Facebook Live: Production Post Pandemic

The landscape of commercial production has never been so diverse. With more ways than ever to break into the industry and projects evolving due to the current pandemic, now is an incredibly important time to focus on your career and learn from the experts.

The Mandy community is filled with talented professionals, and we recently hosted a live panel session on Facebook, co-hosted by our friends at Shiny and joined by a panel of A-list production experts, centred on how you can stand out to potential employers, how they make crewing decisions and more! Our panel of guests shared their top tips and guidance for professionals, as well as exclusive insights into how the industry is adapting in the current climate.


With much curiosity surrounding how professionals can get their foot in the door and what the steps are when hiring crew for a project, our panel illustrated the ways in which they operate as businesses, providing a unique insight into the process.

Caroline Bottomley, Managing Director at Shiny, posed many questions to the panel, with some being submitted by our community. Our Facebook Live acts as a useful resource for emerging and established professionals looking to gain a larger understanding into the commercial production industry and how they can make important tracks in their career.

We are seeing shoots return, but in a different way. Planning and prepping is taking longer and crew sizes are smaller. The great thing about production is we always find creative and safe avenues to bring projects to life.

I’m very open about how we hire professionals. Instagram is a great connecting platform and I recently hired someone whom I found through the platform. I think Instagram is a great ‘connection’ platform, but not necessarily for doing business, so conversation will then move to email.

There are various ways of crewing up a project. The producer may ask the director if there is anyone in particular they want to work with - they may often fill every head of department role in this way. Professionals may only have a couple of preferences but are open to recommendations from there.

When it comes to diverse hiring, creating a ladder of opportunity for black professionals is integral. We've had black people come in as PAs and work up to directors and art directors. They had the talent and we kept a pool of work going and they were able to build their reel and resume. A lot of them, if not given the opportunity, might not have gotten to this level.

We would like to extend a huge thank you to all those who tuned in to our Facebook Live and those who submitted questions! A huge thanks is also in order to Shiny and our panel. They offered incredible insight into how you can get hired for your next project, how Covid-19 has affected the industry, how they make crewing decisions and more.


Caroline JeVonne

Caroline Bottomley is the Managing Director of Shiny. Shiny is career networking for up-and-coming filmmakers working in branded content, music videos and other short-form, supported by world-class industry leaders. They are dedicated to ensuring under-represented individuals have valuable contacts and exposure in the industry.

JeVonne Cortez is the Founder and Executive Producer of The Ghettonerd Company, a leading production company working across high-end documentary, film and music videos. Their clients include Kendrick Lamar, Migos, Gap and Adidas.

KateNeil

72andSunny is one of LA’s leading, largest and most successful ad agencies, and their Director of Production is Kate Morrison. Their clients include Google, Facebook and Smirnoff.

Caviar is a leading production company with offices worldwide, and Neil Cray sits as Head of Production. Their clients include Coca Cola, Playstation, Samsung and more.