Producing : Wisdom nuggets by Elmare Hendricks

Great question Elmare. The best lesson was the "Rule of 3" Give someone something 3 times before you ever ask for anything in return. This business is so hard and people want to work with people that they like. You want to give selflessly to people to gain support and trust. Then, once you develop a relationship, then you can ask for something in return. It's about the long term relationship, not the short term gain.

Amanda Toney This actually really good. Thank you for this this. It will help me to place boundaries around my giving as well. Being a Business owner , you are the brand and by giving too much, your business suffers. I love this advice Nugget. Thank you

Hi, Elmare Hendricks. I was a producer way back. I learned that a producer needs to learn about the different areas of the industry and stay up to date on what's going on in the industry.

Elmare Hendricks, Absolutely! One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned outside of film school is that your attitude and energy in any professional setting can be just as important as your skillset. People will remember how you made them feel, whether you’re in a meeting, pitching a project, or working through creative notes. Respectful, thoughtful collaboration opens doors.

Another big one: clear communication and logistics are everything. You can have a brilliant concept, but if you can’t explain it clearly or organize a path to execute it. Especially across different teams and timelines, it can fall apart fast. Being flexible and solution-focused, even in the planning or development stages, can truly set you apart.

First lesson I learned on set after film school was how to properly "cable bash" - our lecturers left that one out. The most important lesson I learned was that the only stupid question is the one that doesn't get asked. There is a lot of pressure to have answers, but its ok to not know everything.

Maurice Vaughan Very very true, thank you so much for your advice, and now the world is smaller we as producers need to be at the forefront of it in knowing and learning the dynamics in order to make a project successful. thank you

Thank you so much , Ashley , it is absolutely true, We are a emotion based industry and people would rather work with feel good and do good people, that is how you grow yourself .

Ewan I like what you just stated , we tend to forget the importance of cable management or even picking up a piece of paper, some people feel its beneath them to do it, but its rather who you are are a servant of the project. ASK the question to execute the target goal perfectly.

You're welcome, Elmare Hendricks.

My personal favorite lesson as a producer was while working on a short film in 2019. We showed up to a new location, a house in the OC on our 3rd day of shooting and immediately sh!t started hitting the fan. The location was tremendously smaller than our previous location, with the same sized crew, so we had to rush to stage areas for everyone to be hanging out and have space throughout the day, while not encroaching on the neighbors properties during our 12 hour shoot day. Needless to say, it was cramped, with bodies all over the place, but with a few logistical tweaks we were able to make room for everyone while not being on top of each other while filming.

Part 2 of that day - my favorite part - was as this is going on, our DP comes up to me with a big problem. The electrical box for the house was padlocked, so his team could not conduct safety checks with the electricity to make sure everyone would be safe from harm that day. No safety == no shooting 100% of the time. We were on a tight budget and schedule and could not afford to lose daylight with no shooting. So I did what any savvy producer would do. I pulled up a YouTube tutorial for how to crack the code on this specific combination lock (spoiler: most generic Master Locks and such have ICOE factory default codes programmed into them in case you need to open them without a combination). Then I spent the next 20 minutes learning from the YouTube tutorial what to listen for to access the factory default unlock code, and was able to unlock it and get us on schedule for the day. Nowadays, I may or may not always keep a lock picking set in my toolbox when on set because you never know when a quick pick might save you thousands of dollars. Just don't let anyone know you may or may not have heard this from me.

Pat thank you for sharing your experiences, have learned a lot. I'm so glad that you learned to pick a lock, hahaha. But I love how each shoot day has its own identity and lesson on the day. It allows us to grow our skills , vertically as well as horizontally at the same time, the beauty of being a filmmaker.