Production Management Bootcamp at the 2026 BRIC Summit: Talent + Education Day
On March 29th, I had the pleasure of attending Bric Foundation’s free educational event: their ‘Talent + Education Day’. In a struggling industry, it can feel difficult to find free educational resources – people are, understandably, keen to monetise their skillset however possible. As such, I was delighted to come across BRIC’s brilliant free of charge event covering a diverse range of topics from visual development to video games!
The summit was based in PT time, and as such was quite late for me over here in the UK. The opening talk began at 5pm, and so I only managed to catch the morning classes; however, this was absolutely worth giving up my evening for. What an amazing range of speakers! It was a lovely reminder that the animation industry is full of people who do it for love, and are willing to give up their time to speak at events such as this one. The professionals involved came from all areas of the industry including storytelling, production, animation, and even economics. Many of these people came from areas of the industry that I’ve had limited interaction with, and as such hearing their insight on current topics often provided a new outlook to me.
Discussion of AI at the Opening Keynote, in particular, was fascinating to hear about. Speakers from different areas of the industry had slightly different perspectives, but the overarching consensus was that whilst we are yet to fully see how AI will transform the industry, the prediction is for artists to remain in control of the process. This was encouraging to hear, as whilst production is less influenced by AI art, I have a network full of brilliant, intelligent artists who I want to support however possible.
My main activity of the event was the Production Management Bootcamp ran by award-winning screenwriter and director Melissa Vitello. I came into the session only expecting to listen and take notes, and so was very excited to find out that there were, in fact, multiple spreadsheets for attendees to sink their teeth into.
Not sure anybody other than a producer at heart would be so thrilled by filling out spreadsheets… but that is what I am!
The most interesting aspect of the bootcamp for me was that Melissa comes from a live-action background, and so the activities we completed were based on live-action production. Coming from animation myself, I have rarely had to worry about scheduling shoot days complete with lunch breaks, location changes and cast preparation – the closest I’ve come is organising stop-motion shooting days, but that still doesn’t quite compare. I’m always up for learning about new areas of production, animation related or not, and so I tried to absorb as much of this new knowledge as possible.
One of the sheets I completed as part of the session was a schedule for a live action shoot across 3 days, based on Melissa’s own script. For this I had to consider set up and take down times, but also lunch breaks, locations, what talent were needed on what days, and how to best organise all of this to minimise cost. When getting started on this task, I actually found myself using Allissoon Lockhart’s technique for script breakdowns that she teaches in her How To Animation Production course for creating lead sheets. Whilst in animation the purpose of this is to create clear asset lists and other instructional materials for shipping, I found it to be an effective method of breaking down the important considerations needed in scheduling the shooting days. From this, I got a clear list of shooting locations, members of the cast and how often they appeared, costumes, props, and more. I hadn’t expected to find this crossover, but was very happy when I did!
Since completing the bootcamp, I was given the opportunity to send off my worksheets and an explanation of my workings and now I am waiting to hear back on if I have managed to secure either a Budgeting badge or a Scheduling badge for my LinkedIn profile. Fingers crossed!
I would absolutely recommend next year’s BRIC Summit to anybody considering going, and would particularly encourage people in ‘inconvenient’ time zones to make the effort to go. It is undoubtedly worth it and I am already looking forward to the 2027 session!