It’s a cycling analogy today. I have recently been cycling into our lovely Mooshku studio to make some wonderful things for kids. Cycling is is a great way to travel but it’s not without its obstacles in Dublin city. One of those is a particular cyclist on my route.

When everyone is waiting at red lights (there are actually some cyclists who stop at red lights in Dublin… a few of us), this cyclist moves past everyone and goes to the front. Jumping the queue. Now there is an etiquette question there but that’s not the real issue. The issue is that this cyclist is a REALLY SLOW cyclist.

So this cyclist jumps to the top of the pack and, once that light goes green, every other cyclist is hampered by her lack of speed. They have to find safe places to pass, which isn’t easy in Dublin. And then it happens all over again if you’re unlucky enough to land at the same set of lights again. This cyclist gets in the way of other cyclists and becomes an obstacle in the journey we’re all taking.

So two things here relate to production and they both come from the basic reality that everything has an order in production.

1) Know the optimum order of events. There is usually a very clear set of steps in any production and they have to happen in the correct order. Find out what depends on the elements you are supplying. Who are they critical to? There may be opportunities to skip ahead but you might gain nothing doing so. You might even build in more problems to solve. So know your order. Unlike that cyclist jumping ahead and gaining nothing, assess the production equivalent of the cyclists around you and find that optimum order and try to stick to it.

2) Once you know your place in that order, keep the pace. Don’t slow down. Don’t delay the other processes coming behind you. They shouldn’t ever need to pass you. You must keep up with the schedule. Everything behind you depends on it. Don’t be late.

There are too many stages to animation production, too many potential logjams, to let one part of it break the whole production or put too much stress on everyone else trying to keep to the schedule. Be aware of the order and keep the pace.