Today, we are going to see how entertainment industry can make use of production tracking to keep their projects streamlined and on track through Odoo ERP solution.
How to Guide on Production Tracking for Film & Entertainment Projects
So, here are the things we need to understand and implement for streamlining the projects, which can be aligned through an ERP solution –
1. Centralize all of your Commercial & Creative Data
First of all, you should understand that most of your studio data is living within WhatsApp, Google Drive, emails, spreadsheets, and phone calls. And this is the reason why you have been loosing time.
To centralize your data you must have a single system. And it should be a single place where everything stays together. Be it budgets, deals, agreements, scripts, DPRs, call sheets, timelines and approvals should be accessible anytime.
For example, a producer should no longer have to call a line producer asking where is the latest budget. Have everything in one place and that too updated in real time through production tracking.
2. Use Historical Project Data to Build Realistic Budgets
When we are trying to create budgets in isolation they quickly tend to go off track. So, how you can do it is simple. You have to pull in the past project numbers and use parameters like – ATL, BTL, shoot delays, outdoor days, VFX requirements, talent costs, and timeline. After that, you can benchmark them against the industry rates and your previous productions.
To give you an idea, consider that your previous had a thriller series that needed 18 outdoor days. And now you have a new one which is similar in scale then the system automatically suggests a tighter range so that you do not overbudget.
3. Always Compare your Budget Across Teams, Locations & Production Houses
Understand the complexity when it comes to studios running multiple projects at a single instance and that too manually. Well, in most of the cases it is for sure a painful thing.
To streamline this, you should allow your producers to go and compare budgets across different departments like – art, camera, costume, locations, etc. After that, you can compare vendor rates across production houses and geographies.
When a director checks that a Mumbai location quote is 12% higher than the same location block in Hyderabad, they can easily take up quicker calls.
4. Tracking of Budget vs Actuals in Real Time
Overspending without knowing is something where most of the production houses bleed money. To manage the same what you can do is simple. when the bills come in costs will have to be logged instantly. The system will flag any overshoots early and send in the alerts for the same.
When a lighting rental crosses the allowed budget in the mid of your schedule, producer gets a red alert on the dashboard. So they discover this before things wrap up.
5. Deal Turnaround Time (TAT) Monitoring
Production timelines often get delayed when your deals are still stuck in for approvals. To manage this, you should track each and every deal’s movement. You can trigger reminders for approvals that are pending, and you should keep a timeline of who approved when and what.
when a costume vendor’s agreement is pending for around 3 days the system will notify the creative director and the finance head automatically so that they can take further required steps accordingly.
6. Always Track Pitches, Feedback & Content Development
Most of the studios get a dozen of pitches weekly and this information is usually lost. To manage this efficiently, you can start – logging each and every pitch and track who has checked it like – commissioning team, creative director, showrunners, etc. Apart from that, you should maintain all feedback trails.
When a writer submits a new fresh idea the creative director will be able to to see all of the feedbacks from the previous moth in just one click without checking the WhatsApp chats.
7. Use Version Control to Track Writing & Script Development
Writing delays always make the biggest ripple effects. To manage the delays you can set the timelines for script versions and notify writers before the deadline. After that, track the approvals by creative directors.
When a screenplay draft was due on Monday and has not yet arrived the system will send automatic nudges without repeated follow ups.
8. Pre-Production Activities Should be Tracked Seamlessly
Most of the times pre production scenario is chaotic with locations, schedules, contracts, props and what not. To overcome the chaos, you can track the location scouting status, monitor your schedule locking, store your agreements, and flag the tasks that are behind the schedule.
For example, when a location contract has not yet been signed the producer can see it instantly and does not have to discover it after the recce.
9. Tracking your Shoot Progress in Real Time
You might always find that your DPRs and call sheets often buried within your email threads. To track your shoot progress in real time, you can upload DPRs daily. The system reads page count, minute shot, and scenes left. Producers are notified of shooting days might extend.
When only 2 minutes are shot against a plan of 6, the dashboard flags this risk helping you early enough so that you can adjust your schedules.
10. Monitoring Your Post-Production Without Chaos
When we look at post production it mostly becomes an invisible black hole. You can do a lot of things to remove chaos. Track all of your offline edits, online masters, VFX shots, and sound mixes and set timelines for each and every deliverable.
So, you have this episode 3, for which offline cut is due on Friday. If it is late even by a day the editor and creative director get reminders instantly for production tracking.
11. Track Delivery to Platforms & Trigger Finance Actions
When your teams are stretched it often makes you miss your deliveries. To resolve this, you can track platform deliverables like – masters, subtitles, and compliance variables. Auto notify your finance for invoicing once delivery is marked as complete.
For example, as soon as you upload the final export to the platform, finance will get an alert to raise the invoice without the need to chase.
12. Provide a Bird’s-Eye View of All Projects
All executive that work with you need a single screen that tells the truth. To do this you can show all projects like – development, shoot, post, licensed and others. Apart from that, you can display writing status, budget, budgets, audit flags, approvals, and payments. Give them the option to allow filtering by CD, production house, platform, and timeline.
When the CEO checks the dashboard Monday morning he can instantly see the which projects are on track and which are slipping.
13. Customizing Dashboards for Every User
We know that a writer will not need a dashboard that a finance person needs and a producer will not need VFX details. You should always customize the views for each respective roles and show only what each team requires.
For example a creative director sees writing and shoot dashboards, finance sees the payments and budget deviations, and foremost the producer sees everything.
14. Use Graphs & Visual Dashboards for Faster Decisions
Visuals have always helped in faster decisions and it’s the same with the studios as well for production tracking. You can make use of charts for budget burns, use color coded alerts for delays, and use time line bars for writing, shoot, post and delivery.
For example, a producer will see a simple red highlight against “Episode 7 Offline Edit – Delayed” instead of digging through emails.
15. Track Tasks & To-Do Lists for Every Team Member
Entertainment industry usually runs on micro-tasks. To manage them you can create daily or weekly to dos, assign tasks with deadlines, and trigger reminders automatically. For example, an assistant director gets an alert: “Call Sheet for Day 12 Pending – Due Today.”
Film and entertainment projects are always running fast, burning money, and involve a lot of moving parts. Having a real time tracking system can help each and every team from creative to production to finance and leadership have the same view of truth.
It simplifies how things work like reducing surprises, delays, and budget overviews. Lon cut short it helps you in increasing predictability and accountability along with bringing a calm to the industry that thrives on chaos.
To know more on how our Media solution scan help in the complete production tracking, drop us a line at sales@apagen.com or call us on +91 9971800665.