Producing Tomorrow's Producers: Why Diversity of Experience is Key for Michael Lenic
Michael Lenic leads a dynamic team of producers at PXP dedicated to healthcare corporate branding’s creative campaign origination needs. His primary responsibilities encompass servicing healthcare corporate branding production needs, managing/training a team of talented producers, and operationalising production workflows to work best for his team and the creative ambitions of his clients. Michael's role is pivotal in ensuring that the creative vision for healthcare branding is consistently realised through effective and innovative production strategies.
Originally from Vancouver, BC, Michael's career in production began early with television production while on summer breaks from high school, followed by studies in acting and film. His academic pursuits in theatre and film at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and further mastery in film directing and cinematography at City College (CUNY) in New York, NY, laid the foundation for a diverse career.
He has been honoured with the 2011 DGA Student Film Award and Kodak Best Student Cinematographer Award, alongside being a pivotal part of the team behind Lockheed Martin’s Bus To Mars, which won the Cannes Titanium award in 2015. His creative influence is evident in high-profile projects like the Samsung campaign featuring Rihanna with 72andSunny NY and the commemorative Stonewall Forever project for the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and birth of modern day Pride with Google Creative Lab.
LBB> What advice would you give to any aspiring producers or content creators hoping to make the jump into production?
Michael> Production is inherently a tough business to crack, as it is a skill set honed over time through experience. The more you produce, the better you become, or the better you are at solving the problems of the project.
I believe that aspiring producers should diversify their experiences on different types of projects, whether it’s vendor, agency, or client-side, or even in different disciplines; finding opportunities outside your comfort zone will only make you smarter, more proficient in the skill set, and more empathetic to the collective experience of creative production.
LBB> What skills or emerging areas would you advise aspiring producers to learn about and educate themselves about?
Michael> I know AI is the easiest answer here, as it's important to understand where we are going with the future. There are some amazing technologies that are moving creative execution forward; however, to what end is a question that keeps rattling around in my head.
I’m personally super inspired by LED screen technology; it’s mind-boggling what that will do to the future of film production, the worlds it will produce, and the ease of being anywhere. I can see AI and LED tech becoming a bit of a nexus of new tech; the combination could be limitless.
But I'm of the mind that the most important skill to learn is how to be flexible and understand your partners and the creative execution workflow in multiple mediums. Experience in creative crafting goes longer and harder at how to be a better producer even as it adapts with new technologies. So when you are faced with a project that requires AI, you understand the creative steps to make great work – which I hope never changes – and you adapt with it.
LBB> What was the biggest lesson you learned when you were starting out in production - and why has that stayed with you?
Michael> I started in production as a teenager, working on television and film in Vancouver, BC. I learned the fine art of picking up cigarette butts on locations. It wasn’t the most glamorous job: me in my rain gear with a dustbin and broom. But it gave me the ability to watch film sets, watch the craft, watch what everyone does, and most importantly, watch how they communicate with each other to work together.
That specific experience stayed with me as I ventured into short film production, commercial line production, and actually shows up even more now as an agency producer, internally and externally.
LBB> When it comes to broadening access to production and improving diversity and inclusion, what are your team doing to address this?
Michael> I am a big believer in new talent, in diverse talent, in talent that has a different way of thinking. This business becomes stagnant very quickly, and it is on the production community to foster diversity and inclusion, as it only makes this work better, broader, and opens so many different creative opportunities for everyone.
It is a challenge for creative production to find different solutions alongside the tried and tested solutions. A common theme in my career advice is diversification, and it similarly applies to broadening access. Whether it’s diversity of experiences, diversity of differing creative executions, or diversity of the team you build of younger producers, all of these culminate in a broader understanding of creativity and humanity, which isn’t that what this business is about?
I will always push my production and creative teams to find someone new, find new talent that you would be interested in their POV as an alternative way into the creative. It gives everyone another way into the creative and more importantly, gives that new talent the experience of pitching against the work.
LBB> And why is it an important issue for the production community to address?
Michael> Stagnation equals death. If the production community can't find new solutions to beat the solutions from yesterday, this work is no longer interesting. Diversifying rosters, diversifying production teams, diversifying interests, and particularly creative making keeps the trajectory of creativity moving upward, which is so important to me as a creative producer.
