032 - Hack - Ways To Avoid Too Many Cooks

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So welcome back to Behind the Pixel. This is the Open Pixel podcast where we try to bridge the knowledge gap between those who buy creative content and those who make it. My name is Will. My name is Kathryn. This episode looks a lot different. That's because we're on the road. So if you watch our podcast on YouTube or on LinkedIn anywhere, any one of our clips on LinkedIn or Instagram or where are we?

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Do we? Those are those are the places. We post on Facebook as well. Yeah. So if you're watching any one of these, it's because we're on the road. We're in Atlanta, Georgia. We won't be here for long. So by the time you watch this and see this, we might not be there anymore, but most likely not. Yeah, we're having a lovely time.

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We are working still from home and trying to figure out how to do this podcast on the road. Okay, so let's get to the hack. So first, so this hack is titled Ways to Avoid Too Many Cooks and so many cooks Too many cooks.... Yes, that's a good that's... Too Many Cooks... For those who know, you'll know.

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It's amazing. Okay. look that up online. So first, maybe let's define what it means to have too many cooks in an animation production. So when you have too many cooks, typically you have many people involved in the production process on both sides. We've talked about this before, having multiple layers of clients, and they all need to contribute and collaborate together to get a production done on time.

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But too many cooks in a production kitchen actually hinder the efficiency of getting the project out the door. We see this challenge most heavily when we're reviewing feedback. Yeah, and sometimes we discover notes or feedback that are self conflicts. And this can happen at any stage of production, but it basically means that the feedback comes in from the same organization or client, but typically from two or more distinct individuals who represent that organization.

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And that feedback is is basically conflicting in creative directions. Yeah, I think it'd be helpful to maybe have some examples of what that looks like. Yeah. So here's a very simple example would be Bob from Company X. Bob wants his bouncing ball to be green, but Sally, his colleague, wants the ball to be red. That's pretty simple. Those are pretty clear notes.

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But yeah, they're in conflict. One, one is red, one is green. A more complex and probably a more realistic example would be Bob from Company X feels like this scene fell flat overall and we missed the idea we were originally trying to get across with the ball. Okay. However, Sally feels like the scene does justice to the ball and fits well within the larger context of the story.

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So how do you deal with this is also super in conflict, but it's a much harder problem to solve, which makes sense because art is subjective. So it is. So now the creators become unsure of which note to act on and how which can lead to further complications and time delays and conflicts if things like this continue to arise.

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That's very true. I mean, it can be frustrating and it's a question of like I feel like as a creative, I sometimes am like, okay, I'm not really sure. I don't want to tell one person that they're right or wrong because it is a subjective statement. So there's there's got to be a better way for for us to also be able to give them a sense of how to string that conversation together.

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Yeah. So let's talk about how to avoid this altogether before you even start a production that feels like a good plan. Number one, avoid commenting for just the sake of commenting. This is a big one. It's probably top of my list. I've seen that happen over so many productions over so many years. It's not to say that it's anything wrong.

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Like so many of us can feel like we need to say something to feel like we're providing some kind of value. Right. Yes, that's true. But putting in a comment, just because you were asked to review something actually can do more harm than good. It could. It can change the scope, the schedule or completion date of the project, especially when you already know it will conflict with someone else's notes.

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Right. And that's like a sneaky way to like and honestly a pretty shitty way to to prolong a project. Make it all right. I would also note, though, that, you know, that's probably not your intention. It's just kind of the result of what happens as a result. Yeah, exactly. And remember that just because your expertise in your role might not be required at this stage, that doesn't mean that your role doesn't have any value, obviously.

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Right. Value in other ways. But it should actually speak to your value that you don't have extra notes to contribute because you helped lead the direction to a place where the deliverable was nailed down in the first round, which is a beautiful thing you love to see. When that happens, it's it's a great day. Yeah, no, it is.

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So yeah, I agree with that I think don't take it as a feeling of I didn't have anything to contribute and therefore I'm, you know, somebody's going to fire me. That is not the case. You're actually doing your job in more ways than you could ever imagine. Which brings us to number two. So we suggest assigning one person to consolidate notes and basically become like a feedback supervisor.

