Beyond the Rolodex: Rethinking Production Consistency

Luke Lashley, Founder, Departure

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I was talking to a head of production at a very respected agency the other day. This is someone whose work you've definitely seen, at a shop you definitely know. I asked him how he addresses the need for consistency. How he finds a partner who has his back when asks get tough, and how he minimizes the whiplash of jumping from company to company, job to job.

His answer was refreshingly honest. He has a great relationship with an EP at one of the "big" production companies who he calls when he's in a pinch (you know this production company, but I’m not mentioning it here). Their long working history gives him peace of mind that whatever challenge he's facing will get solved. He also has one or two "go-to" production companies he calls when budgets are below $250k (he did not give me exact names).

That's great, and I'm not knocking it at all. But I am scratching my chin at it. Is that really the best consistency our industry has to offer? A producer with a handful of relationships?

The Industry Standard

It seems like most conversations I have with agency-side EPs or heads of production sound remarkably similar to this. They don't have a true "go-to" partner, they just have a couple of longtime friends in the industry who they call to help them out on a one-off basis, and then a few reliable production companies when budgets are tight.

It's always some variation of: "Well, I have this EP I've worked with for years who I trust," or "There's this company that's great for smaller stuff," or "I know a few people I can call depending on what we need."

This approach isn't wrong, per se. These relationships are valuable, and the people maintaining them are smart, experienced professionals doing their best to navigate a complex landscape. But I find it surprising that this is the best we can do as an industry. I also find it surprising given that making a production purchase is one of the main, most important creative purchases an agency makes. 

A Mature Industry's Growing Pains

We're supposedly a mature industry (meaning evolved, scaled, and fully developed). Yet we're making some of our most important purchases (production partner and directors) by having each producer maintain a few relationships they can fall back on? That seems...primitive.

Most mature industries that are in the business of producing things (even creative things) have found ways to create consistency across time, budget, margin, and personnel in far more sophisticated ways. Even the tech industry has preferred vendor relationships and strategic partnerships that go way beyond individual friendships.

But in advertising production, our version of "consistency" is basically hoping your buddy at that production company picks up the phone.

The Director Problem

Maybe this isn't an issue. Maybe I'm overthinking it. But my gut says there's something here worth examining.

I think part of the reason this consistency problem exists is because of talent. Each ask, each challenge, each “purchase”, each need for reliable partnership requires a different director to solve it effectively. You can't really solve consistency challenges with a single partner because no single production company (no matter how good) can cover the wide spectrum of creative asks that come across a major agency's desk. This is largely because every production company is clinging to an old-school roster model. 

Your comedy specialist isn't going to nail the luxury automotive brief. Your documentary director probably isn't the right fit for the Gen Z social campaign. Your high-end automotive director might not be available for the quick-turn CPG spot. So you end up fragmented by necessity, building relationships across multiple companies to cover your bases.

But this creates its own problems. You're managing multiple vendor relationships, multiple billing processes, multiple communication styles, multiple approaches to everything from treatment development to post-production. You're constantly context-switching between different company cultures and workflows.

Talent At Scale

This is part of the reason we've put so much talent together at Departure. There seems to be an opportunity to offer brands, agencies, heads of production, and even individual producers working on contract, new levels of consistency, speed, and efficacy.

What if you had one partner with access to directors across every genre, budget level, and aesthetic approach? What if that partner understood your workflow, your timeline pressures, your budget realities, and your creative standards well enough to become a true extension of your team? What if this partner could coordinate director recommendations across your entire organization - so when Producer A is shopping a $200k regional spot and Producer B is shopping a $900k national campaign for the same shoot week, the best directors get allocated to your highest-priority projects instead of whoever happened to start their search first?

What if consistency didn't mean "I know a person" but rather "I have a systematic solution"?

Beyond the Rolodex

I'm not suggesting that personal relationships don't matter because they absolutely do. The EP you trust, the producer who gets your style, the company that has your back when things go sideways are all relationships that are invaluable and irreplaceable.

But I am suggesting that maybe we can build on top of those relationships rather than being limited by them. Maybe we can create systems that amplify the value of good partnerships rather than forcing everyone to reinvent the wheel with their own personal network.

Maybe the future of production consistency isn't about who you know, but about having access to everyone you might need to know, delivered through a partner who actually understands your business.

We're excited to be exploring that possibility. Because in a mature industry, consistency should be a feature, not a favor.

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About Luke Lashley

Luke is a seasoned Executive Producer and the founder of Departure, his second production company. At his previous company, he worked with directors across all levels of exclusivity and recognized the enormous potential of freelancers and the benefits they bring—not just to production companies, but to clients and agencies, and their careers. However, he also saw significant barriers standing in the way of directors and production companies looking to succeed in the freelance space.

Luke founded Departure with one goal: to make Departure the freelancing company and redefine how directors and agencies approach representation.