Lets face it. Producers have a hard job! Managing the details, responsibilities, pickups, and drop-offs for a shoot can get overwhelming at times. Throw a half dozen PAs into the mix, each with different job assignments and expectations, and there are bound to be some mistakes made along the way. At this level, mistakes cost time, money, or both. Every Producer has their own method of managing pre-production and wrap duty madness — some methods are more successful than others. At Camera Crew Miami, we’ve found a great collaborative tool to help organize and distribute information and tasks to team members in the form of Producteev, the social task management solution for teams.
There are many task management solutions on the market, with varying degrees of functionality and complexity. What makes Producteev so attractive is it’s cross platform support, ease of use, and it’s free! The Producteev system can be accessed via a standard web browser, a Mac desktop application, or an iPhone or Android mobile app. All three interfaces are intuitive, easy to use, and informative.
Today’s recent grads have grown up using collaborative tools in their classrooms, something older generations did not have the benefit of experiencing. These tools have developed new ways of organizing information and most have nothing to do with making “hardcopies”. We’ve found that using ‘old school’ methods like relying on printed documents do very little to organize our younger subordinates.
Let’s give you an example of Producteev in action. Assume that another stop for your delivery PA comes up suddenly. In seconds you can enter a new task from your laptop at the Production Office and a real-time notification will pop up on the PA’s iPhone/Android while they’re making stops around town. You could attach a JPG of a map or even a list of the equipment they are supposed to pick up. Upon completion, the PA would simply check off that stop as ‘complete’ on their phone app and the task will show up as complete on your laptop. Confirmation emails can also be sent to all involved parties for each task, stating the task issue time, completion time, and any notes about that task that were entered during the process. This is all great documentation that could be incorporated into a job’s wrap book for future accountability.
