Things became a whirlwind over the past two weeks. Recently I have been bestowed the honor of becoming the General Manager for a multi-venue new show. (Stay tuned, more on what show in a future entry – I will give you a hint, a past entry on TrendErtainment got me the position.)
Now that my Jewish guilt is starting to pass that I have not said hello to you all in a while, I think I am ready to more on….
So….
Amid the multiple meetings and budget sessions over the past two weeks one thing keeps coming to my mind, “Numbers Don’t Lie”.
My wife, an avid Pistons Basketball fan always curses at the TV screen and yells “The Ball Don’t Lie!”, whenever she disagrees with the ref. The same thing is true about Producing Entertainment. The numbers just don’t lie. You can crunch them, squeeze them, pounce on them, stretch them to the limit, but facts are facts. You can entertain audiences until the laughter breaks their gut, but if you are answering to a bank account, chances are you have to say “No” to your creative team and managers more often than you would like.
As a Manager, Producer, Investor, you look at what is, and what can be, and determine what will be. Regardless to if you are working with a not-for-profit or a good ol’ LLC, there are limits.
Here is a formula from a recent projection document I created:
=IF(L58<0,0,(L58*$C$62))
For those of you who don’t understand excel, what that crazy formula above means is that by week 25 field L58 better be greater than 0, and C62 better be a number above 12. If they are the favorable numbers I wish they to be, we get to have a nice cast party, if they are not, then a bunch of people have to answer to unemployment, a bunch of investors will get indigestion, and I may very well have done my job incorrectly.
Having company managed and associate produced, I have seen time and time again the actors and creative teams often not understand what the producer is trying to do. “Why are they trying to sabotage their production?”, they ask me. “why don’t they give just a little BIT more?”. In case you are not a member of management, please let me assure you that a little BIT of this and that times 7 performances and a cast of 23 adds up to be a whole lot more than you would ever imagine to the financial health of a company.
Next time you have a nasty thought about the one who authorizes the payroll, go up to them with understanding open arms and say “The numbers don’t lie….They just don’t” . Embrace your producer, hug them…
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