Production Efficiency & Studio Move Consultant

Changing Lives Productions LLC•Burbank, CA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

Dhar Mann Studios is undergoing a significant operational transition, moving to a new, larger studio facility in the San Fernando Valley. This role is crucial for ensuring this move enhances operational efficiency and supports the next era of high-volume scripted content production. The goal is to design a cost-effective, high-output studio capable of dramatically faster production cycles, potentially even 1-day scripted episode shoots, while maintaining high creative standards. The consultant will evaluate the new 145,000 sq. ft. facility, including 5 soundstages, and recommend the optimal operating model. This involves deciding what to reuse, rebuild, eliminate, pre-rig, and what technologies and workflows need to change to avoid multiplying waste and instead unlock step-function efficiency. The role focuses on expert diagnosis and strategic recommendations, distinct from day-to-day project management.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in studio operations, physical production, production consulting, production efficiency, scripted content operations, studio buildouts, or high-volume media operations.
Proven experience building, running, optimizing, or consulting for a high-output content studio, production company, creator studio, broadcast operation, or scripted production environment.
Strong practical judgment around low-budget, high-volume production, not just premium TV, film, or commercial production.
Deep understanding of the full production lifecycle, including pre-production, production, art, sets, props, wardrobe, hair/makeup, camera, lighting, sound, facilities, scheduling, and post-production handoffs.
Experience improving production throughput, reducing waste, simplifying workflows, and designing repeatable operating systems.
Ability to evaluate physical spaces and translate them into efficient production, office, storage, and department layouts.
Strong understanding of standing sets, stage planning, production design, lighting grids, technical infrastructure, equipment workflows, and crew movement.
Familiarity with virtual production, green screen, LED volume, AI production tools, game engines, and emerging production technology with the judgment to know when they are useful versus expensive distractions.
Strong budgeting instincts and the ability to separate nice-to-have ideas from investments that actually move the business.
Excellent cross-functional communication skills and the ability to work with executives, department heads, creatives, operators, vendors, and crew.
Direct, decisive, low-ego communication style with the confidence to push back when the current plan is expensive, impractical, or operationally weak.
Strong documentation skills, including roadmaps, scopes, layouts, operating plans, SOPs, cost-benefit analyses, and executive summaries.
Willingness to be on-site regularly in Los Angeles throughout the planning and execution process.

Responsibilities

Audit the current production operation across stages, homes, standing sets, props, wardrobe, art, lighting, camera, sound, facilities, storage, offices, and crew flow.
Establish current production baselines and future KPIs, including shoot days per episode, reset time, stage utilization, cost per finished minute, crew flow, and bottlenecks.
Evaluate the new facility and recommend how stages, offices, production spaces, storage areas, department zones, shared infrastructure, and crew pathways should be configured.
Identify which current sets, assets, equipment, workflows, and infrastructure should be reused, modified, rebuilt, retired, or replaced.
Assess whether virtual production, green screen, LED walls, AI tools, game engines, pre-lighting, pre-rigging, or other emerging technologies could realistically make DMS faster, cheaper, or more creatively flexible.
Recommend stage layouts, standing set strategies, modular set systems, swing sets, redress systems, storage approaches, lighting infrastructure, camera packages, sound workflows, and other practical production improvements.
Help leadership understand the tradeoffs between speed, quality, cost, flexibility, culture, safety, and capital investment.
Build a capital spend/ROI framework so every major investment is tied to measurable efficiency, quality, or cost savings.
Pressure-test new technology, processes, and operating modes through practical pilots before major spend.
Partner with production, art, wardrobe, hair/makeup, props, facilities, booking, finance, post, creative, and executive leadership to understand current pain points and future needs.
Challenge existing processes that may be comfortable but inefficient, especially where the move creates a chance to rebuild the system correctly.
Translate recommendations into clear operating plans, diagrams, vendor scope recommendations, staffing implications, budget logic, decision frameworks, and implementation guidance for the Project Manager and internal teams.
Identify ways the art department can create many distinct looks without adding unnecessary complexity, cost, or reset time.
Support vendor evaluation, contractor conversations, equipment planning, and buildout prioritization where your expertise is needed.
Create the strategic documentation, operating principles, and handoff materials required for internal teams to execute and sustain the new operating model.