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That's not a real term, but this is sort of similar to something called a script supervisor on a larger production. So we've also seen a project manager be the one to take on this role. So depending on your organization and your structure, that might lend itself. Yeah, it's like a quality assurance person, right? Yeah. So this can either be on the production, the creative side or the marketing side, the client side.

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Either entity can assign someone just to make sure everyone knows who to send the notes to. This is one person's going to consolidate. So this person usually would flag any notes that are in self conflict, right with each other. They'd catch any discrepancies before they send notes to the production team or creative agency, and then they can resolve those conflicting feedback notes before giving it to the animation team, which will save you so much time in production.

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Because that is true. It's all about those savings. Right. So number three, this is a hack. Have to go relatively quickly here. Try to contain your notes in one system of delivery. That's actually kind of hard these days because there are so many ways to give you feedback and so many ways to communicate. It's actually pretty hard. And, you know, forcing one system or feedback tool on a group of people can feel super constricting.

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However, on the creative side, the benefit is that the artists want one place to find the feedback that they all need. So we suggest asking your team how they each prefer to give feedback and see if one or two solutions can help limit the differences in their preferences, right? So if you can't limit the tools, then have that consolidator person, that feedback supervisor role also put all the notes together in one location after they've been received.

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So you can send that consolidation to the animation team. It will still accomplish the goal of artists being able to see things in one place and people being able to see to give the feedback in the way that they need as long as it's consolidated and and we're good to go on our side. Exactly. Okay. So having one tool helps you to see where there is conflicting feedback.

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It's kind of like a a compass within the project and that is super helpful. But doesn't actually get to the why. Why, why? Yeah, well, I agree with you. I think it's I think it's worth then maybe asking the question here, like what should you really do to kind of avoid that sort of too many cooks situation in conflicting feedback?

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How do you deal with this process? The top most tip is really to make your feedback clear and actionable. So what is actionable feedback? Actionable feedback clearly states to the creative team what to exactly do and makes both the changes clear and what the result of those changes should be. Also clear, right? So even if you don't know exactly how the change will occur, you're still giving us the creative team a sense of what exactly you want.

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The results to be. So that's a little hard to explain if there are no examples. So here are a few actionable feedback examples. Please make the dance overall slightly faster so that the mammoth hits its mark on the downbeat of the soundtrack. This is real feedback, by the way. That is true. That is real feedback but does make sense.

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Slow down yet. Speed up, slow down for the result to happen. Right. So here's another piece of feedback. His hand looks a little phallic when it's in this specific pose. Can we change this specific pose so that it doesn't look like that during the animation? Also a real piece of feedback. That is true. That is true. You know, don't be don't be shy.

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If like you know if you're only description is might sound a little Nazi for work at times. It's okay. We understood how it totally happens. Yeah. Here's one last one. These pens and pencils are great. Can we add two or more writing utensil varieties to increase the sense of diversity? So in each of these examples, we're saying what happens as a result of the change?

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So it hits, you know, the mammoth hits its mark on the downbeat of this soundtrack. In the second example, it doesn't look so phallic during the animation. That's pretty straightforward one, but increase the sense of diversity. So you're trying to give us a sense of what you want the result to be, because that your suggestion might not actually be the thing that we want to do to get that result.

00;10;26;06 - 00;10;46;03
And I think that's, yeah, you know, creative challenge then. Yeah. And to kind of quickly go back to your point earlier, the earlier example that was like, you know, someone wants to make it read and somebody wants to make it green. If in those comments they also provided the reasoning for why they wanted to change it other than just like a gut feeling, you know what I mean?

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Like then that would help to also justify the direction with which to go or the person you know, they'll have to talk it out. But like having the reasoning behind will also just make it easier to resolve any of those conflicts that come about right. Make the ball red because of this resolution. So. Right, right. Because that the ball is actually evil and it's trying to kill you in the scene.

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Yeah, could be anything because kind of it's too happy. I don't know. Something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's all sorts of reasons. But keep in mind that your reasoning for a change should always tie back to the end goal of the piece, right? Yes. And I think that's it. That's all we have in terms of tips. This is a short hack.

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032 - Hack - Ways To Avoid Too Many Cooks
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