How to Run a TV Production Meeting
Keeping a TV production meeting flowing and organized is the key if you're at the helm of the meeting. Depending on the stage of production, you will have a different set of issues to deal with. The closer you get to shooting, the less time you can slot for meetings (but you may need them most as you get close to production...another Catch 22 of life). You have to remember that communication is the life blood of production. One hand has to know what the other is doing.
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Instructions
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Be clear and concise. TV production needs experienced hands running the meetings. In episodic television, you may have 7 days to prep an 8-day shoot (or less). Late in the season, the script may arrive during prep, so often you are planning with only a writer’s assurances about what is coming your way. People have got to know what they are prepping and you’ve got to know who is responsible for what.
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Set an agenda into which all departments have had input. Find out in advance what different department heads need to discuss at the meeting.
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Keep everyone focused. Tangents can kill a meeting. So can personalities. Keep egos from provoking other egos. Keep everyone on the same team and continually moving forward.
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Do what you can to keep lunch and cell phones out of the room. Try to have lunch waiting in a separate room; finish the meeting and let side conversation take place around lunch. It’s difficult to take cell phones away from executive producers, but meetings fall apart from starts and stops due to interruptions from the outside world
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Look constantly for holes. Discovering what you’re forgetting when the cameras are rolling is too costly to bear. Keep asking at your meeting, “What are we not thinking of?”
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