PRODUCTION CONSULTING SERVICES

Our production consulting services are designed to help you find the very best value for your production dollars without sacrificing the creative idea or your relationship with your agency partners. 

Madison Media Group brings an experienced and fresh eye to the task at hand and our team is not emotionally involved in the work. This makes it easier for us to make sure nothing has been missed and make sure you are not exposed to risks. We consider risk mitigation the cornerstone of all the work we do for our clients. Risk mitigation in and of itself is a surefire way to save money in the long run. 

Our team has deep roots on Madison Avenue. We have worked on the agency side, the production company side and the client side of production. That means we have walked in the shoes of the various stakeholders at the production table. We speak their language and understand the pressure points that appear as creative goes into production. 

You are reaching out for a production consultant for a reason. We tailor our approach to get you answers that work for you and your team. And whatever you are trying to solve, large scope or project based, we can scale our production consulting services to fit your needs. 

Please see questions and answers below to get a better idea about how we work.

For a more comprehensive conversation with us about our capabilities contact us here.

I have looked at other production consultants, what makes Madison Media Group different?

We work on a retainer basis, not on a percentage of what we save for you in production dollars. We look at production costs holistically.  As a small company, we scale up or down when needed. 

I thought production consultants just vetted my production budgets and reduced my costs that way? What do you mean by holistically?

We call ourselves production consultants not cost consultants because we understand that production is an ecosystem where many people and decisions intersect. We vet production budgets all the time. But it is important to know that if you need to cut costs, efficiencies may not be in the production budget but somewhere else.  Our retainer model works because we aren't invested in taking money out of the production budget. We look at your whole production landscape to find solutions that work for you. 

Can you give me examples of what you are talking about?

• Reviewing creative executions from creative development through post-production. We look at everything from a risk management perspective and make sure nothing is missed, every step of the way. Do-overs are expensive and risk is always better managed ahead of time. 
• Reviewing production budgets to make sure they are right-fitted to the creative execution and your budget. This prevents cost overruns at the backend.
• Negotiating over-scale talent fees and helping you manage union talent concerns, whether you are a signatory to the SAG/AFTRA contract or not. Managing a union talent budget upfront is always fiscally beneficial.
• Training your staff to better understand the complexities of the new production landscape so they can make informed decisions and understand how their decision-making and approval process can affect the budget. 
• Working with your teams to create a fluid process map. This can help eliminate bad habits that may have become a default way of working and could be costing you money.
• Seeking input from you and your team while keeping you informed. We let you know where we may have found cost efficiencies through process changes (i.e. streamlining approvals, guidelines, rate cards, and/or training) and how much we may have saved you in the production bidding process. 

I have hear that a lot of agencies and production companies find production consultants a necessary evil of sorts? Won't implementing process or guidelines slow everything down?

Because we have worked in agencies and production companies, we understand how good and experienced production consultants can help the project move forward.

We have dealt with cost consultants who have been disconnected and viewed the project through a one-size-fits-all lens. They often demand that the production partners "do it this way because I say so." This style of working can gum up your production team with tasks that you pay for in agency fees. 

We see ourselves as partners with you and your agency. Process and guidelines have to work for you and your teams, not against them. 

Do I have to put Madison Media Group on retainer for a year? Or can you do project work for me?

Out retainer model is very flexible and can be custom-fit. We can also work on a per-project basis. 

Is there anything else you want to tell me about Madison Media Group?

We also partner direct-to-client to produce work and manage production business affairs. Please see a description of our services here.