Project Management in Film Industry

Project Management in Film Industry Project Management for Media Introduction Television production industry proffers many benefits while practicing the project management, involving technical advancement, developed methodologies, quality management, or come across important setback s with promptness. These points lead to increase difficulty and density of the process of production. In spite of problems and complexity inbuilt in TV production industry, it is continuously flourishing. It is possible for TV production to manage the projects with experience, dignity and excellence within the available resources, expertise and large amount of experiences (Ika, 2009). Excellent project management becomes important or essential for the demanding nature of the TV production. Form the view point of the project management, the TV production industry proposes many prospects. Exploration and Critical Analysis TV or Film Production to Qualify as a Project In the culture of production, expert investigates the culture and belief system practices and the behavior of production workers including those who in top position like producers, directors and below the line workers like editors, gaffers and camera operators in the production industry. Then analyze the situation, description and practices with the help of which workers or labors can make sense of their work, criticize the TV and film industry. Industry continuously depict itself and its process of the production to the local people, workers and giving them ideas about the production industry which are surrounded in their daily routine practices which they create (Yates, Paquette, 2011). For any project for which to be qualified, it is mandatory that firm or media house must have the feasibility report which indicates the flow of activities to be carried out. For example the newly built TV production has intention to make the TV serial about any societal issues, it should at least send the proposal to the interested parties. The newly built TV house must have all the necessary facilities or set of the number of technical devices and operatives machineries that is used in the TV production (Yates, Paquette, 2011). Also when the proposal are sent to interested parties, TV production house makes it compulsory for all interested media outlets to meet the requirement that includes the experts producers, cameramen, editors and latest machinery and equipment that is used in the process. According to Madden (2012), TV production house might make certain decision keeping the demand of pace of work in which project is to be completed. Skilled workers means that able and competent producer should be part of the TV production house who have a vast amount of knowledge and information about the every step and activity which are supposed to be more helpful in the completion of TV serial. Similarly, in the completion of TV serial, number of elements related to human workforce exists like actor, co-producer, cameramen, light engineer, sound engineer and others. When the human job role is particularly defined then tasks to be done become more easily and without any trouble a successful journey starts towards the completion of TV serial (Madden, 2012). It is more imperative for TV production house must use the latest technology and sophisticated devices for production purpose. TV or Movies of Hollywood use the latest technology which makes the production and off-camera activities easier. The use of newly arrived technology also helps the production house to make any kind of changes dueling the production processes. It will enhance the viewership with great admiration. Technical labor is also requisite for TV industry as minor mistake during the phase of project related to TV serial can cause in bringing huge financial losses and can happen to stall the project. Therefore, along with the skilled and technical labor, another important aspect of the TV or film industry is the script writing which are to be visualized by the physical movements and image of various known actors and actress (Napier, Keil, Tan, 2009). As the scriptwriting is an art which is the sole responsibility of playwright who assembles the ideas into words and it is the role of director who bring ideas or words into physical movements of actors and actress which is highly appreciated by viewers. Animation are also used by director and producers which show the reality of object which is placed by technical team during the production set. Even the arrival of new innovative technology is bringing more revolution in the TV industry and Hollywood is the only place which is actively engaged in using new and innovative technology in every scene of movies or drama which appeal the viewers to watch. But it is up to the choice of the viewers to like or dislike in the movie or drama as ultimately TV production house can only make efforts to entertain audiences through the use of varieties of technologies but decision of either acceptance or rejection resides in the minds and hands of audience (Napier, Keil, Tan, 2009). Elements of Project Management for Successful Execution of Film or TV Production Film production is the process of film making which involves or includes various numbers of distinct levels. Film production takes place across the world with the wide range of social, political, and economic perspective by using diversity of cinematic techniques and advance technologies. Usually it involves a