Speaker 1: Have you ever heard it takes a village? In event production, this is no different. In this episode, we're going to share with you what these positions do, and this includes some of the better-known positions, but also some of the lesser-known positions. Tim & Tim Talks starts now. Tim & Tim Talks At the top, event planners. I mean, this one's pretty self-explanatory, right? This one's in the title.

Speaker 2: It is, and I think, honestly, a lot of the folks watching this are going to find this role fits what they do, but this is the person who's responsible for the event vision, for managing all the stakeholders, for finding vendors, managing the client and vendor relationship, and this role can kind of bridge that kind of client side and then bringing in that vendor side relationship.

Speaker 1: This is a very key bridged position here in this one, right? So this is, as you say, right, they are the ones that can speak both languages very well of understanding the client. Oftentimes, the event planners within the company that we work with, they speak the language perfectly. They understand the lingo, the deadlines, the pressures, but they also speak a little bit of production, too, which makes it a great event planner is so key for a great and smooth position. So, yes, at the top, event planners.

Speaker 2: And that person, that event planner, is going to talk to. Our next position, your production manager or your producer.

Speaker 1: These faces look familiar. I don't quite know why yet, though.

Speaker 2: Yeah, look at those. I wonder who those folks are. So your project manager, your producer is going to be often on your vendor side and going to be running your production. So this is a person who's responsible for bringing in subcontractors and overseeing the overall production, whether that's, you know, everything from sort of scenic to, you know, technical side.

Speaker 1: Absolutely. So this is the one that the maestro that makes all of the production talk to one another and also other departments, other vendors as well. Right.

Speaker 2: Navigating between those departments. So the next person we want to talk about is somebody who, speaking of orchestration, is sort of the orchestra director for the event.

Speaker 1: So this one right here, this one gets a little under the radar here, the stage manager and show caller. Right. Sometimes people feel like, oh, this is the one. Right. Sometimes people feel like the producer can do this position, but on shows that are big enough or complicated enough, this is a standalone, super important position, right? It is.

Speaker 2: And I think, you know, sometimes we see this in virtual events, sometimes we don't. But at the bigger in-person events, we always want to have a stage manager or a show caller who is, as I said, sort of the conductor of the show and is calling all those cues, is running through what we call the run of show, the show flow and keeping everybody on track. And so this person is. And I think, you know, sometimes we see this in virtual events, sometimes we don't. But at the bigger in-person events, we always want to have a stage manager or a show caller who is, as I said, sort of the conductor of the show and is calling all those cues, is running through what we call the run of show. And so this person is. Not operating equipment. They're not, you know, dealing with specific technical details. They're making sure that the show is flowing in the direction that we want it to. And they're giving people their cues as to what happens next. So they're really directing the actual flow of the performance at the show.

Speaker 1: That is the most important position on bigger shows that we work on together is having that show caller or stage manager. Sometimes interchangeable. Right. Those cues that they're calling are really important. They're getting the lighting board. Okay. Get your cue. 17. Okay. We're going to go to videotape videotape roll number 13. Um, who else is there? We have a stinger and make sure Mike four is going to be hot. That every one of these lines in transitions has about six or seven different sub cues in them, maybe even more. And it is this role that is responsible for them all. And who do they often talk to? Well, that's the next role. Who is this one, Tim?

Speaker 2: So our video director or camera director is the person who's calling the camera. So the show, while the show caller or stage manager is in charge of, you know, calling all of the various cues in all departments, the video director is specifically calling what cameras are going to stream or to screen. And so this person is, you know, choosing which camera angles go where telling the camera operators to get another shot and really kind of picking out what the audience is seeing in that video broadcast.

Speaker 1: Absolutely. They are definitely like the director, as you would say, and they are making sort of that aesthetic choices visually, um, for that. And which in itself, right. It has three cameras or five cameras or eight cameras. It's, it is a very, um, busy position, uh, with a lot of different cues. And on top of that, you're now directing every single camera operator within that. So it's very important. It is the look of your show, um, right there, but so similar to that, our next one here, our technical director switcher. Up view, Tim breakdown. There's a lot of terms on this one page. Why do we have so many terms on this one slide alone?

