The ABCs of a Production Crew

Posted on: Jul 18, 2024

Photo Credit: gnepphoto // Shutterstock

By Gabrielle Glenn

We’ve all heard the saying, “We’re like family at this job.” No comment makes me side-eye more. 

While I don’t consider coworkers automatically family, I have slowly come around to the idea that I must improve how I cultivate my professional relationships. For a guarded introvert like me, finding community hasn’t always come naturally, but I have learned a lot over the years.  

Here is my personal, introvert-approved guide to finding your tribe and creating your own chosen production family. No matter what show you work on, follow these three steps—assess, blueprint and clinch—to find your production tribe. 

Assess 

Before I ingratiate myself into any group, I observe and fully accept myself first. I ask myself what kind of relationships am I most comfortable with, and you should ask yourself the same.

If you’re a quiet person who gravitates toward specific energies, don’t invest much time trying to get friendly with people you naturally don’t connect with. Of course, be kind to everyone, but it’s best to reserve your deeper social energies for people you would be genuinely excited to be around.

Knowing what you like gives you the confidence to pursue the relationships you want, while also being open to relationships you hadn’t considered before. Having self-confidence means the only thing you’re responsible for is trying to connect with others on a professional level, but you are not totally responsible when things don’t work out the way you’d like. We can only control our own efforts to connect, not other’s perceptions of us.  

Blueprint

The next step is to think about how you’re going to approach people you’d like to develop relationships with. If you’re like me and find yourself stumped on what to say, talk about work. I’m a complete story nerd who loves everything producing, so it’s easy for me to talk to other people about that topic. 

Pay close attention to what lights others up. If you can find even a morsel of interest in what they’re saying, you can be a great conversational partner. 

Clinch

Networking can feel fake, as it doesn’t come across as authentic to many of us. If someone is only reaching out to people because they think of only what they can gain, that’s not networking.

Networking is creating and sustaining relationships with people you may want to work with in the future. It takes work that is done over an extended period, so networking doesn’t always offer immediate rewards. Make sure you’re connecting for reasons that align with who you are as a person, as well as your goals. 

A hack I use to convince myself that networking is worthwhile, is to only engage in conversations that interest me. Networking is just as much a part of the job as is doing your job, so make the process of networking easy for yourself.

Attend after-work social hours (no, you don’t have to stay the entire time) and chat up trusted colleagues up in between busy times on-set. Talk about anything that’s appropriate to discuss at work. For me, not having the pressure to say the right thing all the time has helped let my guard down.

While it is important to connect, of equal importance is knowing to whom you’re speaking. Steer clear of talking ill of people, because seven times out of ten, your comments will get back to them. If a manager asks you an opinion about a problem, let most of your focus be on about the solution and not complaining about systems or people that aren’t effective.  

I hope these tips are helpful as you build your own community of dynamic people, who, like you, love creating. Let me know your thoughts @budlongaveprods on X or budlongaveprods@gmail.com. 

Gabrielle Glenn is an unscripted TV producer and development professional.

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