large number of human resources for their projects. And for creating and maintaining the quality it needs to have enormous efforts from very skilled people. And when it comes for communicating or coordinating the tasks like feedback from stakeholders across the world or across the time zone or any other things or tasks it becomes hard to look after or control the whole setup so it needs to have proper implementation of main elements of Project Management (Remidez, Jones, 2012). And for that we need to know what the main elements of Project Management are? As we all know that project management is the series of several important steps or activities which are interrelated and complex for attainment of the single goal. And the important aspect of booming project management is to see and consider the whole process interlinked. Completion of project may face constraints if it’s not proper planned because without proper planning, risk management, WBS successful execution of film production cannot be possible (Remidez, Jones, 2012). These elements are very necessary for the film production’s successful execution. Planning For successful execution of film production with the help of project management it is necessary that planning level should be accurate and should have assured that plan is effectively and efficiently control and executed. There are some models which can be used in the stage of planning. Few examples of planning stage’s model are Gantt chart, PERT etc. Gantt chart A specific bar chart which shows the current progress of the project activities along with the project completion dates (Madden, 2012). PERT PERT is an evaluation program with the technique reviews; it is a planning method of networks for managing and controlling the projects like in our case film production. It has six steps. All activities should be visibly explained. Prior activities should be identified and put ting them in sequence. There should be a diagram which reflects series relationships. Each activity should be determined with estimation or allocation of time. System should be assessing by estimating the critical ways. When the project start progressing, exact activity time should be recorded so that it can be helpful in case of any adjustment and revision (Madden, 2012). Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) WBS can be defined as an oriented breakdown of work to be carryout by the team to attain the objectives of the project and can create the compulsory deliverables. For creating an excellent WBS it will need a considerable amount of time, people and energy. But the first question which comes into our mind that why is it necessary to create WBS for our projects? (in our case film production).Three reasons are there to use WBS. Firstly it gives clear and accurate picture with exclusively organize and define the scope of the total project. Secondly it assess and give the ideas for allocating the resources, assigning the responsibilities, monitoring and controlling the project (Ika, 2009). Last but not the least it helps in double checking and ensuring that there is no lacking or overlapping in the project completion. Risk Management Risk management is related to assess or measure the natural risk. It is the process of identifying, evaluating the risk and making contingency plan and developing different strategies to manage the risk in present and future. It helps in reducing the risk factors (Yates, Paquette, 2011). A proper department of risk management in film production can help them in successful execution. Conclusion In last we can conclude that no one can deny the importance of Project Management in any business whether it is TV industry or Film production or Educational sector etc. We all know that project management is the series of several important steps or activities which are interrelated and complex for attainment of the single goal. Like all industry it has very important place in film production. Without production management no one can be able to deal with the problems which they can face while dealing with others human resources, allocation of resources, assignment of the task. References Ika, L. A. (2009). Project success as a topic in project management journals.Project Management Journal,40(4), 6-19. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pmj.20137/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=userIsAuthenticated=false Yates, D., Paquette, S. (2011). Emergency knowledge management and social media technologies: A case study of the 2010 Haitian earthquake.International Journal of Information Management,31(1), 6-13. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401210001453 Napier, N. P., Keil, M., Tan, F. B. (2009). IT project managers construction of successful project management practice: a repertory grid investigation.Information Systems Journal,19(3), 255-282. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2575.2007.00264.x/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=userIsAuthenticated=false Remidez, H., Jones, N. B. (2012). Developing a model for social media in project management communications.International Journal of Business and Social Science,3(3), 33-36. http://www.ijbssnet.com/journals/Vol_3_No_3_February_2012/3.pdf Madden, M. (2012). Privacy management on social media sites.Pew Internet Report, 1-20. http://www.isaca.org/Groups/Professional-English/privacy-data-protection/GroupDocuments/PIP_Privacy%20mgt%20on%20social%20media%20sites%20Feb%202012.pdf

