Production coordinator is a role I only recently came to consider for myself. Although I love the creative journey of making a piece of animation, I do consider organisation to be one of my strengths. I make extensive use of my shotlist, any website and software that allows me to stay on top of production is always very handy and I find myself gravitating to a concise plan. I think I’m always very realistic about how much time different aspects of animation take which I can imagine is a good quality in a project manager or production coordinator.
Through research I found that, essentially, a production coordinator adheres and manages the animation pipeline, so that a project can come to completion smoothly in all departments of animation. A production manager is responsible for managing budgets, keeping track of assets through databases, scheduling meetings and reviews between the different branches of animation.
In an article published by MAYHEM, they break down the different tasks that a production coordinator can be in charge of as part of their role. When reading through it I found myself thinking again that it’s a role I could be interested in.
Production coordinators as a role is a gateway to communication inside a production. Especially if the production is large, it’s important to have someone making links between departments to avoid any confusion, misunderstanding and just generally keeping the team in check. Although this is obviously also necessary in smaller productions. Coordinators are in charge of prioritizing different aspects of production, making some calls as to what is more in need of attention, work or budget. It’s important in all aspects of animation to have a prioritizing mindset, since this medium is so time sensitive and a slow process. Again, I’ve always felt as if I’m highly aware of what I should be focusing on in my projects. I like to prioritize and divide tasks in how much time I should spend on them, for example, in my recent project I decided to cut some still shots and extend a very animated shot because I knew that exploring and prioritizing a good character performance was more important within the project than a nice still image, therefore I cut other shots to prioritize a lovely shot. This is just case-specific to this project and in another project that had a different brief and different direction behind, doing the opposite might have been the right solution. Either way, thinking it through and making the right call about what to prioritize is important.
Coordinators are of course also in charge of schedules, approvals, preparing and reporting. It’s also, like its peers in all animation roles, a role that requires the ability to problem solve. In productions there is nearly always something that goes wrong. May it be losing or corrupting files, losing time on something a director may have insisted on, correcting junior animator’s mistakes, it’s always good to be prepared. The coordinator will take these situations and decide what needs clarifying, what conflicts inside the productions they need to solve and understanding different people’s point of view. Being able to make a call that you are confident in and transmit it to other people who will listen to you, it’s not an easy skill.
Of course this role is not my top priority as I truly want to be an artist, but it’s something that I consider myself to be able to do if all else fails.
References:
MAYHEM:
Screenskill: https://www.screenskills.com/job-profiles/browse/animation/production-management/production-coordinator-animation/
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