Producing Tomorrow's Producers: The Academy Way with Simon Cooper

Simon Cooper joined Academy Films in 1987, two years after it was set up. In just under 40 years in the industry, Simon has played a key role in the development of some of the industry's most famous names, including Jonathan Glazer, Frederic Planchon and Seb Edwards, all of whom started their careers (and remain) at Academy.

Having produced some of advertising’s most iconic moments, including a young couple careering through solid walls in Levis; a tower block exploding in a cacophony of painted Sony colour and ice-skating priests rescuing bottles of Stella, he continues, with partner Medb Riordan, to launch and nurture the directing stars of the future whilst maintaining the exacting creative and production standards for which Academy is famous.

Simon also sits on the APA council and is current Chairman of the British Arrows and Young Arrows Awards.

LBB> What advice would you give to any aspiring producers or content creators hoping to make the jump into production?

Simon> Do it. Make stuff. Help others make stuff. Help out in production teams on anything. The challenges for producers, old or new school are universal - being resourceful, solving problems, making the most use of the time and the resources at your disposal...

LBB> What skills or emerging areas would you advise aspiring producers to learn about and educate themselves about?

Simon> 'Emerging areas’. That feels like a very AI-loaded question.

Yes understand the potential benefits that each new iteration of AI might provide, understand the camera tools and lighting equipment at your disposal, understand as much as you can about the different layers of the post process, of sound design….the list goes on, ideally you need to understand everything, but in the meantime, the most important skill is knowing who to ask.

A producer’s greatest skill is surrounding themself with the best people possible for the job.

LBB> What was the biggest lesson you learned when you were starting out in production - and why has that stayed with you?

Simon> As above. Work with the best people you can convince to work with you. People who will make you look better. 

Think about every thing that could possibly go wrong and make you look bad and do your best to prevent any of them happening. 

And if they do, don’t panic. That never helps. Deal with what is in front of you. A cool head and a low heart rate will resolve most issues. 

LBB> When it comes to broadening access to production and improving diversity and inclusion what are your team doing to address this?

Simon> Academy partners with the amazing Ghetto Film School. We try and recruit through them whenever permanent positions come up, we use them for office runner cover and we have one of their students on all of our London shoots. In addition our senior staff mentor students and give regular talks to various film schools.

We also sponsor, and I am current chairman of the incredible Young Arrows Awards which are free to enter and provide encouragement and recognition to young talent from all backgrounds across all disciplines of the UK advertising industry. 

LBB> And why is it an important issue for the production community to address?

Simon> Well apart from the obvious moral imperative of increasing diversity in our overwhelmingly white male industry, simply from a survivalist point of view, diversity of outlook, of opinion, of experience are what keeps our output relevant and evolving. We desperately need diverse voices to stop our industry stagnating into irrelevance.

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?

Simon> As I said above, I think the challenges of production are universal, whether you are dealing with a unit of 100 crew and 300 extras and all of the plant and budget that that entails, or shooting on the fly with an iPhone and gimble. It is still about using your resources in the most effective way possible and delivering something that satisfies the demands and expectations of everyone involved. 

LBB> If you compare your role to the role of 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?)

Simon> Well there were no such things when I started out. The industry was still unionised, you had to get a job to apply for your union ticket but couldn't get the job without one. It was a closed shop. 

I think the role of executive producer has grown out of the changing power balance in the process. Everyone is answerable to, and scared of, the client’s opinion so there is a much greater need for the management of personalities and politics involved. That role was never necessary when I started out because clients trusted their agencies and the agencies trusted their production partners to deliver what was agreed. It was infinitely simpler and happier. And frankly the results were 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?)

Simon> Academy has an absolutely unrivalled record of training production personnel over our 40 years at the front of the industry. Smuggler, Somesuch, Biscuit, Object &Animal, Rogue, Art Practice all have senior managers or owners who learned their craft at Academy. I suspect that they would all say that their training here set them up for success in the industry and I’m immensely proud of Academy’s legacy in that sense.

We have a bigger production department than most so we can train internally on the job. Our runners become our PA’s who become our PM's who become our producers, each level trained by the one above through direct experience and careful nurturing in terms of who is placed with who, on what jobs, and always with a clear eye on learning to do things properly in an Academy way. 

You simply can’t do that if you are assembling teams of freelancers for each job. 

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?

Simon> Craft is everything whatever the demands of volume and speed. Whatever the approach and the time and tools available, the aim should always be to maximise the craft. You don’t have to learn to appreciate that. Good content providers of any persuasion should want that or they will have very short careers. 

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?

Simon> That’s such a reductive question. Producers’ expertise transcends changing production demands and approaches. Producers are problem solvers. Give them a set of parameters within which to work and they will find a route to the gold if they are motivated to. As long as the aims are still the same - to make the best work possible. Age has nothing to do with that.

LBB> Clearly there is so much change, but what are the personality traits and skills that will always be in demand from producers?

Simon> As above. Seeing the challenge in whatever parameters are put before you and finding the best route to the best work.