Become a TV Production Manager

Being the production manager for a television show is lots of hard work and most of the time you will be making phone calls, creating lists, emailing people, and doing office work. A production manager for reality TV has even more organizing to do, and will spend months working before the shooting of a TV production even begins.

Production Manager Job Description

The TV production manager has enormous responsibilities. He or she must make sure that the TV show is on schedule and prepared for shooting.

It involves getting all the right people to the right places and drawing up the time frame for the production to take place.

If you are shooting a live production, the TV production manager will have to make sure that vans are booked, interviews are scheduled and everything is ready.

Training Opportunities

Training to be a production manager for reality TV or any other TV show requires some years in film or TV school / college along with managerial skills and preferably experience in organizing. You have to be a team player and understand the intricacies of how a TV production is run, or how it should run to be the most effective. You can study film and TV at university or college and you can also work your way into being a production manager after being an assistant for a while. Sometimes you will also have to complete a course in television production before you can take on this responsibility, but having some previous experience in the TV world will be a great help.

How to Become a Production Manager

You should first start out your TV production manager job hunt by compiling a comprehensive resume. If you have had no experience on a TV show or live TV, you can get some by offering your qualified services to independent TV shows, online TV and internet TV series, as well as college or university TV productions. Getting contacts and experience is really what TV is all about. Next you can contact as many production companies as you can and apply for a job. It might not necessarily be as production manager for a television show, but getting your foot in the door as an assistant or production secretary will be a great start. Having good contacts with TV producers and television directors will also help you to hear about and get any new TV production manager openings that come along.

Salary

A TV production manager salary will all depend on the TV production you are working on and which production company you are employed at. The larger ones will pay more, but you may have better opportunities working for the smaller ones who pay less. You have to decide if it is the money you are after, or making a name for yourself in the TV industry. Usually the TV production manager salary will come in less than the director, producer, and cameraman, as well as some others depending on where you work, but the TV production manager salary is a good amount.