there’s a lot of ‘biz speak that goes on in the film industry. some of it’s necessary, some of it isn’t, but nevertheless if you don’t speak the lingo you ain’t gonna earn the trust. I spent about 60% of the time in my first TV job not having a clue what people were barking at me. however, this was when I was a lowly production secretary aged 18, so it was acceptable. people aren’t going to be so lenient if a producer looks blank when confronted with terms such as ‘pilot’, ‘above the line’, ‘EP scheduling’, or ‘BECTU’. they will start to look particularly worried if you blithely ask if Soho House is a chinese takeaway, mispronounce Verve Clicquot, or fail to verbally thrash the runner when they produce a black coffee for the lead cast member rather than the requested double-ristretto-venti-nonfat-frappuccino.
and if you ever let slip to anyone that you don’t know what the producer’s tax credit is, you’ve lost them forever.
instead, read the lingo definitions I’ll be posting up regularly. you can thank me later, when you’re accepting weekly lunch invites to The Ivy, simultaneously chatting about the latest article in Variety magazine while tweeting via your blackberry to multiple members of the Allen household.
the producer experiment 