Production Coordinator Lauren Moseley Has What It Takes

By Carol Badaracco Padgett

Lauren Moseley moved to Atlanta 11 years ago from Tallahassee, Florida. She traveled relatively lightly, bringing along a fresh communications degree from Florida State University and a bit of experience working in radio. The most important thing she brought, though, was something you couldn’t see at first glance: an open mind.

Today she works as a production coordinator in commercials, television and film. We sat down with her to learn how she got from point A to point B and why this work is still her passion.

How do you describe your role in the film and television industry to people who don’t work in the industry?

Moseley: I tell people who aren't in the industry that I basically party plan for a shoot and that the world of film and television is essentially like a very specialized party that needs to get planned.

The people who do event planning and things like that, it's kind of in the same vein. It’s knowing your vendors, knowing where the equipment is in town, knowing where sources are in town, and being able to follow up on the paperwork. Each production is different because every production company adjusts the workflow a little bit. You've got to be able to keep everything organized in your files a little bit differently on each job, depending on the production company. Some will want you to work within their systems and others will let you do it your own way and build up your own workflow to something that works for you.

Now tell us more about the role and what it entails to be a production coordinator from more of an inside-the-industry perspective.

Moseley: Mostly what I am doing on a day-to-day basis is sourcing different vendors, equipment and people to help get a shoot done. Then I’m passing along the pertinent logistical information once everything begins shifting into place for that day.

I go back after I source everybody and pass the pricing along to the production manager and the producer. Then I get the green light for stuff and I'm the person who relays all the logistics of landing, getting the equipment, the equipment being used, getting picked up, getting brought back, and making sure that the billing is submitted back to the PM and the producer after the shoot is wrapped.

What productions have you worked on in the past that were especially energizing and among your favorites?

Moseley: I did the Sunday Night Football opener the year they did it with Carrie Underwood and Joan Jett. I think that was a pretty big highlight. I’ve also done a bunch of the Publix holiday commercials, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I bounced back and forth between those for a couple of years. Those are always the big tear-jerking ones, so those were really fun big projects that meant a lot to work on.

Then I did some work with Crazy Legs Productions, which is a local Atlanta company. We did some shows for the ID network, traveling with a small crew of guys to different locations and interviewing people for those shows and hearing their stories was really impactful and cool.

What’s it like working from an Atlanta home base and weathering all the industry shifts from here?

Moseley: I would say that in Atlanta, especially in the commercial world for the film business, we're really a tight knit family. We can have years where we're all running around and being booked and busy 24/7 and complaining about how tired we are and how much we want a break.

Or we could be going through years, like with COVID, where we're all kind of nervous and we don't know what's coming next. Or when the economy slows down, you can feel advertising dollars being pulled in different directions. But the constant is, we're always having each other’s backs and it feels like a big family. Once you're in there, they don't forget you very fast.

I even had to pull back from how much I've been working because I had a daughter two years ago. I don't always show up on set as much or as often as I used to, but when I do, there's this big warm welcome from everybody and everybody refers each other to everything.

I’m really close to a lot of the other production managers and coordinators in town, and there are always texts and emails and group chats of people saying things like, “Hey, where'd you source this from? I'm having problems with this.”

I think Atlanta has really got it figured out when it comes to pulling together and helping everybody up.

Even though the commercial world operates a little differently than film and television, what’s it like working at the studios in Atlanta?

Moseley: When we're using studios, a lot of times it’s some of the bigger studios, Assembly or even Tyler Perry, and they've got a different set of rules. Us getting onto those bigger stages is at times more of an exception. I would find that we're shooting on locations a lot more than anything.

Our biggest stage user and vendor that we use in the commercial world is PC&E, which has been around about 30 years. They've shot everything there from different promos to tabletop shoots, and they've been a huge constant in the industry, especially when it comes to camera rentals and urban lighting rentals and things like that.

So if we're going outside to a studio and for equipment, if the crew doesn't have its own equipment, that's usually our first call.

How did you get into the field, and how did you become a production coordinator in the first place?

Moseley: There’s a little bit of nepotism. I had an aunt who owned Commotion Films back in the day, which was one of the first commercial production companies started in the Atlanta area.

Commotion had fizzled out by the time I got there, but she saw that the movies were really coming and the shows were getting bigger around that time. I was working three jobs and trying to keep my head above water after college. She offered me a PA gig and basically told me she was going to give me one or two jobs and then it was on me to figure it out. So I made friends with the production assistants around me and I kept going. I wouldn't turn down a job. I would say, “You want me to work however many days straight? I'm game for it.”

I said yes to anything that came my way and slowly built up a resume and people and PAs who would refer me, or production coordinators and managers who would hire me. I slowly started working my way up into the office until I could start coordinating.

I've jumped up and production managed a couple of times and produced some smaller things, but I really like the logistics of coordinating and being able to do the people side of things instead of being solely focused on numbers.

What else are you focusing on right now as 2025 winds down?

Moseley: Commercials are funny. I might not have anything going on right now, but someone will call you in a week or two and be like, “Oh, I've got a gig in December, are you available for it?” You just jump onto it.

Things can start tomorrow or things can start a month from now.

Every day is a new adventure.

One of the things I’m excited about should be airing in the next month or two. I coordinated travel and did child labor coordinating for a TCM special they're running through the holidays, which is an Atlanta-based production.

They still shoot all their stuff here and they found these kids from around the country who are young but still love classic movies. We flew them in with their parents and they sat down with Ben Mankiewicz and did interviews where they introduced one of their favorite classic movies. That was a really fun project to work on. The kids were amazing and it was cool to see young people interested in classic cinema.

What advice do you have for others hoping to break into the production industry during these often precarious times?

Moseley: Whatever comes your way, take it. Also be willing to expand as time goes on. If you want to get into the film business, especially now when projects aren't coming as fast and as frequently as they were, we had a big boom in late 2020 when people started getting back to work and all the show people were really busy and all the commercial people were busy.

Now the best way to stand out if you want to get into the industry is to have a desire to get up and go to work. You've got to have your own curiosity about it. If you want to just PA and come in and do your job on set and go home, it's probably not going to lead anywhere. But if you talk to different departments, if you use your time on set wisely to listen to the conversations going on around you, to ask questions when you can about what something does and why we operate like this.

When I was an office PA, I would comb through production guidelines and look at old budgets just so I could get a feel. I would also say don’t pigeonhole yourself. We're at a stage where that isn't going to move you along at the pace that people want to move along.

When I PA, if somebody asked me if I could drive a box truck, I said yes and I drove it around the parking lot on the job before and figured it out. If I heard they needed help at a camera shop in town, I told them I would work there. I was looking at camera parts and taking piles of tiny camera screws and organizing them and finding ways to learn, help out, understand and move my network wider.

Any last thoughts to share with other creatives who are on their journey in this fascinating and ever-changing industry?

Moseley: I think there's a lot of uncertainty right now in film in general and even in commercials about what this new wave of technology means for all of us and for our jobs. It may also be contributing somewhat to the general slowdown of things right now.

But I think there's still a big desire for advertisers and companies to do things and make things with people for people.