LOCALS ONLY: Erin Sullivan, Co Founder, Partner at The Poolhouse
By thelaegotist / /
Erin Sullivan is recognized for having over 18 years of experience in advertising and entertainment marketing as an EP and Consultant on the executive level. The majority of the work she has produced has featured A+ level talent actors, sports figures and musicians. Sullivan’s work has been recognized with multiple awards from the Cannes advertising festival, Clios, and Emmys.
poolhouse certainly sounds like a place where people want to hang out, but what’s it really all about?
Poolhouse was founded in 2006 as a resource for advertising agency producers to share information and job leads with one another, and ask advice and recommendations from other agency producers. We recently decided to re-launch with a website to include all producers in the advertising industry. So whether you are a line producer, a post producer, or a music producer, you can subscribe to the service and chat with other producers, check out exclusive content, and have access to information all in one place.
How did COVID accelerate the launch and other plans for poolhouse?
When major cities and states began to shut down, and then clients started responding by putting productions on hold, we thought, “How are we going to convince clients that we can still be producing work? We have to keep the economy going, and work with our partners remotely.” We immediately put together a little deck called “Pivot, Don’t Panic” that Veronica Beach shared with the team at Standard Black, where she was freelancing. The agency was able to clean it up, and brand it, and it saved a job that was being prepped. It was one of the first shoots to happen in Covid. At that point we had just really started our poolhouse Instagram page, and shared the deck out as a generic for other agencies and people to brand and share with clients. It got a good response, which led to us creating a larger directory of different production resources and how they were handling going remote, what their capabilities were. That deck went global in a matter of weeks. We had people connecting us to other producers all over the world who wanted to share their information. At one point we received an email connecting us to a freelance producer in Australia (Melissa Pertryzn). It read:
“Melissa, Veronica is one of the co-founders of the poolhouse, and has become the agency freelance producer version of Dr. Fauci, posting helpful tips and methodologies for safe production and keeping the channels of information open to our peers.”
That one gave me a good laugh…and at that point we knew we were on to something.
What do you think is the biggest need for today’s producers? What are they talking about the most?
I can’t speak for all producers, but right now it’s more important than ever for people to be talking to each other, sharing resources and information about how to produce jobs effectively. One of the big things we are missing right now is the ability to turn to another producer at the office and say “how would you handle this situation?” or “have you ever worked with this director?” In this climate, you really have to put an even bigger amount of trust in your partners than ever before. poolhouse provides a place for that. We have chat rooms where you can ask for advice and information from the community at large. We have a screening room where we share new information that is helpful to all kinds of producers in advertising. For example, we currently have a city-by-city excel doc that lists the places where you can find rapid Covid-19 testing sites in your area. We have info on creating Covid safe sets, blogs on how post and production bids have changed, and updates on remote shooting in different countries. We also do weekly Zooms with directors, editors and music houses so you can “meet” new talent, hear about their latest projects, and ask them questions.
How much does it cost and do people get the most out of it?
It’s $9.99 a month. For a producer who wants to get the most out of it, I would suggest you jump in the chat room and introduce yourself, it’s an incredible resource. Producers have such a great knack for gathering and sharing information, and I think we all love to help other producers. It’s a big part of our job to problem-solve and our industry is constantly changing; sometimes it can be quite overwhelming! At the poolhouse, there is collective 30+ years of experience and brain power right at your fingertips. All you have to do is ask!
What’s the biggest misconception about what your job entails, and how can education about various industry roles help shape a better, more vibrant future?
I think the biggest misconception about producers is that we are all always networking and socializing and going to Cannes and that our job is easy. It’s our job to make it look effortless and solve problems under often stressful situations. As a producer, you really have to be able to resource just about anything you can think of. Whether it’s an up-and-coming director for an underfunded project, to someone who has edited musicals, to a very rare bar of chocolate in a celebrity rider when you are in the middle of nowhere. And that’s just a regular day on the job. We get all kinds of crazy requests, and have to manage all sorts of personalities.
Besides poolhouse, what else do you do for fun in your spare time?
I’ve recently taken up golfing, which has been lots of fun. After being in the house for the last few months, it’s incredibly cathartic to take a few hours a week to get out into nature. I’ve also recently adopted an 88 lb Rottweiler Mastiff mix and he’s got a ton of energy, so by proxy I’ve taken up running and I’m spending lots of time working with him on obedience training.
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