Occupational Health & Safety Essay

In any organization, the role of the Human Resource department can not be overemphasized. This is because this department is laden with numerous responsibilities that are cogent to organizational productivity. I would like to see them as the power house and organizational engineer that detect, fix and make sure that the organization is productive and function at an optimum level. Generally, the effectiveness of an organization’s HR determines the effectiveness of the organization workforce. The strength and coordination of an organization’s workforce is to a large extent dependent on the efficiency of the HR department of the company. In order to achieve smooth running of an organization and maintain a safe and healthy workplace, there are some basic practices that are carried out by the Human Resource Department. In this essay, focus will be drawn on some of these practices, highlighting their importance and the role they play in ensuring organizational progress by achieving organizational short and long term goals. I will be making a brief discussion of these practices in the following paragraphs. One of the major practices associated with the human resource is job analysis. Job analysis can be said to be a detailed process or an act that involves the identification and determination of specific job roles and the responsibilities and importance of the specified job duty. Job analysis becomes important because it determines the qualification for job positions, the compensations to be paid, the hierarchy of the job position and the scope of duties and responsibilities that comes with the job position. It also identifies the kind of training and development that the job will require and the formulation of a job design. Furthermore, as a follow-up to job analysis, in order to maintain a safe and coordinated work environment that will ensure organizational productivity, HR makes sure that they painfully select the right people for the right jobs. Once the nature and specifications for the particular job is identified, it then becomes easy to look out for the person that has the right qualification for the job description. No one wants to put a round peg in a square hole and this makes selection an important task. Selecting the wrong person could cause great damage and result in a huge loss for the company. Generally, there are several methods used in the selection process. This includes interviews, personality tests, IQ tests, physical and cognitive ability tests and the use of biographical data. In addition to the above, the HR of a company organizes training for incoming staffs and those that are already in the system. Training is important in HR because this is where the new staffs are introduced to the organizational goals, the dress code, customer relation, and the organizational structure and culture. In the case of current staffs, training is sometime needed in the case of updating the employees about the new company policies and keeping them informed about new developments as well as developing basic skills that will be needed in their working environment. Apart from this, another practice used by the HR to maintain a safe and healthy workplace is performance measurement. Performance measures and feedback are ways of evaluating the overall productivity of individual employees in relation to organizational input. This practice is a sort of evaluation that shows what is happening, diagnose possible inadequacies and this serves as an impetus for the organization to strategize new ways or/and seek solutions to the problems that are identified. On the overall, it is a way of knowing the exact state of the organization as it is and not as it posses itself to be. Finally, men are social beings that have emotions and rational ability. People generally perform better when rewarded for good performances. In the HR practice, incentives are given so as to encourage workers to perform better and be more committed to the organizational goals that are set. Incentives serves as a motivator as it has a psychological effect on the workers and makes them want to put in more effort because they are being appreciated for their good performances.

Identify Harley Davidsons Strategy Essay

Harley is a globally recognised brand firmly associated with large motorbikes with a historic emphasis on style, individuality and freedom rather than on technology, speed or sports. From a segmentation view they belong in the heavyweight motorcycle market and are particularly strong within a sub-segment of super heavyweight. Their bikes are strongest in the Cruiser motorcycle segment, feature in the Touring bikes segment (focus on their style and image) and through acquisition of Buell, now have a presence in the Performance models segment. The Harley-Davidson image and the customer loyalty earned and sustained by the unique ? Harley Experience’ are its greatest assets. The appeal of the Harley brand was central to the corporate strategy. The focus of the strategy was to reinforce and extend the relationship between the company and its consumers. The Harley Owners Group was established to be a vehicle to unite management, employees and customers in a special community and to foster relationships and shared experiences towards a bonding with the brand and the company. The loyalty of Harley owners is evident in their repeat purchase behaviour ? over 50% of sales between ’99 and ’05 were to previous owners, while brand attraction helped account for a 20% share from first time buyers. The brand was also successful in effecting a demographic and socioeconomic shift away from young workers to middle-aged, higher income owners. Harley lagged behind its competitors in terms of technological innovation and rapid progress but insisted on playing the game on their home strengths of distinctive features and traditional designs. They lacked the economies of scale of their competitors who could spread the costs of research and development across higher unit volumes of products and multiple product lines. Instead they concentrated on incremental improvements to their engines, frames and gearboxes to increase reliability and power and reduce vibration. In 2006 they had 36 models available with lots of customisation options so that each purchaser could virtually have a personalised motorcycle. This captures their reconciliation between differentiation and economies of scale ? a wide range of customisable options while standardising on key components. Sales of parts, accessories and merchandise had grown to a 20% share in 2000. Harley established a dealer development program to improve its distribution and position it in support of the brands requirement for a sustained ? Harley Experience’. The program increased support for dealers while imposing higher standards of pre- and after-sales service and better dealer facilities. Training programs, test ride facilities, rider instruction classes were all initiatives designed to differentiate the Harley products from their competitors and success is evident with sustained demand. Not all initiatives were so successful, the intent of the Buell acquisition was to broaden the customer base by merging the comfort and style of a Harley cruiser with the performance attributes of a sports bike. While by no means a failure the Buell strategy has performed steadily but has not attracted the same demand from the market and annual shipments now approach just 12 to 13 thousand. Compare Harley’s resources and capabilities to those of Honda. What does your analysis imply for Harley’s potential to establish cost and differentiation advantage over Honda? Harley has continuously upgraded its manufacturing operations and invested in plant and machinery both to introduce advanced process technologies and to expand capacity. Despite constant development and investment, Harley’s low production volumes relative to Honda and the other Japanese manufacturers imposed severe cost disadvantages. They simply could not attain economies of scale to match their large competitors. A related area was their weakness in buying power ? While not having the volumes with which to bargain quantity discounts Harley emphasised the internal roles of Purchasing Managers to foster close relationships with suppliers. Honda, in particular, are renowned for their engine technology and they can sustain continued engine innovation as they have a very large product range to which engines are central and over which the costs can be amortised more easily. Harley turned to their own strengths and organisational capabilities to achieve cost efficiencies and product / brand differentiation. By utilising ? Strategic Innovation’ they chose to establish competitive advantage through creating value for customers from novel experiences, product delivery, customisation options and customer care. As a smaller organisation and one which adopted a non-hierarchical, team based structure, Harley successfully engineered a transformation in employee commitment and job satisfaction which also helped the company sustain this competitive advantage once it had been achieved. By ensuring that the ?Harley Experience’ was kept to a very high level it proved impossible for imitators or competitors to tap into the brand attractiveness. The sustainability of Harleys differentiation is less vulnerable to being overturned by changes in the external environment and is more difficult to replicate. Harley differentiate on more than one plane ? their products certainly, but also their design, marketing and customer interactions ? have you ever seen a group of Honda owners get together BECAUSE they are Honda owners ? Way to go Harley. How can Harley D. sustain and enhance it’s competitive position? The essence of differentiation advantage is to increase the perceived value of the offering to the customer either more effectively or at lower cost to competitors. This requires that Harley continue to match the requirements and preferences of customers with its own capacity for creating uniqueness. Successful differentiation requires a combination of astute analysis and creative imagination. The Value Chain provides a useful framework for analysing differentiation advantage. By regularly analysing how value is created for customers and by systematically appraising the scope of each of the firms activities for achieving differentiation, the value-chain permits matching demand-side and supply-side sources of differentiation.

