Let’s not kid ourselves – productions big and small can be overwhelming, and all too often the difficulties of production can get in the way. This is especially true when you’re starting out. I had tons of ideas when I first started out, and as I slowly started to realize the logistics involved, it became really overwhelming. The sheer scale of it all sometimes seemed impossible to do. So I decided to break it down into baby steps. I realized that each individual step was actually super easy, and sometimes even fun.
So I turned these baby steps into an easy to follow checklist, and suddenly what felt daunting at first, started to feel very manageable. That checklist over the course of the next 10 years became more and more detailed, and slowly but certainly it turned into a Production Bible Template that helps me through EVERY SINGLE production I still do. It helped me through my Student Films (including an AFI Thesis that got nominated for an Academy Award) as well as my $5M Union Features. I realized that it doesn’t matter how big or how small your production is, the principals of organization are the same.
The nucleus of every production plan I’ve ever produced, has always been my Production Bibles. What once started as a very thick binder with lots of pages from different Excel and Word files eventually evolved into a sharable Google Sheet that I learned to better organize and simplify with every production along the way.
I’ve always shared my Production Bibles with my teams, and now I’ve decided to share it with everyone else. Especially if you’re a film student or first starting out, I’ve learned (the hard way) that having a very well organized and simple production bible to help you navigate through your checklist, your crew list, cast list, locations list, etc. will make a HUGE difference in being able to manage the overwhelming mountain of work that comes as suddenly as it disappears.
While I’m at it, I figured I’d also share all the other little tools, Google docs and templates I’ve created along the way. They’ve helped me tremendously, and I sincerely hope they help you too. Take a look at the FPB Tools, and browse whatever tools might be useful to you. If you want to check out any websites, books or other resources that have helped me a great deal, check out our Resources page. I’ve only put up resources that I’ve actually used and that I feel have had an impact on excelling my career. Maybe they’ll be useful for you too!
