SENIOR PRODUCER
Cut is a digital studio. Today, that means we make videos for platforms like Youtube, Facebook, and Snapchat. Tomorrow, we want to be recognized as the home of the next generation of premium entertainment brands. Our goal is to become a fixture in the lives of our audience and a driving force for “complicating” popular culture.
How many Youtube channels do you know that get featured by The Wall Street Journal and TMZ, Marie Claire and Playboy, Hightimes and TED? Cut is a deconstructed entertainment channel that targets self-reflective explorers of curious social realities. The kind of people hungry for content that respects them as smart and isn’t interested in stories that pander or prescribe to them. Sitting at the intersection of media sites like Buzzfeed and Vice, Cut aspires to create the kind of work that is both viral and smart, highly produced and scalable, mainstream and cool. And we’re looking for innovative creators to make us get there.
You know how to make shit. You get more pride from making an incredible video with no money and no time than if you had a million dollars and one year. You know how to work with creatives. You know when to defer to an idea and when to fight one. You eagerly take criticism and never offer excuses for failures. You have zero ego, impeccable taste, and are never satisfied with your successes. Your maturity, vision, humility, curiosity, and enthusiasm is a model for everyone who works with you. An excellent communicator and collaborator you are the easiest person on the team to work with even when you’re saying no. You don’t problem spot, you problem solve.
If this is you, we need to meet you.
The Problem You Are Solving
Excellent videos aren’t made in a vacuum. You are the lynchpin keeping production and content aligned. The Sr Producer is a critical role. It requires a willingness to execute on someone else’s vision, the ability to manage a production team, and the organization to run many projects at one time. But more importantly, you’ll be helping to invent our processes for efficiently scaling our content. Working closely with the Head of Production and the Sr. Editor you’ll be tasked with creating the workflows that allow Cut to make any and everything it wants.
Role and Responsibilities
- At a minimum:
- Build a relationship with all active and inactive contractors and, in doing so, grow our cloud with trusted, reliable contractors
- Hire and manage production team
- Regularly audit producer hours, compare staff utilization vs freelance utilization, and forecast needs for upcoming projects/quarters
- Create and report monthly/quarterly production budgets with Head of Production
- You believe that content can be cheap, fast, and good, and you’re committed to delivering videos that reach Cut’s quality bar
- Increase the amount of productions to fully maximize our space
- You’re going to figure out a way for us to make anything we want without having to hire bajillion full time crew.
- You’ll lead the production of original content/new formats and put processes in place so that the executive and sponsorship teams, can confidently say yes to external requests
- Projects:
- You’ll create and maintain the best practices playbook so that creative directors and producers have guidance on what they can/ can't do in a video
- You’ll improve/automate casting and other processes, grow casting base, create an experience for incoming participants/cast
- You won’t be successful here unless you have:
- Resolve, resourcefulness, and the ability to identify solutions.
- An ability to hierarchize and execute both short-term and longer-term tasks.
- A willingness to communicate obstacles, scheduling issues, and potential conflicts to fellow team members before they become material problems.
- An openness and flexibility around rapidly-changing tasks, roles, and objectives.
- We’d love it if you had:
- A liberal arts degree
- 3+ years of creative, production, or professional writing experience
- An intuitive sense for storytelling
- Emotional resilience in the face of seemingly overwhelming obstacles
- Energized by the unruly, urgent, and relentless work demands of a startup environment
- Excellent written and oral communication skills
- Excellent time/project management skills
- A strong foundation in and understanding of video production, the inner-workings of creative agencies, and Internet culture
Note: Cut is a startup. Which means we have infinite problems and a finite amount of resources. Every position must be critical to our ability to grow. Which means every person we hire is an integral part of our ability to be successful. We are small. That means you’ll have a massive impact on the culture we are building. We aren’t precious about processes or plans, but we are protective of our high performance culture. If you don’t like to be constantly challenged, if you’d prefer to be directed at all times, or you need a strict 9 to 5 schedule, you will not succeed here.
Being in a startup means we don’t always know exactly what we want. However, we know that we need people who are fastidious, methodical, passionate, creative, critical, and cool to work with. So, even if you don’t seem like a perfect fit on paper, reach out, you never know.
This position reports to the Head of Production organizationally and to the Creative Director functionally.
Cut is an equal opportunity employer.