Finding Meaning in Albert Camus’ The Plague Essay

Finding Meaning in Albert Camus’ The Plague Socrates, a Greek philosopher, once said that â€Å"the unexamined life is not worth living† (Apology 38b). Like Socrates, Albert Camus believed that a man needs to live meaningfully. In his novel The Plague Camus creates characters who are forced to think, reflect, and assume responsibility for living as they battle an epidemic of bubonic plague that is ravaging the Algerian port of Oran. For ten months as the outbreak isolates the city from the rest of the world, each of the citizens reacts in a unique way. Camus’ main characters undergo both individual and social transformations. Dr. Bernard Rieux, the narrator and central character, is one of the first people in Oran to recognize the†¦show more content†¦Rieux believes that man has to do what is necessary while he is alive and must believe in humanity: â€Å". . . Rieux was thinking it was only right that those whose desires are limited to man and his humble yet formidable love should enter, if only now and then, into their reward† (Camus 301). When the gates of Oran are opened, Rieux writes a chronicle of the plague hoping to teach others a lesson. He wants them to witness the admirable qualities in men and the injustice they endure. As a doctor he knows that the plague bacillus can lie dormant for long periods and then resurface. Although man may never be the victor over the plague and the loss of life it inflicts, he can better manage life’s adversities in the future. Another important character is Raymond Rambert, a Parisian journalist, who goes through a metamorphosis over the course of the epidemic. He finds himself trapped in Oran when the gates of the city are closed. This determined young man tries to escape in any way possible because he feels that Oran’s problems are none of his concern since he is an outsider. Rambert’s appeals to the civil authorities are unsuccessful. He asks Dr. Rieux to help his cause and is enraged when Rieux refuses. He then offers money to smugglers for his escape. Later during an exchange Rieux tells him: . . . for nothing in the world would I try to dissuade you from what you’re going to do; it seems to me absolutely right and proper.Show MoreRelatedThe Plague By Albert Camus1511 Words   |  7 PagesThe Plague It is always awful when an epidemic starts to spread out. Regardless of have severe it is, it always has bad consequences. These hard times often bring the citizen closer to each other and make them appreciate life more. In the book â€Å"The Plague† written by Albert Camus the readers get a sense of how incredibly the spread of a deadly disease is. In this case it is the plague. 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This type of study necessarily involves the interpretation of what people mean in a particular context and how the context influences what is said. It requires a consideration of how the