A Day in the Life of a Senior Manager Production Finance at Disney
A day for a Senior Manager, Production Finance at The Walt Disney Company involves acting as a "liaison between the studio and the accountants," handling issues requiring studio intervention, and providing guidance on matters like insurance claims. Currently, due to ongoing strikes, much of the work centers on budgeting and "running different scenarios" to project costs for varying episode orders, working closely with studio partners to determine production plans.
Financial Analysis, Budgeting, Problem-Solving, Communication, Leadership
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Chris Kang
Senior Manager, Production Finance
The Walt Disney Company
University of Arizona, 2013
N/A
Accounting
Arts, Entertainment & Media
Finance
Former Foster Youth, Greek Life Member
Video Highlights
1. The day-to-day tasks involve liaising between the studio and accountants, addressing issues that require studio attention (insurance claims, conflicts), and providing guidance.
2. A significant portion of the work involves accurate cost reporting and tracking, working closely with studio partners on budgeting and financial projections.
3. The workload varies greatly, depending on production activity; during strikes, the focus shifts to budgeting and running scenarios for different production levels (number of episodes, series selection).
Transcript
What does a day in the life of a production finance executive look like?
Similar to the previous question, a lot of it is making sure that costs are reported accurately and tracked. We are basically the liaison between the studio and our accountants.
Our accountants on the ground are handling the ultimate day-to-day operations. They receive the invoices and process payroll. If there are any outstanding issues that require the studio's attention, they bring us in.
We help them figure out who to go to. For example, if there's an insurance claim or a conflict that requires us to step in, we offer guidance. That's basically what I do in a nutshell.
Obviously, right now there's not too much activity due to the ongoing strikes. I'm currently working on a lot of budgeting and running different scenarios.
For instance, I'm calculating the cost per episode if we were to produce a certain number of episodes for a series. We're working closely with our studio partners who make the decisions about how many episodes they want to order or which series to push forward.
So right now, it's a lot of running different scenarios. It ranges widely from helping the on-the-ground staff with day-to-day tasks to running projections and numbers for the higher-ups. Each day is so different, which can be both good and bad.
If you prefer consistency, sometimes your days and weeks are not consistent. Different requests may come your way, requiring you to shift your priorities.
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