Sample Pert Plan for a video project.
Planning Overview
A plan is like a vacation destination. Sometimes just getting there is half the fun. With planning, the real value isn't just what you end up with, it's the investigation - the "getting there". It doesn't matter if you make the final plan look pretty and professional, it's the all the analysis and synthesis that goes into it, the journey you take, where the really good stuff is.
You'll need to consider rolls and responsibilities, project phases, legal issues, managing people, and learning about all the tools at your disposal. Your resources are time, people, places, things, and money. How you prioritize and cajole is up to you. Schedules are affected by so many things, you're lucky if you can make any sense out of one as you near the end of your effort.
Sometimes, simple projects get complicated and fall apart because it seemed so easy at the beginning, you didn't bother to plan correctly. Ouch. On the other hand, large and complex projects sometimes turn out quickly and with few problems because your human resources may have all done this before. They'll make some of the mid-course corrections for you. Be willing learn from them.
Basic Steps
Ready, Fire, Aim...that's not the right way to do it. Try...
- Think.
- Think some more. Put your ideas on the back of a napkin.
- Talk about it.
- Understand it.
- Do it. Be the ball. Be the producer.
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Discussion
In considering what you need to worry about in planning, we can break things down as follows:
- Resources
- Budget
- Schedule
- Management
...and, if you think about it, these are the same basic things you worry about when you get up in the morning and consider what you're going to do for the rest of the day. No surprise, all plans take these into account in one way or another.
Resources
You can never be too rich or too thing...and it goes that you can never have too many resources on a project - unless, that is, it becomes your job to manage them all yourself. Then, perhaps, your first resource, besides a thorough understanding of what each brings, is to have a helper who can organize and tidy things up for you on occasion. But if you're it, then put on the blinders and focus on the bare essentials.
- Money
- People
- Places
- Things
- Infrastructure
- Equipment
- Good Will
- Community
- Reference Material and Support
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Budget
It's not always about money, but we start with that because it's the most obvious. You have resources and you have to manage their expenditure or availability over time. If this part works out, your project succeeds. If not, big problems ensue.
- Funding
- Expenditures Over Time
- Tools
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Schedule
Everyone involved in your project, and everything you need, should be scheduled out so there are no questions on the day anything is due. You need wiggle room because projects rarely run as planned. If your production manager (fancy name for helper) tells you that setup for a shot will take 30 minutes, double check. Sometimes it takes that long to unpack the car carrying all your stuff, let alone move and assemble gear, prep the talent, and so on. You may find that Pert or Gantt (milestone) tools help. You may, instead, use index cards. Whatever works, keep it in mind keep making adjustments. A good tool lets you make adjustments easily. But that's not the issue. The important thing is to have a planned schedule, a way to track progress, and a way to make adjustments so that everyone knows what's going on and what's about to change.
- PERT and Dependencies
- Milestones
- Tools
- Buy-in And More Buy-in
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Managing
If not you, then who? There's no right or wrong answer, but someone has to do it. Sometimes, the idea people - they're the ones who have such great ideas all the time, likely to be the ones to undertake a project for fun - will be terrible task masters. So, things could fall apart quickly. If you aren't a good manager, find someone who is. Your mentor (we hope you get it that it's a good idea to have one by now) may be able to help figure this out for you.
- Rolls And Responsibilities
- Legal Issues
- Rehersals
- Wrangling
- Tools
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Details
The magic is in the details. Click here to see more about these topics in our Twiki.