor for many years and it's the best way to teach; I've also directed shorts because it's the best way (in my opinion) to build skills and experiment. Watching a lot of shorts is also a great way to learn what does and does not work story-wise. After watching and critiquing literally hundreds of short films, I got very good at instinctually knowing how to change shots and sequences around to make a story work that wasn't making sense or cutting around bad acting or confusing shot selection. I don't know that I would call short films a "genre" in and of themselves as you can really tell any type of story in a short form context?but they're?definitely?a different beast artistically.?In my opinion, a lot of short films rely on the gag or slice of life or a cliffhanger ending. None of those things are bad in and of themselves but I tend towards a more three act structure in stories, probably because I came up in a time before YouTube.? My professional goals are in long-form content but I definitely a value a good short story, well-told. Q: Fair enough.?Marketing videos also try to tell a story in a truncated amount of time. From a producing perspective, what do marketing videos and short films have in common? A: From a strictly producing perspective, you have the time/cost/quality triangle to deal with no matter what the content.? And you have to ask the questions regarding what form is best for your specific content - Are you selling a story with a beginning, middle and end?? Is it a product that should tell a story across multiple spots?? Is the project better sold by a slice of life spot that shows how a product or company makes can be beneficial?? Is it a sleek visual product where money shots of the actual "thing" are what you need to sell it?? In any of those forms, you have a subject that wants something and has to overcome odds to get the thing they want.? It's basic story structure.? Q: In your view, what are the marketing asset must-haves?when promoting your projects? Do you get websites made? Do you utilize social media? A: Other folks would be much more equipped to answer these questions than?I but I'll say that social media is vital to promotion these days and not just strictly selling the product but I think that folks like to see the stories behind the story.? Know who worked on a project, how things came together, etc.

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Q: How did the writers’ and actors’ strike affect you? How did you approach the challenge(s) with which you were faced? A: I, like many people working within the studio system, spent much of 2023 not working.? I'd love to say that I was creatively ambitious and put all my extra time into some amazing project...I didn't and I might come to regret that...but when the strike started I didn't expect it to go as long as it did, so I decided to do some travelling. I spent a lot of time with family and friends. I read a lot. I rested. I drove for Uber.?And, because I was free I got the opportunity to work on a non-union show as an art department coordinator which was a position I had been wanting to try... and that show ended up leaving me eligible to join the union, which could potentially open new doors as we get back to work in 2024.??

I also had a long stint in 2022 where I wasn't working consistently, so this time, I really went into it trying to keep my spirits up and taking things day by day.? I think it ended up being a good crucible for me because I haven't wanted to quit and go do something else yet.? I came to LA 20 years ago to work in production and I got very discouraged very quickly so didn't really end up pursuing it.? When my education job ended due to Covid and I wasn't sure what I was going to do next, I wasn't thinking about working in studio production.? I thought that era of life had passed for me but an opportunity that I wasn't even lookinng for arose to work on a Disney show and I figured it was either then or never.? It hasn't been particularly easy to feel like I'm restarting but it's been a great experience overall.

Q: Thank you for sharing, Chris!?Anything new coming up?for you next year? A: Because of the strikes, it's unfortunately still a little early to tell what 2024 will hold.? Most projects outside of network TV have not crewed up yet, so I likely won't know what's coming until early to mid-January and am hoping and praying that it comes earlier!? When you're trying to find your next freelance gig in Los Angeles, you just need to keep up your connections and wait.? It's possible that I could end up in a production office or an art department.?I've got several folks that want to hire me onto their teams if projects get greenlit or if they get their contracts locked down.?From what I've heard so far, I could end up in LA, Cleveland, Puerto Rico or the Caribbean...or none of those places, so right now it's still a waiting game. I just have to trust something will come and look foward to the next adventure.?And I do have a couple of personal projects I'm considering pulling back out to blow off the dust and get back into my own creative flow.