Ten Ways Bees Are Like Freelance TV Producers

For the last 2 years I've been a suburban beekeeper, meaning I have a bee hive on my front 2nd floor porch.  Many beekeepers will tell you (with wide eyes) that we are "inspired" and "totally respect" our honey bees as we watch them work and evolve the hive over a season.

Honey Bees 101.  All worker bees are female.  Male bees are only good for one thing, to assist in the act of pro-creating, then they die.  (a little more dramatic than this, you get the point).  Otherwise males do nothing.  (Which I thought was hysterical).  

Dreamworks "Bee Movie" had this all wrong, male vs. female, and ticked off many bee positive activists and educators.  The movie portrayed the "worker bees" as all males.....wrong info...But that's another story.
(see the Bee Movie trailer by going to>   http://tr.im/cjc3  )

Top ways Beekeeping and Bees are Like Freelance Producing

10.  Bee hives must continually produce new members (aka metaphorically > new ideas) to survive as a bee's life in the warm months is only 6-8 weeks and then they die.   As producers must regularly reinvent ourselves and come up with new creative ideas or die.

9.  Bees work their way up the hive ladder from intern as housekeeper (days 1-3), then work in the nursery (days 4-12) and eventually step out of the hive and work the flowers, etc (days 22 to 42 +).  Much like the system of becoming a producer.  Intern, production secretary, PA, AP, field producer, producer, series producer, EP, etc.

8. Bees are workaholics and have a very strong work ethic.  I know all us producers aren't addicted to our jobs but we know when it's time to make the donuts we do.  And many of us producers have a strong work ethic as part of our DNA.  (In my experience a trait not as strong in the new generation of interns/PAs coming out of  schools).

7.  Bees are deeply committed to their role and goals.  In order for a hive to survive with up to 60,000 bees at its height of summer and foraging, there must be order.  The queen bee (executive producer or VP of production/programming) lays the eggs, the worker bees nurture and feed these eggs, and take on various roles depending on how many days old they are, for example one job is fanning the hive, literally standing in a line and waving your wings to create circulation and cooling.  Reminds me when I PA'd on a feature with Liam Neeson and Merly Streep and stood watching a lighting/grip truck for 4 hours.

6.  Bees understand they must depend on each other to survive and thrive.  Much like we network and refer jobs to each other and reciprocate.  Bees share honey and information about the best spots to get the sweetest nectar, etc.  People who have never freelanced don't understand how this works.  Freelancers who thrive know the ebb and flow of work and live the community concept of one hand washes the other.

5.  A bee hive is much like the creative process, chaos before clarity.  If you look at a young hive in May.  The bees are disoriented and sluggish.  By June the bees ramp up, have a 3 mile radius mapped out and get into a rhythm, queen lays 1k-1.5 k eggs per day, hive literally hums to 60,000 bees strong and honey flows.  Like us producers getting on a new project.  Lots of information to get our arms around at the start, then we make a plan, hire our team, gel, prep, and rock the house by bringing home the golden nuggets and stories.

4. Must be awake while beekeeping (and producing) or else, STING. Ouch!! When bees are happy they hum in the perfect key of "A."  When they are not they let you know by sound then action.  One mistake then you get stung.   The business of producing is much like this, unforgiving.  That's why we must have our saws sharpened.  TV has become very formulaic and many times afraid of trying new things.  On the other hand the web, namely youtube has opened the door to lots of experimentation.  The new google generation leads the way in this realm.  Very exciting!

3. Bees, like producers, face real environmental threats and uncertainty. The vanishing bees situation as talked about on mass media is scary.  Check out this 60 minutes story if your interested > http://tr.im/cjnj

Many producers (staffers and indie alike) are scratching their heads and wondering if their jobs will be there, will new gigs be coming, etc. as these odd worldwide economic times are upon us.

I believe us freelance producers must use this rich time to learn a new skill or two or three.  Threats to the quality of TV and our craft is real and eroding.  Budgets are slimming.  All this is true.  But we are creative and we'll need to use this energy to think and do business in new ways.  And think what are we best at and how can we collaborate by bringing the best parts of others to the same table.  Sum of our parts.

2.  A healthy honey bee hive is actually an ever changing, thriving democracy of creativity.  The worker bees can literally force the birth of a new queen.  They choose to do so when their sense of the queen is weakening, sick, not doing her job correctly.  Their survival depends on a healthy leader, the queen bee.  Sometimes the female worker bees will force a few queens to be born (feeding royal jelly etc. to eggs) and then two queens will duke it out.  Survival of the fittest.  Metaphorically..... creative, savvy, experienced on many genres, seasoned producers are changing the way TV is being produced and watched.  Experimentation is alive and well in new media.  And more and more I see indie producers birthing and trying new ideas.  As a VP from a major network recently commented on the side to me.... that someday soon his job will be be obsolete.   The web, ipod, iphone, google, twitter are all changing the ways we do business and choose and consume media.  But what and how will TV and media change?  It's changing right before our eyes.

1. Payoff of beekeeping is the honey.  We all know what it's like to produce a story we feel really great about.  The story or episode that had depth, was well crafted and shot,  meaningful,traveled to an exotic location, crew worked together like butter and the project came in on or under budget.  Win, win, win.  Bees work literally to death to produce one thing....honey.  This is what drives them.  And us.

Feel free to send me your comments, questions, ideas.....

Grazie tanto!

Alan C. Grazioso

indie producer, editor, consultant
Boston, MA USA
alan@alangrazioso.com
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