Production vs. Direction producing visual content

When we talk about production for Films, TV commercials, or stills,

The first we think of is Money, and that would actually be quite correct, because the influence of the producer over the artistic values of the final product is somehow limited, that would be the Director’s responsibility. With honorable exceptions such as David O. Selznick‘s “Gone with the Wind” the Producer has a limited role in the artistic outcome of the film. Generally speaking we can consider a Production successful when it has profits.

Since that is almost impossible to know before hand, and History of audiovisual products is full of colossal failures, a huge part of the production work is focused on cost control, here we go back to Money. Needles to say that circumstance is often a source of conflict between the Production department and the Direction department, which doesn’t care much for cost control (and it shouldn’t really).

So, How to effectively manage this conflict? here’s my take:

• Always keep in mind the common goal.
• Try to put yourself in the other guy’s shoes. From Direction’s point of view would be, am I asking for something unreasonable, and is there really no other way? From Production’s point of view, Is my quest for cost control jeopardising the quality of the product?
• Communicate, Communicate, Communicate