Jennifer Haire has spent a good part of the past three-plus years sharing her Hollywood expertise to network production workers in the Philippines.
The 1998 Carmel High School graduate’s primary freelance job is as an independent unit production manager/line producer. She also is a member of Producers Guild of America and does consulting work for the MBS Group, which manages studios in Manhattan Beach, Calif. MBS has a consulting contract with the largest broadcast network in the Philippines.
“They decided they wanted to build their first sound stages, and they didn’t know where to start,” said Haire, who splits time between Los Angeles and Carmel.
Haire said MBS started working with the Philippines network to get the sound stages built, but the network realized its workers didn’t know how to work on a sound stage because it shoots all of its content on location.
So, with Haire’s producing experience, they brought her on for guidance.
“I put together a quick crash course in 2016 where their folks came out to the studio in LA,” she said. “We taught them what to expect when you are working in a sound stage environment. We did 15 days with probably 40 classes. It was basically soup to nuts on anything you would need to expect as you are starting to work on a sound stage.”
At the end of that program, they conducted a two-day mock shoot on a full sitcom set.
Due in part to a six-month rainy season, there were long delays building the sound stages in Manila, but the stages finally were competed in December 2018.
Haire spent 10 weeks running several classes in February and March 2019.
“We did everything from grip and lighting rigging to set construction,” Haire said. “We did a production design and lighting design class.”
Haire is in Manila now through Oct. 26, teaching cinematography concepts and techniques. This is her fifth trip to the Philippines since 2017.
“The skill set can use refinement,” she said of the network employees. “There is definitely a bit of a learning curve. For a lot of them, it’s their only exposure to this type of formal training.”
Haire said she got a great head start on her career by being part of CHS tech theater crew.
“It helped focus me for film school, and I kept that drive ever since,” said Haire, who has worked on several movies and TV shows. “I wasn’t the production manager but the biggest and longest running show I was on was ‘The Closer’ with Kyra Sedgwick.”
Haire would love to see Indiana become more active in luring film production.
“I’ve shot worldwide, but the closest I have (worked) was in Kentucky,” she said.
