A buck's worth

Cost + Aggravation = Outcome

It's my philosophy of life and business.
It's pretty simple and the equation is proportional.
High cost should lower your aggravation, low cost will raise it.  These two variables combined
equal an outcome.  If the expected outcome is high then the two variables must equal that value.
If cost is low and you don't won't to be bothered don't expect much of an outcome.

Cost can be time, money, favors, political capitol, basically anything of value.
Aggravation is hassle, attention diverted from other matters, calls to superiors, interruptions and that nagging feeling that everything might go sideways.


Stupidity is an unseen variable, a firm understanding of Calculus is needed to factor it into any equation.

Gone is our Summer of Discontent!

It's been a long hard summer filled with multiple cancellations,  jobs with horrible working conditions, low/slow pay and unrealistic expectations.  Having been a staff production manager earlier in my career I could always see both sides of the relationships between freelancers and PMs.  This summer I've observed  that the position of production manager has clearly taken a hit in terms of esteem and professionalism.  I've worked with great PMs who get what we do and know the challenges of their profession but lately I have to wonder.  Some examples over the past few months:

Who schedules a three hour car ride between locations and expects to be rolling camera the second we arrive?   No parking, no elevator for the gear and no rest rooms.

If you don't have money for a PA to do Crafty why are you taking one of our grips to do a coffee run
for your client and expect us to work faster?

When I call from the location and find out the job was cancelled late last night, why are you upset that I'm billing you for the day?

Do you really think we can do 18 pages with three major company moves in eight hours with real people as talent?

Yes, the crew needs to eat lunch!

I'm sorry the CEO cancelled the interview after we've been waiting for 4 hours but of course you have to pay us and you need to reschedule and don't assume that we're all available and we'll do it for free!

Let me get this straight, you want me to call your intern and tell them how I shoot that project so they can shoot it next time?


Some of these events are due to inexperience, some from being overwhelmed but I believe a lot of this has to do with how PM's have been marginalized over the years in the corporate, and agency world.  UPMs in the Feature/Episodic world are fantastic, most are members of the DGA and have to go through a number of productions to build up their days before they can get their UPM card.  They see their job as a profession, not a means to move up to the next gig.  A real UPM juggles crew, budget and schedule as deftly as a DP lights or an Actor delivers a line.  They understand the production/crew relationship and they treat everyone with respect.

It's a shame that the position does not enjoy the same esteem in the corporate and agency world.  Often it's a PA or Intern with little or no experience working off a sheet left behind from the person before them.  They're not committed to the position they see it as a means to an end, a rite of passage to move on from as quickly as possible.  There are exceptions but they've becoming an all to rare species and when they call I am very thankful to be working with them.