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Producing Tomorrow’s Producers: Finding Where Your Real Passion Lies with Andy Hopkinson

02/03/2023
Design Studio
London, UK
453
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Territory Studio's head of production on AI, development in technology, encouraging change and learning from mistakes

With an equal love of tech and operations, Andy’s career moved from hands-on managing projects, to setting up teams and operations at Media.Monks, overseeing the London offices expansion from eight to 40 people. Andy then led client relationships within the XR world at Nexus Studios. Most recently Andy is head of production at Territory Studios, leading a team of 25 who manage projects across the metaverse, experiential, digital, film VFX and screen graphics, title design, gaming, motion graphics and virtual production.



LBB> What advice would you give to any aspiring producers or content creators hoping to make the jump into production?

Andy> Don’t be scared of messing things up or failing. Every single senior person in production has experienced a project where everything seemed to go wrong, and it’s usually the project that they learnt the most from.

For me, being a producer is so rewarding because you get to do a little bit of everything. You gather experience across such a huge variety of different skill sets. And if after a few years you’re not 100% sold on being in production, you know a bit about every type of role out there, and know where your real passion lies and what skills you need to do that role well.


LBB> What skills or emerging areas would you advise aspiring producers to learn about and educate themselves about?

Andy> The more a producer knows about technology, the easier it’ll be to manage a project that uses that technology.

I’m a big AI advocate, and so for me getting hands-on experience using Midjourney and ChatGPT and keeping up with the latest AI tools (there are new ones released every week) will be invaluable as these tools continue to mature.

Getting a solid understanding of real-time game engines is going to be really useful over the coming years. They are proving to be the middle ground for so many different project types; virtual production, animation, XR, experiential, websites and more. Understanding how they work in a top-level way is a great way of future-proofing yourself.

Other areas I’m really excited by are XR, VR, AR and how they’re going to continue to develop over the coming years.


LBB> What was the biggest lesson you learned when you were starting out in production - and why has that stayed with you?

Andy> Manage expectations, manage expectations, manage expectations.

If you can manage a client's expectations upfront, 99% of potential issues won’t be an issue.

Everyone hates a negative surprise, so if you can flag things as upfront as possible, there’s a good chance you can find a workaround. The later you leave it, the worse it becomes.


LBB> When it comes to broadening access to production and improving diversity and inclusion what are your team doing to address this?

Andy> We’re working closely with colleges and universities to make sure the next wave of talent knows about all the different possibilities available to them in production. We also support various initiatives that aim to address this, and we have our own apprenticeship programme to help encourage change.

When hiring, we look for ways to attract a diverse range of candidates for job openings and ensure that people from under-represented backgrounds feel included, valued, and that they have opportunities to grow within the company.


LBB> And why is it an important issue for the production community to address?

Andy> The more diversity you have in the workplace, the better the work. The last thing anyone wants is an echo chamber of creativity. You might create great work in the short term, but you’ll be irrelevant in the long term.

A diverse and inclusive workforce brings together people with different experiences, perspectives and backgrounds. This leads to a wider range of ideas and solutions, ultimately resulting in better output. It also creates a more positive and productive work environment where everyone feels valued, respected, and able to contribute their best work.

When you have a melting pot of talent from all walks of life, it shows in the quality of the work.


LBB> There are young people getting into production who maybe don’t see the line between professional production and the creator economy, and that may well also be the shape of things to come. What are your thoughts about that? Is there a tension between more formalised production and the ‘creator economy’ or do the two feed into each other?

Andy> It’s an interesting question. I think people experienced in the creator economy probably already have lots of the skill sets a great producer needs like organisation, communication skills, and strategic thinking. Those skills form a great basis for making the swap over to professional production. Without having lots of hands-on experience within the creator economy world, I would guess that generally, the main differences are going to be the fact that you’re generally dealing with bigger projects, budgets, teams, and stakeholders. Essentially the same thing but on a bigger scale.

I don’t necessarily think there’s tension. I think any new innovation drives change, and that’s positive in my opinion.

I think there will always be a need for professional production. Will that diminish over time? Possibly. But generally what we’ve seen from changes in the industry is that there is more of a requirement for something slightly different rather than a mass reduction in requirement.


LBB> If you compare your role to the role of the heads of TV/heads of production/exec producers when you first joined the industry, what do you think are the most striking or interesting changes (and what surprising things have stayed the same?)

Andy> I didn’t join that long ago! And I’ve been lucky enough to work in very forward-facing companies, so I haven’t noticed an enormous difference.

One general trend I have noticed (which is an enormous positive), is that the traditional client relationship is much more transparent now. There was a tendency to hide things, and now both clients and production partners know that being completely transparent is a much better way forward, and that goes both ways.


LBB> When it comes to educating producers how does your agency like to approach this? (I know we’re always hearing about how much easier it is to educate or train oneself on tech etc, but what areas do you think producers can benefit from more directed or structured training?)

Andy> I’m probably biassed but for me, on-the-job training is where I’ve learnt the best skills I’ve acquired. Through making bad choices and mistakes, I’ve seen the repercussions of those and it’s made me a better producer.

The challenge with structured training is that every company is so nuanced, every project so different, that you can only teach broad themes. And depending on the company, lots of them might be irrelevant.

I’m a big believer in getting producers into the ‘Goldilocks zone’. Challenged enough that they’re learning a huge amount, but given enough support that they never feel that they’re on their own or burn out. It’s a delicate balance, but when you get it right people can improve at an absolutely enormous rate.

To do this we make sure more junior members of the team always have a more experienced person available to help with any questions. Everyone produces differently, and for me, that’s a positive thing, it’s important to not try and make everyone the same, but to encourage people to have their own voice.

You might be the most charming person, and therefore you can use that to get yourself out of a tricky situation. Someone else might know the technicalities of the job so well that they can explain the issue in a way that gets a positive response.

It’s my belief that encouraging producers to find their voice and own their way of doing things is the best way of educating.


LBB> It seems that there’s an emphasis on speed and volume when it comes to content - but where is the space for up-and-coming producers to learn about (and learn to appreciate) craft?

Andy> Absolutely. I don’t think you need to reduce craft when making things quickly and at volume, although that does often happen. I do think you need to use different tools and processes though.

My view is that new technology like AI is going to mean that those that embrace it will be able to do things quicker than people that shun it. I think you will be able to hit the same level of craft, and you will be able to do it more quickly.

In the same way, there were people that thought digital photography would ruin the art of photography, and people before that thought the printing press was the end of a beautiful writing craft, in the future, we’ll look back at the way we do things now and wonder why people thought it was a bad thing to innovate.

I think there will always be a niche for those that want to do things how they used to be done, but I think it’s unfair to think you can’t craft with new innovative methods and techniques.


LBB> On the other side of the equation, what’s the key to retaining expertise and helping people who have been working in production for decades to develop new skills?

Andy> We’re quite privileged at Territory because we do such a huge amount of different types of work. It means someone who’s worked in VFX their entire life is sat next to someone who’s our resident creative tech specialist focussed on using XR headsets. That means learning new skills is intrinsic to how we work, and we want everyone to have a broad experience across project types.

It also ties back to one of my previous answers. Don’t shun new technology. If you’re always thirsty to learn about new technology, you’ll stay relevant. If you’re the first person to disregard a new way of doing things as that’s how you’ve always worked - you’ll end up left behind.


LBB> Clearly there is so much change, but what are the personality traits and skills that will always be in demand from producers?

Andy> Empathy can’t be overstated in my opinion. The ability to read the room, and use that to motivate the team you’re working with, but also to ensure you have a solid relationship with the client is always going to be invaluable. Alongside that, humour, organisation and confidence are always going to be sought after.

Producers who are adaptable will find themselves right at the forefront over the coming years. To end with perhaps a little bit of a cliché - the only constant in life is change. And I believe that’s more relevant than ever in production right now.

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