The Biggest Production You've Ever Done
The biggest production you’ve ever done is the biggest production you’ve ever done. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 10-minute iPhone shoot with a friend, a 2-week commercial shoot, or a 6-month movie set. The biggest one you’ve ever done will always be stressful and challenging in its own way.
I remember the first music video I produced. It was the video for Tiësto’s song Carry You Home featuring Aloe Blacc and Stargate. The shoot itself was pretty simple. I had to get 5 friends to camp on the beach, film them having fun, and weave a light storyline in the middle.
But I was so stressed about it.
The biggest music video I ever produced was Takeaway for the Chainsmokers, ILLENIUM and Lennon Stella. That shoot was not simple. We had 3 artists, 3 management teams, 30 people on set at The Vessel in New York City. It was one of the most challenging days of my life. It forced me to level up.
The week after the shoot for Takeaway, I did a simple interview and skate shoot with Nyjah Huston for MVMT. It was the kind of thing that normally I would get really stressed about, but since I had just done something much more difficult, I wasn’t stressed about it at all.
Keep taking on bigger and bigger productions. With each one you’ll learn something new that you’ll be able to use in a future project. Things begin to fall into place, the small shoots become a piece of cake, and you become a better producer. Lean into the stress of the biggest production. It won’t go away, but it will guide you to bigger opportunities.
Good luck out there.