How - Dov Seidman [103]
The past achievements of top-level creative talent like DPs often speak to their artistic reputations (their WHATS); their HOWs—temperaments and personal qualities like grace under pressure, team skills, and communication skills—while important, seldom rise to a level of equal importance. In the creative leadership positions, talent often rules the day. Reputation made the most difference in the lower-skill positions like PAs, the entry-level worker bees critical to the smooth functioning of every film set.
“Breaking into the film industry and developing a freelance career is almost exclusively a reputational, word-of-mouth process. One producer recommends you to another, and they to yet another, in an informal network. Almost no one is hired unless someone vouches for them,” my friend told me. When PAs receive a work call, however, they have another reputational component to manage: their quote, or salary rate. Day rates on film shoots can vary widely depending on budget, type of project, personal experience, and other factors, but PAs can quote any amount (within a range) they desire. “If I had a normal-sized budget, I would always trust the PA to quote me their rate,” he said. “But the rate they quoted set an expectation of performance. If a PA quoted me [the then top day rate of] $200 per day, I expected him or her to show up on set and be really crack: motivated, self-generating, knowledgeable about equipment and procedure, and able to solve a lot of the many problems that plague a shoot on any given day. If they quoted me a lower rate, say, $125, then I would know that this was someone who needed more training. My expectations would be lower.”
When the shoot day began, expectation became everything. “If you came in with a low quote and really performed, I was much more likely to invest time and effort in training and grooming you. I cut you more slack when things went wrong and created more opportunity for challenge when things were slow,” he said “If you had a top quote, however, and you weren’t on your game, the next day you were just gone. Not in a hostile way—you never have to fire anyone working freelance; you just got a warm thank-you, a handshake, and a ‘Sorry, we don’t need as many PAs tomorrow.’ ” (In the fast-paced environment of film production, no team has any allowance for friction or distraction, or anything that slows the process. If you don’t measure up to the expectations set for you by the proximal reputation set by your quote, you are just out of work.)
Although hiring and firing in a corporate environment are usually longer processes than the handshake-and-smile of the film world, increasingly business finds itself unable to carry within it anything that slows down the machine. The bonds between people in common enterprise today are often thinner than before. Consultants, part-timers, freelancers, strategic partners, and all manner of other shorter-term commitments make up the variety of synapses between people in business. The world is mobile and information skills more adaptable and malleable to a wider range of opportunities. In such a world, we are often teamed in work situations where we must be productive with little of the time more traditional, longer-term work relationships have to build trust and continuity. Gaps between what you represent and what you deliver can cause almost instant mistrust, and, in a thin-bond world, end in a friendly handshake. Delivering reputational consonance—giving others the feeling that what you see is what you get—creates quicker acceptance, stronger synapses, and greater opportunity.