Samuel Harman shared with us his experiences as Production Coordinator on the hit-series Fleabag.

“Working in production is challenging, everyday has different problems and solutions”

Communication, honesty and empathy are the key skills, I would say. Being able to reveal a mistake if there is one, being able to understand the crew members you are working together with, as well as diplomacy, which might be the most important one.

I like to catch up with the crew in the morning and see what everybody is working on. Then, I’ll do any work I need to dedicate myself to, responding to the needs of production. It is important to react in the right way, to the demands that are placed on the production office on a day to day basis.

The challenge of making an amazing show

Production lasted 35 days. At the beginning the schedule was very busy and unpredictable. It is a show that is creatively led which means that you need to react very quickly to new creative decisions. You need to have good systems in place to execute decisions when they are made and SetKeeper really helped us manage this. The team was on-line to help us whenever we needed it, which was great. It was definitely challenging but we had a team of very good and very talented people. In the end, it’s fantastic. It’s brilliant. It’s an amazing show!

SetKeeper: 3 times in a row

Sometimes I ask myself: How did we make movies 15 years ago? No mobile phone, no Internet access etc. and it's hard to imagine as it's not something I've experienced. Today, we have access to a large number of tools.

SetKeeper helps the production office in many ways. It’s equally as reactive as we are. This is why I used it for the last three shows I’ve worked on. I think that SetKeeper does a far more technically impressive breakdown of scripts than other systems, that I have used in the past. It’s really a fantastic software!

“SetKeeper has a clear understanding of what the community wants and needs”

SetKeeper is really reliable, with a very good interface and a great team behind the software that has a clear understanding of what the community wants and needs. You are always available and come back to us when we have a problem. Another very big thumbs up, is that there is no time-out on the system! SetKeeper is always ready to take on board constructive remarks as well, which helps a lot.

Production Manager as a goal

Samuel has worked on many successful shows: He was a Production Runner on Family Tree and Downton Abbey, Production Secretary on Transformers 5 and now as a Production Coordinator on shows like Black Mirror and Fleabag.

Samuel seems to be following the perfect path to becoming a Production Manager in the near future.

"Hopefully that's on the horizon. I am not really in a rush to get there. I believe in putting in the day to day work"

Production Manager is a senior role. I am very happy now where I am. I'm going to continue my work in the role of Production Coordinator and then maybe look for an opportunity. Production Manager's have more pressure than the Coordinators. A PM should always be able to support the Production Coordinator and vice versa. I am not in a rush though. I suppose in the long term, yes, I’d love to become a Production Manager, but, I believe the most important thing is the people you are working with, the projects you're working on and to learn from the talented people around you.