The COVID Effect: Managing Remote Production
(5 min read)
Our friends at Catch&Release have put together regular webinars regarding many relevant topics that our industry is facing. They’re helpful and insightful discussions on anything from keeping brand moments authentic to utilizing found and user-generated content (or “UGC”) to tell your story in a time when so many productions are postponed or cancelled.
We’d like to highlight a panel discussion that Catch&Release hosted on the topic of Managing Remote Production During COVID and Beyond.
John McAdorey, Senior Vice-President and Executive Producer at McCann Worldgroup, acts as panel moderator for this session and leads things off with a few encouraging words: “As producers we’re all hardwired to be amazing problem solvers and this new remote style of production presents a new challenge for all of us to overcome. Here in the face of all this massive disruption that we’re feeling on a personal and professional level, it’s good that we’re able to come together as a community and share some best practices on how we’re able to move forward and continue making work.”
Included in the discussion are professionals from the Post-Production community who get together to talk about how they have adapted to a completely remote workflow, the struggles they face, and offer some great points and tips for clients and agencies so we can all work better together in this pandemic age.
Even for companies like ours that have remote work hardwired into our business model, the adjustment can be difficult.
Jason Mayo, Managing Director and Partner at Bonfire, points out that even with a largely remote structure in place, it would have been hard to predict that every staff member of the company would be working from home saying, “There have been bumps along the way, it’s not the same.”
“As producers we’re all hardwired to be amazing problem solvers and this new remote style of production presents a new challenge for all of us to overcome.” — John McAdorey, McCann
Sonic Union’s Executive Creative Producer, Halle Petro, and Senior Colorist at Nice Shoes, Chris Ryan, also echo those sentiments, explaining how difficult it was to have team members attempting to take home as much equipment as possible at the onset, especially regarding the tools needed by audio engineers and colorists to simply perform their basic job functions.
More gets added to the plate when trying to get together with clients and collaborate on real-time sessions with hi-res files. While there have been many benefits to connecting with clients more regularly online, it can be a lot to juggle, to say the least.
But even without an office space to share, the panel talks about the importance of internal communication, keeping the company culture alive, and keeping morale up. Analisa Goodin, Founder and CEO of Catch&Release, mentions how they have increased the frequency of their normal meetings, stressing that over-communication is actually instrumental to staying connected. “In a remote environment, that really means literally just reaching out and scheduling that time because you’re not going to get it passively or organically. You kind of have to seek it out.” And whether you have drinking games, yoga classes, happy hour dates, or even “pants-optional” Zoom meetings, creating balance and keeping the spirit alive is key.
One thing that many contributors mention is that with such a dramatic shift in workflow, there needs to be adjustments to the way we all plan and communicate, especially regarding deadlines and deliverables. While everyone wants to react quicker and be current, we need to understand that some of these deliverables were simply never meant to be sent over the internet at the speed and quantity requested.
Jennifer Lederman, Executive Producer and Partner at Nomad suggests that while the number of deliverables hasn’t changed, perhaps they can be prioritized based on the campaign rather than a single deadline that has 80 different types of files, even though they won’t all be released immediately. By staggering those deliverables, it allows some give and take as we adjust to these new, remote workflows.
As Lederman points out, “We all need to take off our competitor hats and help each other.”
“In a remote environment, that really means literally just reaching out and scheduling that time because you’re not going to get it passively or organically. You kind of have to seek it out.” — Analisa Goodin, Catch&Release
Check the video above for the entire discussion and to learn more about those pants-optional Zoom calls. And be sure to follow Catch&Release on socials so you can be there for the next webinar.
Related Albums/Playlists:
