On Campus News

Micki Hernandez, a student at Pima Community College in Arizona, discusses working as a Unit Production Manager on the recent student short film �Snowbirds�, and the many important parts a UPM plays in putting a film together.

As Unit Production Manager for Snowbirds, what where some of the things you had to do and how did you do them?
The first thing I had to do was breakdown the script. That consists of reading it over and over and picking out where the script needs cast, extras, stunts, props, location changes, special FX, vehicles, animals, make-up, wardrobe, hair, and special equipment (pretty much every little detail that will be needed for production). I did this by taking a colored pencil for each category and underlined, and made notes accordingly. Sometimes it�s not just what�s in the words on the script, a lot of times there is tons of reading in between the lines to figure out every little thing that will be needed in production. After breaking down the script it is then the UPM's job to make sure to communicate these needs to those specific department heads and make sure things are done by the time they need to be done. Deadlines were set by the executive producer, Dave Wing, and myself. Most of this was done via email and during production and/or class meetings.
After the director completed his storyboards, I worked with the Director of Photography, Marshall Frost, to make the shot list according to the director�s vision. As soon as that got done for the final time it was my job to schedule when each shot would take place in the 4 days we had for production. Once that was done I than made the shooting schedule and call sheets. This whole process took the longest chunk of time, and consisted of me looking at the story boards spread out across my living room, scene by scene and then numbering them to match shot list and finally arrange them by location. After this is complete production is just about to begin. My job on set was to make sure the production was running as on time as possible and to the remind the director what time it was and decide when shots should be cut due to time constraints. It was also my job to be the general go-to person when last minute things poped up on set.

What was the hardest part of UPMing?
Waiting and re-doing. A lot of my job cannot be done until others people�s jobs got done so sometimes I have to wait before I can move forward. I knew right off the bat that only having 14 weeks to pull this off, we didn't have much time to wait. The script went through a couple of drafts and every time something was changed it meant my breakdown changed and needed to be re-done. Same story goes for the shot list; we re-did that at least 3 times. I had to make a few different shooting schedules due to the fact that our final location was not locked down until 10 days before production began. Location is a very big part of scheduling and can change it immensely if and when it changes at the last minute. I knew we were better off if I took the time to schedule for different scenarios just in case something fell through.

What was the most important thing you learned during the process?
That it takes a certain kind of personality to successfully pull off the Unit Production Manager position. It is second nature for me to breakdown everything in general when it comes to scheduling. I have always been the type that hates wasting time and I have a knack for multitasking many things in order to save time. This, along with my ability to project added with a slight case of OCD, makes this type of job perfect for me.

Are you interested in further pursing Production Management? Or are you interested in other aspects of film making?
Being UPM for Snowbirds definitely peeked my interest in my future in the business. Now that I know I have the personality it takes for production management I would love to pursue a career in it at some point. The great thing about the film/TV industry is the ability to do different things within your career. I'm interested in the post production/editing and writing aspects of film and TV as well as production management.