The production community has come a long way in the past four years, and it’s only making the creative pool better to pull from. But I think we have a lot more work to do. It is on the community to bring that talent into bid pools, in front of creative and strategic leaders, and continue to present alternatives to the ones we're so used to, to create a new standard. The more all of us are exposed to different experiences and different ways of thinking, the better the creative work as a whole becomes.
LBB> There are young people getting into production who maybe don’t see the line between professional production and the creator economy, and that may well also be the shape of things to come. What are your thoughts about that? Is there a tension between more formalised production and the 'creator economy' or do the two feed into each other?
Michael> As a professional in production, I have mixed feelings about the creator economy. I appreciate the nimbleness of it, but have a tough time taking it seriously, which I know, is not the most evolved way of thinking. But case in point, there is a tension between the formal and the casual. With the way advertising is going, we’re always going to need multiple ways to create, so I see it as an opportunity to find middle ground between the two.
LBB> If you compare your role to the role of the heads of TV/heads of production/executive producers when you first joined the industry, what do you think are the most striking or interesting changes (and what surprising things have stayed the same?)
Michael> The talent pool has gotten so much more interesting from top to bottom in all departments. A product of inspiring a new generation to find new ways of doing, of storytelling, of producing, of managing, of making money, of hiring, and most importantly of honing their craft.
I think if you compare the craft of production twenty years ago to now, it has completely changed. We all work differently these days, technology has become a major boon to problem-solving. What has stayed the same is our collective goal of bettering the creative work, honouring good creative work, and the curiosity of new talent. It’s heartening to know that within multiple generations the business continues to strive to be better.
LBB> When it comes to educating producers how does your agency like to approach this? (I know we’re always hearing about how much easier it is to educate or train oneself on tech etc, but what areas do you think producers can benefit from more directed or structured training?)
Michael> At PXP, we take educating our producers very seriously. For a long time, due to the pandemic, agencies stopped educating the younger generation on new technologies due to the adoption of digital meetings; it became terribly uninspiring. But it is important to bring those experiences back into the forefront and prioritise them, and in my opinion, we need to have a different point of view on inspiration when starting them back up again.
At PXP, we have a couple of training programs. One being a Production University that happens once a month for the entire PXP brand production department. Executive producers lead presentations about how to creatively produce, touching on kicking off a project, directors and production companies, bidding a job, SAG talent, music production, and social, to name a few.
And the second is an agency-wide screening program for all production, creatives, and strategy employees. The goal now is to not just bring a roster of talent to showcase but to bring new ways of thinking to showcase, inclusive of new technology, new ways to solve problems. Diversity of thinking produces stronger creative producers.
LBB> It seems that there’s an emphasis on speed and volume when it comes to content - but to where is the space for up and coming producers to learn about (and learn to appreciate) craft?
Michael> I think up and coming producers need a community. Alone on an island does not produce a well-rounded producer. And alone, churning out content at break-neck speeds and volumes is not inspiring. In my opinion, it’s on production leaders to create a community of support and inspiration by way of department-wide screenings, trainings, outings, war story trading, reviewing work, inspiration trading, and allowing questions to be asked from top to bottom and bottom to top.
Production leaders need to think about what gave us the skillset of where we are and promote those practices in the younger generation. Sure, it needs to adapt due to the marketplace but also the older generation needs to look to the younger and help them by creating a community rich in experience.
LBB> On the other side of the equation, what’s the key to retaining expertise and helping people who have been working in production for decades to develop new skills?
Michael> I think the trading of experiences works both ways. Now more than ever it’s on the older generation to understand the younger generation in order to survive. The ways of yesterday don’t work as well as they used to today. So in the same sense, creating a community rich with production experiences is important for all parties.
If we all speak the language of creative production, it is not that big of a reach for the older generation to understand the younger generation and vice versa. It’s on production leaders creating a community of talent, to retain old and young talent alike.
LBB> Clearly, there is so much change, but what are the personality traits and skills that will always be in demand from producers?
Michael> I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a diverse swath of producers from TV and film, to studio heads, to theatre, to production companies, to advertising agencies. Met some real gems and some real Debbie downers over the years.
The best producers always have a good sense of humour.
Production is tireless and if you cannot laugh at yourself, the process, the swirls - it’s torture. They are honest. Games are not worth it in the long run, trust is one of the most important caches a producer can cultivate. And most importantly, they are empathetic: a product of diverse experiences – or willingness for diverse experiences – and always striving to find new ways to solve problems from multiple points of view.
