Why communication is key when working as a VFX Producer

Help your artists understand the brief, rather than get frustrated by them

Over the years I have worked at a plethora of visual effects facilities and film production companies, all over the world: as an artist, Supervisor, Producer and even a client (a filmmaker hiring post companies to work on my projects). In all those roles and places, I've found that have found that no matter how challenging the project or how tight the schedule, there was one key ingredient that determined whether the project was a smooth and rewarding experience or, the flipside, a delay blighted nightmare. That ingredient? Communication.

HaZ (centre) as VFX Producer/ Director on set [Photo Cred: Hasraf Dulull)

Communication

Now, I'm not talking about having a chat or ensuring emails are sent to the right person. More so the basic communication of relaying feedback, shot ideas or problems with a shot to the artist or team. How many times have you heard feedback and have the sentence end with “you know what I mean …right?”

One form of communication I've found universal, no matter what country or culture you are working in is visual communication. I remember working at facility where we outsourced artists to work with us, and there was a language barrier. In Skype reviews, they would nod and say yes to everything I said. The next day when they submitted the updated shots, they got it wrong. It wasn’t that they were bad artists - they weren't. It was because they didn’t understand what I wanted, even though it was bullet tracers that were specific to which character was firing which individual weapon. In the end, I took each frame and drew the bullet tracers on in Photoshop to show the trajectory - to which they then matched perfectly.

Now, if I had done that originally, rather than assuming they understood what I wanted, I probably wouldn’t have lost those 2 days.

From that experience I made sure that going forward in my career as a VFX Supervisor/ Producer (and these days also filmmaker) to keep striving to find ways to communicate both my ideas and feedback as succinctly and clear as possible. That may even be down to Studio Execs as well as the creative artists.

I always set a professional rule with myself when leading a team: if an artist gets it wrong then it isn’t his or her fault. In fact, it's my fault for not communicating my ideas and feedback properly. Then I'll find another way to get it across, rather than keep on pushing in the same way as before.

Draw it! Annotate it! Visualize it! Trust me, it’s the universal language.

Stay tuned for HaZ's next blog on '5 tips for VFX Producers'


Are you working in VFX but want to transition into management?
HaZ runs the VFX Producing course at DV Talent. By the end of the course you'll have the knowledge-base & hands-on experience with ftrack to progress.
15 - 16 June. Limited spaces available. Register interest via training@dvtalent.co.uk.