I’m sure this headline will touch base with a lot of artists out there and considering the readership of this blog, it might stir some anger in some supervisors out there. But whether you identify yourself with this or not, it’s a problem, one that can hinder the quality of work, the budgeting of the project and the development of the artists.
To explain this point, let me give you a scenario I once faced myself. I walked to work one sunny morning and all was well. The journey to the office was a breeze, it was summer, birds were singing, the clouds were wispy and I’m fairly sure I could hear Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. So anyways, I walked to the office, sipped my favourite hazelnut latte and prepared to be briefed on the next project with a fresh sense of enthusiasm to nail another folio piece. The brief was an urban development, aerial shots on photography, mostly commercial and residential, maybe 100 buildings. It was partially designed so there was going to be a bit of back and forth with the client. All good stuff. So as we threw ideas back and forth about the final piece and came to a good conclusion, the subject of hours came to the table. I sat there and looked at what had to be done and considered about 300 hours with the staff/skill set and client requirements I had in front of me. So the PM started asking about hours, suddenly it was announced that we budget for 100 hours. 100!! Ok I thought; that’s not a problem; we can reduce some variables to get in line with the budget, not a problem. But no, it had to be of a level that required 300 but for 100 hours. Hmm. Seem familiar? So rather than stay my ground and be obstinate I pushed the challenge back to my co-worker and asked him for ideas on how we could achieve this. After a pause and not much of any suggestion I quickly realized I am in a no-win situation. They didn’t understand the process, and by process, I mean technically how to do this. Well to cut a long story short, we did the project; it went well, really well. So how many hours? Well after a lot of overtime and compromise from the team it was close to 300, and this was with senior people on the project. The client happily paid for the 300 hours and all was well, except it apparently should have taken 100!?! Another example was a very large project, enormous in fact, the hours suggested were tight, well let’s say about 5 times too tight. Again, the problem here was people calculating hours that are using methodology from 6, 7, 8 or more years ago and assuming that because technology moves forward things suddenly became quicker. Well, things did become quicker, but so did the quality expected become so much better. If I had to achieve what they did 8 years ago? Wow. I could hit the target easily and get home for Judge Judy and probably catch a movie on the way home.
So how does this situation occur? Well, in my opinion it’s the larger firms that are prone to this happening. Seniors that are business development orientated that like to play the artist. Now don’t get me wrong, I know of many people that can do this and I hold them in very high regard, the more senior people reading this will know what a challenge it is to lead and to keep up with every last technical development, tip, trick and new technique. It’s a challenge that consumes you. But there are still those leaders that won’t get involved in the work, and probably haven’t completed a piece of work from scratch for years (playing with it in Photoshop doesn’t count, neither does having copy of max on your PC, sorry).
So does this matter? Well, yes and no. If you are leader that is working shoulder to shoulder with your technical liaison, bringing them to client interaction, whoever that might be, that’s awesome, and you are one of the best. But talking with clients about technicalities you know a little about, making promises on deliverables and budgets with no understanding about how to do it is at best questionable in my opinion and is asking for trouble for you and your team of artists. You are spending their nights and weekends and ultimately overpromising and under-reaching.
So how do these successful firms do it? Well, look outside our industry, look at CGFX. While Digital Domain have the expertise and budget to pretty much do whatever they want, smaller firms have to carefully consider not just how but if they can viably achieve something within a budget using the tools and skills that they have. Production / Technical / Departmental Directors are all consulted and brought to the table. It’s an open discussion and one that is a team effort. Most importantly there is a clear distinction between ‘sales’ client side people and production. Not one person ‘owns’ a project, the team does and by that I mean a team of directors, coordinators and client side staff. Client side staff knows that’s what they are, and they are good at it, they don’t try to be the artist, only a visionary. It’s a vision they can create, an idea, but there is that line that crosses over to technical that they must be careful to not cross it.
So what happens if they do cross that line? Well for a start budgets are often miscalculated, but most importantly significant opportunities are lost. This is all about innovation. Typically these people are only seeing new technologies and techniques through the work of their competition. This is hardly a visionary or an innovative way to think about being the best at what you do. The best innovative work I see comes from those firms that are full of leaders that live and breathe this work, they are on the forums, talking to other artists, exchanging ideas at meetings with other firms and playing with new technical ideas. Let’s not forget Google achieved a lot of their greatest technologies from people on their 20% personal project time. Gmail for instance did not come from a VP of Google, but from one the many talented staff at Google that had a really cool idea and was encouraged to pursue it. Leaders need to realise that the next breakthrough in what we do is probably going to come from a bright young artist that just looked at what we do in a different way. Oh and let’s not forget The Matrix, where did bullet time come from? Those kids hadn’t even left college yet!
It’s by client side leaders making a decision to either be ‘In’ this or bring your technical liaison to the table that will move us forward faster. The technical liaison needs to be doing this, not overseeing it, they need to be ‘in’ the industry, ‘in’ the tech, living and breathing what’s new and experimenting with new technical ideas. Now this technical expert may not make you money, but he will win you the project and maybe a few prizes along the way.
Smaller firms don’t really have the luxury of this level of staffing and its these smaller firms that have to keep up to date, they are forced to be innovative because that is their key strength. Adaptability and technical innovation will always shine through, they often don’t have a marketing team, the work has to speak, shout and scream for itself.
One last thought to consider is if you are not technically aware of your industry as of yesterday; don’t try to be in front of a room of people (your team of carefully selected artists) that probably are. It screams your inadequacies. Telling someone to throw lights all over the room, to screen things in Photoshop or to make half your scene glow tells any worthy artist you have no idea what you are talking about, but once upon a time you might have done. Instead, concentrate what you are good at, leading, inspiring and bringing people together to ‘want’ to do this. And for love of god, find someone that is good at doing the work and innovating, keep them close, real close. Remember, artists are doing this for many reasons, the top one is either money or far more likely, because they love it, they get off on it, it’s kind of cool, so show them something new, improve their skills and help them develop, you’ll end up with a far more responsive and cohesive team.
So if you are leading a small team/firm, or aspire to do this, consider your position and how you wish to grow, place your skill set carefully on the table and do it with a pedigree of experience and knowledge.
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