Speaker 2: So you and I went back and forth about this when we were building this slide deck and, you know, how do we describe what this position is, um, when there's in, in many ways, different words that mean the same thing. And so in the broadcast world, the technical director, uh, is the person who operates the video switcher in events. Sometimes we call them the switcher operator or the V one. Um, the reason we have these different terms is in, in the events world, uh, in the theater world, I should say, which event world often draws from the technical director is a different role. And so when we use the word technical director, we have to be clear. Are we talking about the person who's cutting the show on the switcher or are we talking about a different position that we'll get into in a bit? Absolutely.

Speaker 1: The technical director switcher now on smaller shows, the video director and the switcher operator and the V one potentially are, uh, oftentimes they will be. Yeah. The same show, excuse me, the same person. So if it's only like one or two cameras and it's a smaller, it's a breakout room. Oftentimes these different roles will all funnel down to one person. That's perfectly fine. Uh, for this show that we did here, I mean, this was a big, uh, massive show. So each one of these positions were broken out and it made a very big difference for a very smooth show. So yeah, absolutely. Different worlds, different lingo, but same, same roles, same position.

Speaker 2: And to be clear to him, the reason that you would have. A separate video director and a technical director, who's actually pushing the buttons is when there's a lot of decisions that have to be made. Uh, when, when, you know, there's a lot of cameras to choose from, particularly in the sports world, but in more complicated broadcast, maybe an award show where you have multiple possible winners, nominees who might, might be the winner. Um, that the video director is the person who's watching all the sources come in and making the split second decisions as to what camera to take and the technical director is ready to push the button at the right time so that you can separate the like decision. Making. And sort of artistic decision from being really quick to hit the button.

Speaker 1: So having been, so having been in this, in that sports world, having worked for a professional broadcast, you know, for that, that TV trucks that have gone on to do the world series to do the NBA finals, the directors are fast cutting, right? So a typical sort of cadence that will happen inside of that truck is like, okay, ready to take two ready for a four pan left pan left. Okay. Ready to, I'm going to come out to three after four, literally. That's how the. Director is talking, literally just talking numbers and the TD is actually pushing it. They don't care what's in front of them. They are just looking down. So this is often, sometimes we don't see in the, um, the events world is much more scripted than in the sports world, but like you said, awards, busy shows. Absolutely.

Speaker 2: Yeah. We talk about technical director. This is the other kind of technical director that we're talking about in the theater and the events world. We often say technical director when we mean the person who's in charge of everything technical for the event. So we talked about. Yeah. A producer who's in charge of the whole event and the technical director is in charge of all the technology. And so, you know, while the producer is worried about everything from the audience experience, uh, perspective and, and sort of oversees the technical director, the technical record is specifically worried about what the technology that we have on site, the various technology vendors, the labor management, and making sure that what happens on stage matches that audience experience that the producer envisioned.

Speaker 1: And this. This is a real world show that, you know, that we were on in, in Moscone center, right? So this is what a general session backstage, you know, at Moscone center actually looked like. And so I think that this is only if, if, if there was more real estate in this image on the other side of the tractor, you'll see even more technology. What we're not seeing is we're not seeing a one world. We're not seeing a two world. Um, I don't think we're seeing the projector station right here. So basically we're only seeing, you know, cameras, graphics, uh, video. Playback. And just a few other ones, but there's even more that the camera wasn't wide enough to show. So as you can imagine, there's a lot of pieces that need to talk to each other.

Speaker 2: And this is all in the purview of that technical director. And then something that's really relevant on our virtual events, as we do things with remote guests. And I think as we get into hybrid events, we're going to see these positions in person as well. Our contribution or inbound call manager. We, we use both terms interchangeably. This is the person who manages your remote video presenters. Their cameras and presentation feeds, their mics, making sure that their audio and camera, you know, looks and sounds good and making sure that, you know, they stay connected. So getting them dialed in, whether that's via zoom or teams or, you know, uh, you know, legacy video conference technology, but kind of, however we get them into the system, this is the person who kind of manages all those feeds coming into your video production.

Speaker 1: Relatively new position. You'd like, you said, we're going to probably see this more as hybrid events. We'll find out soon, but definitely. But, uh, relatively straightforward on this one. And yeah, this is a, this is a very key one here and making sure that the AV and everything works and looks and sounds good. All right.

