By Jason Hellerman
So, you’re making a movie?
Well, how can you coordinate all the departments? Keep track of the budget? And make sure everyone arrives to the set on time?
That’s where Production management software comes into play.
Production Management Software, like SyncOnSet, makes it easier and more efficient to manage film, television, and commercial productions than ever before.
Of course, while ease and efficiency is the goal, there is nothing simple or easy about the answer to the question “What is a production manager?” (Hence the need for something like Film Production Management Software.)
In fact, a production manager job description entails so much that even a production manager would get stressed out hearing the details. So, let’s go ahead and do it.
What’s a Production Manager?
The production manager definition most industry professionals go by is “organizing the workflow of the creation of a project.” Whether they’re working on a feature-length film or a webisode for the internet, production managers are handling the budget, approving call times and call sheets for talent and crew, and approving their timecards.
If it sounds like minutiae, it is nevertheless one of the single most vital positions on a project. Even a director with a big ego would have to confess that a production manager job description does not even do justice to this vitality. In fact, one of the tasks of a production manager is often managing and dealing with these egos on a Hollywood set.
To be fair, even Production Management Software can’t help with that one.
What can Production Management Software do for you?
But what Production Management Software can help with is streamlining the workflow in a coherent and visual way for everyone involved.
There is enough paperwork involved in the process as it is that anything on a computer/phone/tablet (via Production Management Software or Production Scheduling Software) is incredibly helpful.
Almost any production manager job description that you read will also note that it entails working extremely closely with line producers.
This of course begs the question “what is a line producer?”
What does a Line Producer do?
Unlike a production manager job description, the answer to what a line producer does is slightly more specified: they create those budgets that the production managers are making sure everybody sticks to. Line producers will often join the producers of a project, and the director of course, in approving the production manager’s hires.
However, just to make matters more confusing, a production manager job description and the answer to “what is a line producer” will often converge; on some projects, the line producer and production manager are one in the same.
As a line producer and a production manager description both reveal, neither of these jobs are particularly creative even though they are involved in an incredibly creative project. In other words, the “production” they are “managing” is a piece of art enabled only by their skills and work. That’s why, given this production manager definition, a production manager needs Production Management Software: to organize their own organizing.
And there’s a hell of a lot to organize.
Production Management Software: An organizer’s dream.
Production Management Software can also help organize these hires, whether it’s a line producer hiring a production manager or a production manager hiring a production assistant, Production Management Software can keep a list of those involved in the production.
So what does a production assistant do?
A production assistant is someone on the set who helps out with as-needed tasks, including things as glamorous as fetching coffee for movie stars. As for production work itself, whether you’re a line producer or a production manager or a production assistant, it is the ins-and-outs of filming the actual project.
What Else Can Production Management Software Do?
Ask any line producer or production manager: a million things go wrong everyday. In fact, the answer to “What is a line producer?” or “What is a production manager?” is arguably “Someone who anticipates a million things going wrong everyday.” However, they are not worry-warts; they are task-masters and efficient organizers. In an industry and project full of artists with, well, different types of brains, people like line producers and production managers are the only folks who make it possible to pull it all off.
A writer can come up with a brilliant story, a director can have a brilliant vision for it, but a production management team executes that story and vision to life — and they too should be recognized for their brilliance.
Unfortunately, the Producers Guild of America does not officially recognize line producers, despite having many as members, while the Director’s Guild of America officially includes production managers.
Production Management Software does recognize the hard work of what it means to be a production manager and what a line producer does — by making it easier for them to do their anything-but-easy jobs. Production Management Software will help save production managers’ own time, helping things run smoothly and, of course, staying within the budget.
SyncOnSet’s Production Management Software
Now that you know the benefits of Production Management Software, let us introduce you to the best option on the market. SyncOnSet.
SyncOnSet was born out of a simple idea: replace the three-ring production binder with professional software designed for how production teams work.
This simple but elegant design has enabled us to be embraced by thousands of TV series and films around the world, SyncOnSet has grown into the leading entertainment technology company for digitizing physical production and managing creative content.
And we’re getting Emmys for our work, so you know it’s good.
Our mission is to help your vision come to life.
We’re excited to see what you come up with, and happy to help along the way!