Showrunners - Training Gaps Analysis - Cultural Human Resources ...

Showrunners Training Gap Analysis
Everyone referred to the drain of potential Showrunner talent to the U.S., where there is more
opportunity, more money and the possibility of more creative control.
The corollary to the problem of retention of talent is lack of a training ground. With few
Showrunners, hit series are few, as are mentors. The consensus is that there are probably no more
than 25 or 30 qualified Showrunners in Canada. Possibly half of these are inexperienced,
therefore not fully trained; and many are mature participants in the industry who may soon
choose to become less active. It can therefore be assumed that we need to develop a pool of new
entrants.
In Québec, many of the interviewees are in favor of the presence of a Showrunner on productions,
although some approach the idea rather cautiously. However, all agree that there is a need to
marry the artistic with the business professional profiles.
In order to develop a framework for training a pool of Showrunner talent, it is helpful to
understand which competencies are at the core of the role. Interviewees identified three broad
core competency areas in the Showrunner role:
1. Writing
2. Translating writing into the visual medium of television
3. Organizational management
In addition, whoever is entrusted with the vision of a series –no matter what their official title,
Showrunner, producer, director, or head writer – must have a natural predisposition towards
storytelling, with all the cultural references and aesthetic understanding entailed.
Showrunners start with writing as a primary competency. As many interviewees emphasized,
there is a gigantic leap from being a writer to being a Showrunner responsible for spending a
production budget of up to $1.5 million every seven days. The Showrunner has to have
managerial savvy and experience as in any organization, be able to communicate a vision to the
rest of the staff, and hire the right personnel for the vision. A Showrunner is not simply a
manager. He or she is a leader. At the heart of the role of Showrunner is the capacity to work with
others: the personal and interpersonal skills that relate to communications, decisiveness, strategy
and relationship-building that are essential to leadership.
In addition to the above mentioned core areas, interviewees emphasized a variety of other
competencies as important, including the ability to:
• Generate and develop the idea
• Supervise on-set production
• Manage budget and schedule
• Supervise post-production
• Understand new production technologies
• Assist with distribution and exploitation
Training Offerings
On-the-Job Training: All Showrunners working today learned their role on-the-job. Without
exception, the interviewees emphasized that Showrunners must continue to have significant onthe-job
experience as an absolutely key component of training.
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Deborah Carver and Benoit Dubois, January 2009