Speaker 2: And so moving on. Yeah. A graphics operator. This is a really simple graphic setup. This was from a smaller event that I worked on. And, um, you know, really graphics is, is often as simple as just, you know, a couple of PowerPoint decks, um, but can be as complicated as, you know, multiple PowerPoint. Separate decks on separate computers. And some keynote decks on a Mac, and then, you know, maybe even content off of, you know, playback systems, but, um, you know, at, at its core, the playback, uh, sorry, the graphics operator rather is in charge of the slide decks on a show. And so making sure that the right deck is open at the right time, making sure that the clickers click when they're supposed to click and sometimes advancing on, on speaker's behalf when they're following a script.

Speaker 1: That's the challenge, most challenging when you're a graphics operator and you are basically. Anticipating and waiting for that green arrow. When the presenter has clicked the button, you know, I, when sometimes some of our producers require that it's actually the operator that pushes the button when that green arrow goes, they do not want it to be done automated. They're like, that's what you're there. You have to push the button. Boy, it's a long, hard day when you have to just, you're anticipating and waiting for 200, 300 clicks and you have to be on top of it. It is a, it is extremely, probably the most important position. The whole show is based on. The graphics and a presentation, literally everyone's coming there to hear a presentation. The graphics operator is the one in charge of driving that presentation.

Speaker 2: And this is a really critical role. And sometimes it involves like fixing things, right? Like the presenter says, all my fonts are wrong, you know, and, and so it happens all the time. Exactly. Got to figure out where all those fonts went, make sure things look right. Make sure any edits that get made before the show get reflected in the final deck. So it is, as Tim said, a very critical position and one of the unsung heroes of the production. Before you go.

Speaker 1: Before you go to the next slide here, I would say the other thing that you mentioned in that is oftentimes in shows, we do not have the presenters bring their own computers. It is a computer already established like that. If, if you were presenting Tim, you would come back to us with your slide deck, you know, on a USB stick, and then we would open it up on our computer. We oftentimes, as you said, don't have fonts or the other key ingredients, but it's also more important to use the computer that the show has given you. So, versus bring in your own, there's less distractions, less pop-ups, we know everything works. It's usually an over-spec machine, so it won't crash, so.

Speaker 2: That's a good point, Tim, and we, we mentioned things like pop-ups and, you know, things that are running in the background, you know, how many times have you seen somebody's laptop, you know, on a Zoom call, they're screen-sharing and they get Slack messages or, you know, Teams messages that pop up on screen. And so, you know, when we talk about a show computer, you know, we're talking about a laptop that's, or a desktop that's designed for one specific thing. One specific role or task on that show, and so when we're talking about a graphics computer, it's just running PowerPoint.

Speaker 1: You haven't mentioned my favorite, my favorite pop-up. Would you like to update?

Speaker 2: Updates, the Windows updates, the anti-virus updates, you know, it just, you know, one of the things that we do on show computers is just turn all of that off, just notifications off, you know, and we don't have things like Slack or Teams or things on graphics machines because we don't want to even have the possibility that those things pop up or make noise. No. We don't want to make noise or have distractions during the show. It's really just PowerPoint or Keynote or Google Slides and that's it.

Speaker 1: And that's oftentimes why most of the time, that, yours is an anomaly. Most of the shows that we do are Mac-based just because they have a little less pop-up. So, Tim, as we promised the audience, this was a complete exhaustive list of basically every single position that you will find in a, what? Oh. Tim, we forgot the camera operators. And the audio engineers. Oh, my goodness. At least we got PA and catering and I'll tell you what, Tim, how about this? You and I, let's go ahead and finish this list up and then for the audience, same time, next week, let's finish this all up. This will be awesome.

Speaker 2: And for what we've gotten you so far, if you have questions, please, please leave us a comment or hit us up on our socials. We would love to hear from you, please. We'd love to hear from you. And if you liked what you saw so far, we'd love to hear from you. If you could give us a like on the platform, it gives us a little boost. Absolutely. And with that, I'm Tim. And I am Tim. And we've talked. See you next time. Bye-bye.