Creating screen content is rarely an individual pursuit, making teamwork a crucial part of the creative process. Emmy and AACTA Award-winning producer turned screen sector executive coach Ellenor Cox explains the five key elements to creating a harmonious and motivated team.
In the music world there’s the adage that ‘No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it’. Similarly, in the screen sector, the reality of an auteur writer, director, and producer is a rare one. At the emerging level, it’s almost nonexistent if there’s any expectation of state or federal agency funding.
With teamwork a key foundation stone of project creation, how a team engages with one another can therefore be the make or break of a creative project.
In most cases, the early beginnings of a team will involve considerable unpaid and speculative time. In order to not just survive, but thrive during this challenging period, there are five key considerations to discuss, adopt and adhere to for “team work to make dream work” as the leadership expert John Maxwell once said.
1. Get clear on the overall artistic vision as well as your individual ‘why’ for getting involved
Creative individuals are often driven by their own vision and ideas, which can bring unique perspectives and skills to a team. However, if these ideas are not aligned at a team level, it can make collaborating a challenging process. At the very outset, encourage every team member to be very specific about what they hope to get out of this collaboration and what they perceive the overall artistic vision to be. Some people’s ‘why’ might simply be that they are passionate that this story needs to find an audience or that they want the experience of mastering a particular skill. What’s key at this crucial step is that individual and team goals are articulated and that everyone has a clear sense of what they’re aiming for and why.
2. Clearly communicate and document roles and responsibilities and discuss appropriate credits
Part of these initial conversations need to also include what each person’s roles and responsibilities will be. This ensures that everyone is working towards the same goal and avoids confusion. Go through each step in the filmmaking process and discuss time frames and constraints, individual team member’s availability and anticipated workloads. Once each person’s roles and responsibilities are communicated and documented, then agree to what are the appropriate credits commiserate with these efforts. If you’re concerned about what the reaction might be like if you articulate these credit desires during this early honeymoon period, then imagine how challenging they will be when the situation has deteriorated! Creating this level of clarity from the outset provides a foundation for tough conversations to be had if workload expectations and responsibilities change during the financing and production process, and if there is a need for credits to be revisited.
Credits are everything and are a powerful motivating tool if people are working for little or no remuneration, especially during the development phase.
3. Foster trust and transparency by communicating regularly
Get into the habit of maintaining open and transparent communication by holding regular meetings to update each other on progress and challenges. Support this process with the discipline of creating documentation and filing systems where all relevant material is easily accessible.
Being open to feedback and willing to make changes as needed helps foster a positive and collaborative team dynamic and encourages adaptability. Regular meetings also provide a forum to recognise and resolve conflicts as soon as they arise and enable the team to work together to find solutions whilst maintaining a positive work environment.
Support these meetings by staying organised. This will mean tasks are prioritised, resources are managed effectively and the project has the best chance of staying on track and within budget.
4. Value your time
Nothing breeds resentment more quickly than people feeling like their time isn’t being respected. In most cases, even to get to the point where development funding is secured, there may have been considerable hours spent putting applications and pitch material together that have all been done in an unpaid capacity.
At the project’s outset, set up a shared document where everyone can note the weekly hours that they are contributing. Set a nominal hourly rate for this work – say $50 per hour – and enforce the document remaining current. Over time, the value of this documentation will increase as discussions about deferrals, individual contributions, appropriate credits, etc. can all be based on empirical data rather than emotions.
This can also be an invaluable tool for others to learn about the roles that different team members play on a project. Some might be surprised, for example, at the number of hours that producers work in order to get funding applications complete. This documentation also provides a reflection of when certain team members availability becomes limited or changes, and again, provides a non-emotional platform
to have these but necessary conversations to keep harmony and team motivation intact.
5. Celebrate successes and commiserate together on setbacks
Henry Ford famously said, “If everyone is moving forward together then success takes care of itself.” The art to keeping momentum up is to celebrate the little wins as a team when they occur, and to ensure that setbacks and rejections are acknowledged and discussed in an open manner. This keeps the team focused on the end goal, is an effective way to manage stress levels and provides appropriate support to team members when needed.
These moments of reflection also enable the team to consider processes and to identify areas for improvement in order to continue to evolve and grow as a team.
Teamwork is one of the special joys of working together on creative projects. It requires nurturing and effort to make it thrive, but the results of a team will always result in more than the results of an individual!
Ellenor has a range of free resources available to the screen sector at www.ellenorcox.com and is available for individual and team coaching and workshop facilitation.
This article originally appeared in IF Magazine #210. Subscribe to the magazine here.