Feb 23, 2010

Management Case Study: Wallace and Gromit

Wallace and Gromit are two of my favorite celebrities. If you haven’t seen their new short animated film, A Matter of Loaf and Death, I highly recommend it. The film is nominated for a 2010 Academy Award in the category of Short Film (Animated); if the film wins at the Oscar Ceremony on March 8, it will be the pair’s third Oscar-winning effort.

I gave a copy of the DVD to my Dad for Christmas, and we watched not only the film, but also the documentary extra about how the animation team works together to create the adventures of naïve Wallace and his clever mutt Gromit. How does this relate to custom content creation? I’m getting there. 

Of course, as a former owner/decorator of an elaborate dollhouse, the notion that everything in the movie is animated with clay figurines performing on miniature sets is utterly charming. The documentary lets you see the real scale of the pieces and the camerawork needed to maneuver through the scaled-down, make-believe world.

Unexpectedly, the documentary also became for me a management case study on the question of whether creativity can be driven by committee. A film, even a short animated one, takes dozens of people to make, but are there dozens of ideas and opinions competing at the studio? In the case of Wallace and Gromit, the answer is no. Some of their management approaches:

Each team member has a defined role.
Suggestions are allowed, but it’s not a democracy where majority rule wins.
Creative direction is informed and active. At every step, writer and character creator Nick Park signs off on the work.
Park can—and often does—require re-dos of work, with no pushback allowed. It’s his vision that reigns.
The project has a roadmap—storyboards that sketch out each scene.
Technology is an aid to the process. The documentary showed Park acting out the characters’ scenes on camera so that the animators on his team can copy them as precisely as possible with the clay figurines.
Deadlines are observed. And no day’s work is random for any part of the team. A master progress board shows what happens when. Creativity has to happen on schedule.

Park, I expect, is a pretty demanding boss, leading his team in a demanding undertaking that involves filming the twitches of tiny eyelids. But the documentary also showed him as a very inspiring boss. He spends the days of production walking throughout the studio, talking details with all of his employees. The reviews and corrections of their work seemed to happen one-on-one, in a friendly and mentoring way. I would welcome him giving me some tips on my work as a manager of the content creation process.

Posted By: Britta Waller