What’s it like working on big Hollywood productions?
It’s a question I get asked a lot.
In my day job, I work in post production on big-budget movies and TV shows for the studios and streamers.
This week I want to give you a glimpse into what that’s like and also draw some comparisons to working on my own indie projects on the side.
We’ll discuss:
- The biggest difference between low and big budgets (it’s not what you think)
- How indie films breed a different kind of filmmaker than the studios
- How the skills I’ve acquired in my day job have made me a better director
Let’s roll.
It’s not just the money
Yes, this is an obvious one.
There is more money in studio-financed projects than in small indie films.
When I went from working on small indie projects to getting union work as an assistant editor, my salary doubled overnight.
Studio and streamer projects tend to be bigger on every level. More money, more people, more everything.
But bigger budgets bring with them what is the biggest difference between working on big productions and small productions.
More money = more managing
The thing that has surprised me the most about working on big-budget Hollywood productions is how many layers of management get added to the process as the budgets and crews grow.
Let’s take post-production as an example (since that’s where I spend most of my time).
On an indie, you might have the director working with an editor, and that’s it. If you’re lucky, you might have an assistant editor. The only “manager” is the producer.
As budgets increase, you start adding people. A post supervisor, a post producer, a post production coordinator, post PA, additional assistant editors, etc.
On my latest show, we had an entire department dedicated only to visual effects: 5 people working only on the show’s VFX from the editing side. That doesn’t include actually creating the visual effects; that’s outsourced to outside VFX companies.
Where you would solve a creative problem between the editor and the director on an indie, you might find yourself on a Zoom call with 20 people on a big production.
I’m not saying big shows are bad, and indie shows are good.
I’m saying as you scale up to accommodate larger workloads and tight schedules, there’s an inevitable layer of management that gets added. That can slow down decision-making.
This is natural, and necessary. Without it, big productions would be even more chaotic than they already are.
It’s important to make sure every department is aligned and pulling in the same direction. It just takes a lot more effort from a leader’s perspective to ensure this communication is smooth and transparent.
Coming from an indie background where you move fast, it can be frustrating to deal with the bureaucracy of big productions. But it’s something you have to learn to deal with if you want to take your directing career the studio route.
Are you a specialist or a generalist?
The second big difference I’ve experienced is how much more specialized the roles are on a bigger production than in the indie world.
If you’ve ever made your own films, you know what I’m talking about. Your credit may say director, but there’s a good chance you did some writing, producing, lighting, production design, sound, editing, marketing, PR, you name it. You probably did a whole lot of stuff to make your film a reality.
On the biggest productions in the world you don’t get rewarded for being okay at a bunch of things. You get the job because you’re world-class at one specific thing.
Take my journey as an example. I’ve gone from editing pretty much anything to specializing in VFX editing for scripted features and TV shows.
That’s an extremely specific and niche role that would never exist in a tiny indie film. In fact, I did all the VFX myself on my first feature, Wild Boys.
Niching down and specializing are great if you want to work on big productions, but is it a good idea for directors?
Which path makes the better director?
When you start directing, you’re naturally going to wear a lot of hats and learn a little bit of everything. You become an expert at solving problems, no matter what department they belong to.
I’ve personally done almost every job on a film production, and it has made me a better director.
The jack-of-all-trades approach to filmmaking gives you a strong foundation for leading a film crew. By learning a little bit about what every department needs to do, you gain empathy and understanding. This helps you better communicate your vision and direction to each specific department.
Being a well-rounded filmmaker is core to how I’ve approached my directing career, but where does specialization fit into this?
If you come from a specialist background, it can definitely help brand you as a director with a unique strength.
Take a director who wants to direct action.
Action is notoriously expensive to shoot and hard to do well on a micro-budget. Instead, you might take the path of specializing in stunts. You become a stunt coordinator. From there, you move on to second unit directing, specializing in stunts and action sequences. You later use that to land your first action movie directing gig.
But even if you take the specialist approach, there’s no getting around the first truth of directing: to become a director, you need to direct.
Even if you choose to specialize, you’ll enjoy getting directing experience on your own passion projects.
This kind of hybrid approach can be great, as long as you are able to find time for your passion while working grueling hours in the film industry.
And cut!
That does it for this week. Here are the key takeaways I want you to bring with you into your directing career from today:
- The biggest difference between Hollywood and Indie film productions is how adding more people adds exponentially more management and emails. So. Many. Emails.
- Choosing whether to become a specialist or a generalist can define your skill set as a director.
- I’ve taken a hybrid approach, learning almost every part of filmmaking on my own projects while specializing in editing and VFX as my day job.
As always, thanks for reading.
Hit reply and let me know what you found most helpful this week—I’d love to hear from you!
Next week I’ll tell you how my final student film got into over 80 film festivals and what happened next.
See you next Saturday,
Morten
