Documentary Production: Increasing use of Consultant executive producers / directors / senior edit producers, and why that is.

At Stern & Wild we’re seeing a growing trend in production companies taking on senior editorial skills for limited-days advisory roles to make sure individual productions go well.

Executive Producers - Head of Department-level and Commissioner-level execs are taken on for a set number of days to improve and add weight to a pitch, to increase the confidence of a commissioner in the the safe delivery of a project, and of course to guide or rescue a production in danger of going awry. They advise the existing executive producer of the project.

Directors - film-makers with a strong reputation can be brought in to add a Director’s Vision, making a pitch stronger and more attractive to the commissioner.

Senior Edit Producers - series producer-level specialist edit producers, of whom there are really only a handful in our genre, come in to set up the post-production structure, rebuild the storyline in the edit, who are commissioner-facing and and train an expert eye on those notes. They guide a team of edit producers to work to a single narrative, but they don’t need to be in place permanently across the edit schedule.

Instead of being booked for weeks on end, the consultant can work across a production schedule for an agreed number of days. It’s an economical way to hire the skills that you need, the consultant’s daily fee is a bit higher than their pro-rata ongoing weekly rate and you need them for less time.

Our conclusion is that the remote working ethos that was turbo-charged during the covid pandemic is still developing, and that production teams are becoming ever more flexible. Production companies may often want their senior creatives permanently on hand in the building, but consultancy is offering a financially efficient way for those companies to bring in the talent and skills they need and only when they need them.