How to Build Your Dream Team for Development

People often think it’s risky to get into development. They’re partially right. The truth is that it’s a lot easier when you have the right people on your team.

Inspired by last week’s Oscars, I want to lay out who you will need on board to either get started in real estate development or maybe just build your dream home by using movie making as an analogy. The developer is the equivalent of the producer of a film. They’re in charge of putting the following pieces together and much more to execute on a complex project.

SCRIPT

A script or screenplay includes the movements, actions, and dialogues the characters are supposed to follow. In real estate development, the screenwriter is your architect and the script is your blueprint. The architect will craft detailed construction documents and design documents that act as the script to instruct the rest of the team. You can then also think of the elevations and renderings as the story board that gets formed from the script.

DIRECTOR

Other than the script, the other big piece of the puzzle is the director. The director gives directions to the crew and actors to turn the script into a visual representation. The equivalent of this in development is your general contractor. They follow the plans laid out by your architect and bring it to life. A good director can make the story sing; a bad one leads to an end product that’s incoherent or flat out missed the mark (sorry not sorry Michael Bay)

ACTORS

After you have your script and your director, it’s time to move on to casting. Actors are your subcontractors. They’re doing the actual performance and follow the guidance from the GC. A quality one shines, on the other hand a bad one is easy to spot (ahem Kristen Stewart) and can easily tank a project. It’s also hard for one individual actor to overcome a bad script or directions.

STUDIO

Financing is a key part of getting a movie made and that’s where the studios come in. These are the banks that lend you construction loans. Sometimes you need to go to multiple studios to see where you can get the best deal or if you get rejected at some of them. You might also consider more indie studios for smaller budget films like you would with local lenders or credit unions.

MOVIE SET

In order to film your movie, you need to scout for locations to film your movie or shoot in a studio. If nothing is appropriate you might need to design and build your own from scratch. This is a little out of order but this is the parcel you want to develop. Normally in real estate this comes first but sometimes it could work in this order say for example you want to build self-storage or an assisted living project. You have your team assembled but then go out to find a parcel that’s appropriately zoned or have the right demographic. The civil engineer for your development project becomes essentially the set designer, laying out the grading and the mapping.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

I like to think of the super as the cinematographer or director of photography. They work hand in hand with the director and handles the technical aspects of the filming, reviewing dailies with the team and incorporating the feedback into the finished product. The relationship between the two can differ depending on how anal the GC is or how proactive the super is. They are key in conveying what the director/GC wants to see and achieving the desire effect. Think of Emmanuel Lubezki from Gravity, Birdman, and The Revenant in recent years.

SOUNDTRACK

Often in the background and overlooked, the soundtrack or music can dramatically enhances a film. Can you imagine if John Williams didn’t compose the theme for Jurassic Park or we aren’t blessed with Hans Zimmer’s talent in Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk and many many more movies? The equivalent in my mind would be the engineers, whether it be mechanical, electrical, plumbing, or structural. It’s not the first thing people notices, but it’s hard to imagine a project working properly if they’re missing.

There are obviously more components to making a movie or real estate development than listed here such as editing, costume design, visual effects, etc. This is meant as a a simplified representation of what the process looks like. Each one is almost equally important. It’s hard to overcome a bad script/architect even if you have the best directors and actors in the world–case in point, Suicide Squad. The other way around where bad acting can ruin the script is true too–see just about every movie Kristen Stewart or Jennifer Lopez is in.

Here’s to hoping your development turn out to be more Shawshank Redemption and less The Room

What did you think? What other analogies are there I didn’t include? Let me know what you think!