Narrative & Documentary – Finley Wise |

ABOUT

I'm an international Executive Producer, 1st AD and Head of Production with 15+ years of creative filmmaking experience. There's nothing I can't produce, and no production curveball I haven't faced with gusto. I graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley, with a year spent abroad at the graduate school of The Universitat de Barcelona and majors in Film, Spanish & Legal Studies. I'm currently with Netflix.

I’ve survived food poisoning in Bogotá and rushed an injured Mexican celebrity to the hospital during F1 after a bad stunt. I’ve had 30 minutes to shoot 45 minutes of material with The Rock, rotoscoped armpit sweat at the behest of an actor’s angry parent-manager, and waited hours for Snoop Dogg to arrive on location late as the sun slowly set on our narrowing window to capture 6 must-have setups. I’ve faced countless last-minute permit changes, truck accidents, and difficult property owners.

Gnarled production challenges are commonplace and they’ve built in me a solutions-oriented approach that is core to my ethos as a producer. I’ve seen enough on set to know that A.) Hiccups always, inevitably arise. B.) The best defense is to be completely and utterly prepared; to hope for the best but meticulously plan for the worst. And C.) to operate out of joy and equanimity. Freaking out doesn’t help. In my book, there’s no need for drama because there’s always an answer, there’s always a move to be made. Filmmaking is hard, intense, and stressful work. But it’s also a privilege to get paid to do what we do. So I don’t loathe those unforeseen production SNAFUs anymore. I’ve learned to love them. Curveballs and hurdles are a test of mettle—they're where I earn my keep.

Integral to my production approach is also a careful attention to detail and a dependency on diversity. I seek out inclusion on my sets and in the stories that I tell. Because I cannot do this work alone and it takes disparate perspectives to make good art.

Lastly, I’m guided by a steadfast conviction that the set is not the place to work out your personal issues. Perhaps it’s old hat by now, but I abide by a strict “No assholes and no yelling” rule on my projects. We treat each other with respect and we support each other. We build each other up because that essence is inherently reflected in the material, in the images we see on screen.