Productive paranoia Lights, cameraanxiety! Lessons from making 37 movies

Productive paranoia Lights, cameraanxiety Lessons from making 37 moviesProductive paranoia Lights, cameraanxiety Lessons from making 37 moviesThis weeks episode of our StanfordFRICTIONPodcast starsSherbeii Singer, who has worked as a TV and film producer since she was 21 years old. Sheri has been executive producer of 37 made-for-tv moviesand is working on several additional films right now. She is perhaps best known for the Disney ChannelHalloweentown series, where young woman Marnie Piper trains to become a witch and uses her powers to battle evil. Sheri is my first cousin, so it was easy to convince her to join us on the podcast. We had a rollicking conversation, in part, because Sheris husbandSteve Whitewas in the room during the recording and kept egging us on with provocative stories and questions. (Steve also has had a long and successful career as a producer and NBC network executiveand was the Grateful Deads road manager for a year in the 1960s).The movies that Sheri makes p rovide an excellent laboratory for uncovering when friction is desirable, the warning signs that bad friction is emerging, and how leaders can nip it in the bud. These films are made under strict financial, temporal, legal, technical, and administrative constraints. Each film is produced by a temporary organization that Sheri, as executive producer, is responsible for assembling, running, and disbanding. The filming is nearly always completed in 15 to 20 days - so speed is of the essence, and even small delays and mistakes can mess up the schedule, undermine a films quality, and destroy profit margins. (Here isa storyon the parallels between this Hollywood Model and the research onflash organizationsthat Melissa Valentinediscussed onFRICTION in season one)As I went back and listened to Sheris episode and read the transcript, I realized a key to Sheris success is that she has keenly tuned radara form of healthy, rather than destructive, paranoia. Her attitude, constant scanning for red flags, and penchant for avoiding (or quickly eliminating) trouble reminds of research by Rod Kramer on prudent paranoia. Here is Rods definition in theHarvard Business ReviewPrudent paranoia is a form of constructive suspicion regarding the intentions and actions of people and organizations. Prudently paranoid people monitor their colleagues every move, scrutinizing and analyzing each action in minute detail. They are aware that those around them harbor powerful- and often conflicting- motives for the things they do. By awakening a sense of present or future danger, prudent paranoia serves as part of the minds early warning system, prompting people to search out and appraise more information about their situations.Inour25 minute conversation,Sheri discusses numerous red flags that arouse constructive suspicion in her and that shape if and when she intervenes in small and big ways. Although Sheri talks more about destructive than constructive friction, she discussed times when it is wise to slow things way down and fix problems otherwise the production will be haunted with higher costs, lower quality and destructive friction down the road. For example, Sheri emphasized even if there is pressure from funders and partners to move faster that if a film has a bad script, gelegenheits are high the film will be bad too. Or, even the best case, the constant rewrites, reshooting, and intensive editing required to save the film will result in a hellish, expensive, and frustrating production processI dont say, I dont care if its not as good as it could be, I just wanna get the movie made. I dont do that. But some people do, and thats one place where its really worth it to slow down.Once the cast and production crew for a film are hired, and the planning begins, Sheri looks for warning signs that people need to be nudged to move faster, make the right decisions, or sometimes, just arent right for the film. She described a recent film were the stunt coordinator fell as leep at an early meeting . Sheri wanted to fire the guy right away, but her partner wouldnt let her. She was rightHe did finally get fired, but he got fired when it was so close to when the big stunts were coming that we had a major scramble job. Sheri then explained how her prudent paranoia feels and works So my albatross is, I get it, I dont know why. I just get it right away when I see that I have a problem. Sheri also talked about warning signs that the daily production schedule is slipping, and how important it is nip them in the bud. A classic problem happens when the talent comes out of hair and make-up 45 or 50 minutes late every morning. When that happens, the production schedule is at risk of becoming hours, and soon, days, behind schedule. So at the first sign of trouble, Sheri nudges and nags the people who cause such delays, and if necessary, she will fire hair and make-up people who keep messing up the schedule.As Sheri says at the opening of the podcast, The best mome nt of a producers life is the day they get the call that they got a film order. And after that, it is all problem-solving and productive paranoia. In short, as Huggy Rao and I have written elsewhere, the path to excellence requires a focus on avoiding and eliminating the negative to clear the way for the positive, of going frombad to great.Finally, by necessity, Sheri and other skilled producers wield much authority and make decisions quickly. Sheri emphasized, however, that the most creative, efficient, and civilized productions arent ran by rigid and authoritarian dictators. There is give and take, brainstorming about different suggestions, and lots of constructive and respectful conflict. Given the constraints that the crew and cast work under, this all must happen faster than on a big budget TV series or Hollywood blockbuster. Yet, as Ive seen in other industries, although having some hierarchyappears to be essential for all groups and organizations, that doesnt mean that people at or near the top are the smartest, have all the answers, or ought to ignore or disrespect the people they leadas Sheri suggests, having authority over others is no excuse for behaving like an authoritarian jerk.I hope you enjoymy conversationwith Sheri as much as I did. It was a strange and delightful experience because, even though I have heard Sheri talk about her work in bits and pieces many times over the years, the podcast gave me chance to learn about her work in a systematic way for the first time.Sheri makes a compelling case that although prudent paranoia feels like an albatross around her neck at times, her friction detection radar enables her to produce well-reviewed films that she is proud of and to do so on time and on budget.Thisarticlefirst appeared on LinkedIn.