So You Want to be a Live Show Producer
Recently I was on show site with a young volunteer. He was assigned to ‘help’ me. I started talking to the young man. I asked him what he wanted to do when he graduated, he said, “Do what you do.”
How does one become a producer? Unlike majoring in “Event Hospitality” to become a Corporate Meeting Planner, there is no formalized process to educate and mentor new talent into the production industry. My own experience is so haphazard I’m surprised I’m even here.
1. Visualize the show.
The client is going to hand you an agenda. And it’s going to look like this :
8:00 am- 9:30 am John Smith, CEO, State of the Company
9:30 am – 10:30 am Mary Tyler, VP Sales, How to Increase Sales
10:30 am – 11:00 am Break 11:00 am – 12:00 pm Fred Jones, VP HR, How Diversity Matters in the Workplace
12:00 pm – 1:00 Pm Judy Garland, VP Marketing, Social Media Trends
Your job is to visualize it. When will the doors open? What music will be playing? How will the audience get settled and ready for the show? How will we know that’s its starting? How will John Smith get on stage? What is on the screens when he comes out? What is on the Downstage Monitors?
This is the information that will inform your Run of Show, or Cue Sheet.
2. The answer is “Yes,” What’s the question?
Clients don’t like “No.” So learn to make your “No” sound like yes.
“Heather, can we move the executive rehearsal from 4pm to 7 am on Tuesday?”
“Sure. However, we were planning on using the time on Tuesday from 7 am – 4pm to tech through the show and make sure we are all prepared for your executive. We can do that Monday overnight. We should be done with that by 2 am Tuesday morning. Then we will need to be back by 6 am for the 7 am rehearsal. That’s going to put the crew in turn around time, meaning that they will be in double time all day on Tuesday. I can put together a rough estimate of those costs if you’d like.”
Either the planner will have the money to spend or the executive will come in over his lunch break at noon instead.
3. File Naming conventions are KEY!
Organize the show assets by day and by type then number the presentations by their show order and presenters’ last names. This will save SCADS of time organizing content. And never delete anything. Save as the next version and drop the older versions in a folder marked “OLD”
Ex: Day One -> PPT-> 01 Smith.pptx
Day One-> PPT-> 02 Tyler. pptx
Day One -> Video-> 01 Opening
Day One->Video ->02 Sales Video
4. Choose your music.
The A1 (Audio Tech) is not a DJ. While he may have some killer tunes give him a playlist. MP3 or wav files are the best. After the first day, if he seems like a cool guy and offers to play some of his stuff, then you can collaborate. Show some professional courtesy and treat him like the professional he is and not like a DJ.
5. Play it cool, kid.
The whole world may be falling apart. But keep it cool. Never yell at the crew. (See above about professional courtesy.) Don’t freak out. If you freak out, the client will freak out. If you must freak out, do it in the service corridor where no one can see you.
Listen, things WILL go wrong.
If you’re doing your job right things will go right MOST of the time, but on those occasions when they don’t, a good producer keeps going.
Always go forward-- what’s next? Stressing out on what just happened isn’t going to make it un-happen. Debrief with the team after the show. But while you’re in it, be in it.
Have a good show everybody.
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