On Decentralized, Bottom Up Leadership

2023.8.6

Question of the day: how do you get 25 people to spend a month making a movie, sometimes staying up working til 2am, 5, or even 6… without paying anyone a dime?

I don’t know the exact answer, but I saw my friend, Ed, pull it off. And, it was a hell of a time — such of a hell of a time that I can definitively say being part of the making of On Gallows Hill was one of the best experiences of my life.

Different Departments, Clear Contributions

On the set of the film, everyone knew what the mission is, and they knew how their role contributed to it.

The mission: make a movie. In the case of this movie, On Gallows Hill, the roles roughly followed the below org chart:

In addition to what you see in the chart, camera had two Directors of Photography (DPs) and a couple of people below them, including lighting. Art included props, costumes, set design, makeup/sfx, and stunts. Art felt relatively flat org structure wise, but was very interdependent: makeup couldn’t do makeup if costume didn’t have the actors in costumes. (This particular scenario was never a problem, though — both makeup and costume were absolutely phenomenal on this set).

Additionally, there was an incredible amount of behind the scenes work that the production would not be possible without, none of which is represented on the above chart.

In general, functions were fairly obvious: If I needed a mic, I’d go to the sound team; if I needed makeup, I’d go to makeup. Moreover, if I needed makeup and I didn’t have it on yet, makeup would find me to make sure I was ready. Everyone knew what their responsibilities were and executed on them. Things were clear.

Again, though, not only did everyone know their role, they knew how it would contribute to the movie at large. They understood which way the bus was going.

Working Up to the Top… Or Not…

While unsolved problems would work their way up to Ed, the Director, there were plenty of places to catch and solve the issues before that, places that I don’t believe would have existed if the organization was aimless. For instance, if some people thought we were shooting for a commercial or a music video, nothing would have gotten done.

If the crew was spending a lot of time making micro adjustments before a take, but an actor who knew his own schedule understood a time constraint, he would ask the Director to call the shot. If one of the lighting guys missed didn’t see a problem with a shadow, one of the DP’s would jump in to help him. If an actor (*cough cough* me) forgot to put a mic on right before a shot, sound would jump in to make sure the audio was actually recorded (thanks, Nick!). And, if after an actor did a fight scene (*cough cough* me), his mic pack was now visible, costume might jump in to hide it (thanks, Nia!).

Everyone knew that we were making a movie, and they understood their roles and constraints, so they knew how to solve problems. And, if there was an issue someone was responsible for that was not being taken care of, someone else would jump in, which was maybe the most outstanding and impactful part of the whole process.

Everyone wanted the movie to succeed.

Sure, if there was a problem that wasn’t solved, the Director would jump in and make the final call. But, if the Director would have seen every single little issue that arose, he would never get anything done. The set was optimized to solve as many problems as possible before they made it to the top.

Electric Culture

I believe the over arching mission and clear individual responsibilities were what fueled the culture on set, which was perhaps the most important element. Everyone’s energy and excitement made the shoot one of the most fun and fulfilling experiences I have ever had.

If you know me, I am now early to bed and a 6 am riser; I rarely compromise on that. I did for this movie, though. On one night, I actually stayed up til near my wake up time — I wasn’t in bed til 5:30am.

And you know what? I had fun doing it. The experience was electric. Everyone fully bought in. My sleep scheduled mattered so much less than the success of the movie. I only had 3 days on set, and I was willing to do anything to make it work.

The dedication was actually unbelievable. It was the kind of energy in which you forget to eat and don’t even care; it was the kind of focus and flow state that only comes from having a clear, singular goal.

We knew we were going to make a movie.

Application

Everyone had an individual purpose connected to the success of the endeavor. I won’t say this was the only reason the shoot was such a high level experience, but it was certainly a critical factor.

Yes, there were problems, but they were solved. Ed learned a lot, and I did, too, even being there for only a few days. For a movie being produced by people with an average age of maybe 21, the experience was outstanding.

So, the takeaway and application: if every one has a clear purpose connected to the larger goal of the organization, all else will fall into place.

Cheers,

Noah Jacobs