Production Logistics - It Doesn't Just Happen

A lot falls under the production umbrella in film and television. It’s not just setting up the office or organising crew and facilities either. Production coordinator Kylie Gaudin tells Carolyn Brooke a bit about the job, from convincing custom officials to let a prosthetic body on as hand luggage to organising extravagant wrap parties.

The job

It never really ends. “You think your day is done and then something happens after hours. Your list is never completed even when you wrap a job you hand it over to someone else to finish off.” Taking phone calls over the weekends has also become part of the job. “You’re literally working seven days a week without being paid for it sometimes – you’re expected to be available.” Getting paid overtime is generally a given for crew but it’s not often the case for the production team. Sometimes it seems there is more of an expectation for doing the job for the love of it whether you want to or not. Having to say no to crew can also be hard. “A lot of the time I’m just a messenger really,” Gaudin says. “It’s just information that’s gone around in a circle and I have to be the person at the end of the line who makes the phone call. I’d love to say yes all the time but unfortunately it doesn’t always work out like that.”

The Team

Organising crew, facilities and equipment; setting up the office including phones, photocopier and IT; preparing and sending crew lists and schedules; organising travel, transport and catering; dealing with immigration issues; organising freight and day-to-day operations are among tasks that the production team looks after. Sometimes there are also location logistics such as generators, fuel, toilet blocks, waste water and recycling to sort out. There can also be some involvement in post production.

The production team can include a manager (in charge overall), coordinator (mix of paperwork and practical co-ordination), secretary (quite often lots of paperwork) assistant (often more hands on/practical) and runner (errands and everything in between) – usually three to six people depending on the size of the job. A line producer is more budget focused and works closely with the producer and production accountant. Gaudin says having a sense of humour and keeping calm are important. “When everyone is working well together it just feels great,” she says. “Everyone in the business knows it can be stressful and sometimes people don’t cope so well.” Kylie’s role is largely desk bound which can be frustrating, so she enjoys being onset when she can. “Even though it’s long hours, there are parts of it that feel like you have a bit of freedom – you can wear what you want, swear like a pirate and listen to music in the production office when it’s practical.”

Wrap parties

From extreme Lord of the Rings parties in Wellington to backyard barbeques, the wrap party comes under the production unit’s umbrella. “Organising wrap parties can get pretty insane,” Gaudin says. “The Spartacus season one wrap party was ridiculous – DJs, stand up comedians, burlesque dancers, jazz bands, projectors and lasers. You can go from that to just telling everyone to go to a bar.”

Freight

It always gets there in the end but shipping goods in countries like India and Lithuania can get tricky. Gaudin often finds herself having bizarre conversations about freight. “I don’t think people realise how much stuff we move around the world. Everything from chainmail to dried stingrays and it’s across borders,” she says. “We sent a prosthetic body of a six-year-old boy as excess baggage with a lead actor because it was the quickest way to get into another country and it didn’t go down very well. This poor actor had to carry a box as big as a couch.” She has worked on productions where doing freight is a job on its own.