Lindsey, War Stories

Nikki Hanger
1230 Windsor Avenue
Richmond, VA 23227

In your job, what are some challenges you have to deal with in relating to “production” people?

I am a photo producer for still photographers and produce advertising campaigns. My job consists of creating estimates, handling the budget, hiring crew, location scouting and secure all permits and locations, model casting, ordering food, signing releases, paying crew/models, and at times art direction.. so I sometimes deal with people not having things ready or in order when needed, sometimes I am the one who comes in short with not having things in on time. Meeting the needs of a photographer/director and everyone else at the same time is challenging but also part of my job I enjoy, keeps me busy and able to stay focused on the tasks at hand.

Can you tell me a war story, or a story of when something went badly wrong, or seemed like it was going to fall apart, but then ended up working out [or didn’t work out].

I can think of my one and only nightmare.. for a photo shoot. I managed to tell the entire crew the wrong time for the next day's shoot, since there had been a change, and the photographer the right time, so the photographer showed up but no one else did. It was awful, I could not believe I didn't lose my job on that one. I have quite the backbone so being yelled at was easy for me but I didn't hear the end of it for quite awhile and the photographer happened to be a friend of mine, but was not happy with me.


Do you have any advice for a person starting out in the business, someone who is about to graduate?

I worked for multiple photographers as a studio manager and learned all aspects of the business. Once I went out on my own as a photo editor/retoucher there was still time and money to be made. In order to get involved in this business I would intern during college and then find a employer that is willing to pay and teach. Learning on the job to see what aspects of the business you like and dont like is really important

This is not something I have always wanted to do, I did not even know about producing until I actually had my first producing job. I just fell into it but realized that with my photo background and my attention to detail, it is a perfect match. I also did not know that ad agencies have producers on staff. Other places, like NY and LA use a producer for all their assignments, but areas like Richmond the market and budget is so low that it is a hard job to get.
Producing for commercials and movies is a different market and more money.