Stuff That I Have Noticed #43 – Teamwork

• Posted on 5th June 2021
• in entertainment books, Film Production, film production book, Production Management
• by Ben

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In the second volume of my memoirs, Circumstances Beyond My Control, I wrote about the first package of Brooklyn Gum TV spots I ADed (served as First Assistant Director) for my favorite director and lifetime friend, Ken Licata. And I did a blog about that first shoot which was with another company where we had a woman about whom our Gaffer, the eloquent Frost Wilkinson said, “She’s not a producer. She’s an aggravant!”

But I neglected to blog about the second, much smoother production the following year.

This time, with the support of Morty Dubin’s Iris Films, it was an entirely different experience than the first one primarily because we had Ellen Rappaport, a real and very excellent producer.

The first shoot day was set for Monday 11 May 1981 and Ken had been awarded the job in March. This was way more lead time than usual with commercials so Ellen was able to book our top crew choices in every category. I had my first string production crew: Betsy Reid (Coordinator), Peter Repplier, Mike Garvey and Ken Jr., Production Assistants.

There were twenty-seven vignettes – each of which was at a different location – to shoot in nine days. This was a fixed budget and we had ninety-five crew hours, an average of ten and a half hours a day. There were no weather days, we had to shoot every day rain or shine.

We had over 150 performers including a high school band, a college football team, a dozen showgirls, an aerobics class, a team of cheerleaders, several horses and a chimpanzee. In addition to this sizable cast there were over twenty picture vehicles including a stagecoach and an eighteen wheel semi truck. We needed to average three locations a day and several moves required substantial travel time. Eight scenes were in New Jersey, three in Brooklyn (including on the bridge) two on Staten Island and the rest all over Manhattan. This was a logistical challenge, to say the least.

This is where the title, “teamwork” enters the story.

As a First AD I took pride in my scheduling and budgeting skills. (There’s another story coming soon about budgeting.) In many ways scheduling this shoot was a major doozie.

As I recall I had at least seven (maybe more) pre-production days and on Monday 4 May, one week before the first shoot day I began creating the schedule. For five consecutive days almost all I did was write and rewrite the it. Every afternoon around 4:00 I had a meeting with Ellen and the production team. Each of them had a copy of that day’s draft and we went over it together. Starting the meeting my request was, “Tell me where we can improve the schedule.”

Everyone offered their ideas and we kicked them around for an hour or so. For me, probably for all in the room, this was creative fun. Some people only use the word creative to designate some sort of art. I don’t disagree and there is an art to effective scheduling. One’s mind needs to be flexible and the ego needs to take a back seat. These were my people. They were all very smart and experienced and they made me a better AD. After all, I would get the credit for creating a sensible, workable schedule and I could have done it alone but this team made it a lot better by their ideas and insights.

In my experience the key to successful leadership is not only listening to the members of your team but making sure that they know that you respect and value their ideas. The old cliché, “Two heads are better than one.”, is true and four or five heads can be even better, assuming that they all know the whereof they speak. My team did indeed know their business.

When we met the for last time on Friday no one had any changes in the schedule. Here are pages 1 & 9 of the annotated copy I carried in my back pocket on the shoot. (The scribbles are my notes on the actual times.)

 

 

 

We were never more than an hour off schedule, that was on the very rainy first day.

 

 

Much of the credit for the success of the schedule goes to Ken Licata. Unlike many commercial directors he never shot excessive takes. He knew when he had what he needed and moved on. And another departure from normal practice on commercials, we had no client nipping at our heels. When Ken was satisfied we moved on. And move we did. That rainy day hour of overtime was made up in the subsequent days and we came in on time and on budget.

And I mustn’t leave out the teamwork of the entire crew. As I mentioned above they were all first choices. They knew Ken and me well and had worked with one another a lot so we did indeed “hit the ground running” and hardly stopped for nine days.

Our final shots were sunset helicopter footage of the harbor, Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan and the Heliport is on the East River at 30th Street. The wrap party was held at my Upper West Side penthouse. Ken, Babas (Key Grip) Jimmy (Camera Asst.), Ken Jr. and I got there late after buzzing the terrace in Al Cerullo’s chopper. Al said he could land on the roof but he’d probably lose his license. I rescinded the request.

Funny how no one seemed tired as our entire team celebrated one of the most challenging and fun jobs I (we?) ever had.

If you’d like to read more cick the link and get Circumstances Beyond My Control.