Production Notes

I just returned from my first production since coming to Geneva. Not surprisingly, it was one of the most atypical. Key differences between this and almost any other shoot I’ve been on:

• Instead of an agency producer, there was me and my partner.
  
• Instead of bidding the project, the client’s preferred production company was assigned to us. (Fortunately, they’re a good group of people.)
  
• Instead of a carefully planned schedule, the client informed us when we’d be able to shoot and chose the location for us.
  
• Instead of taking the plane to LA or New York, it was driving six hours to Bologna.
  
• Instead of English being spoken on the set, it was English, French and Italian.
  
• Instead of a breakfast burrito from craft services, it was croissants and muesli at the hotel.

The shoot date and location were mandated by the client, the former coming just four days before the shoot. This led to these continued points of difference:

• No talent search.
  
• No prepro.
  
• No wardrobe check.
  
• No shooting boards (that we saw, anyway).
  
• No editor search. (We lucked out and got a great one, though.)
  
• No account people from the agency on the set.
  
• No client on the set.
  
• And lastly, due to short notice and scheduling, the director we’d been working with was replaced with another. We first learned this when we met the new director the night before the shoot. (Fortunately, we lucked out again. He was a good one.)

But the best difference between this shoot and any other I’ve ever been on was my partner and I receiving a text message from my CEO the morning of the shoot saying “Good luck today.”