Organization

When I was younger, I had the good fortune of working for a very successful restaurant called Nobu 57.  For those of you who don’t know the name, Nobu serves high-end cuisine to a rich and famous clientele.  They make a lot of money.  Whenever I encounter a successful business model, I always take a closer look, and one thing at Nobu stood out – organization.  The place is run like a clock.  You will never find someone standing around doing nothing.  You will never find someone who doesn’t know what to do.  They waste very little resources.  They run it like a machine – almost to a fault.

Organization is at the cornerstone of any successful business model, and off-Broadway productions are no exception.  In fact, it’s even more important at the Off-Broadway level as we have fewer resources to work with than our big Broadway brothers.  This is all common sense, but it amazes me how rare it's actually put into place.  Think about it.  How many times have you been standing on a set doing nothing?  How many times have not known where to be or what to do?  As an actor, I’ve experienced this a lot, and I imagine it’s even worse for the tech crew.

So how do you implement good organization in your production?  The answer is in the planning, and the answer is in the details.  Take something as simple as a promotional photo-shoot.  Get the actors, get the photographer, and shoot the pictures – pretty simple, right?  Wrong.  If you approach it with this kind of mentality, the shoot will be a disaster, and what should have been a five hour job will turn into nine or ten.

Begin by asking yourself detailed questions about the event.  What’s a good location?  Do we want to have the set in the photos?  If so, how are we going to transport it?  If we’re going to transport it, who’s going to be doing the heavy lifting?  How much time should we allocate for setup?  How long will it take to break it all down?  How’s the photographer going to get his equipment there?  How are your actors going to get there?  What will they be wearing?  How will you get their wardrobe to the shoot?  Does the location have facilities for the actors to get dressed and put on makeup?  All of a sudden, you realize that something as simple as a photo-shoot requires a lot more planning, and if you think on these questions before hand, the end result is going to be that much better.

After you’ve answered said questions, begin to make a timeline of how the events should unfold that day.  Be liberal when you create this timeline – especially if you are planning something that you’re unfamiliar with.  If you think a task will take 25 minutes - allocate 35.  The last thing you want in a creative industry is for your cast and crew to feel pressured – it will show up in the work.  Once you finish the timeline, make sure everyone involved has a copy – that way everyone knows what to expect and where to be