You walk onto a set that’s been running for five seasons, with a crew and cast who already have their own rhythm — and you have maybe a day to earn their trust. That’s the job of an episodic TV director, and this week Jackie and Alysha sit down with Paula Hunziker, who’s directed episodes of Station 19, 9-1-1, 9-1-1: Lone Star, Walker, and Pretty Little Liars, to talk about leading as a guest in someone else’s house. Paula breaks down why episodic directing is less like a fresh vision and more like cooking Thanksgiving dinner in someone else’s kitchen — you bring one tool, and you use it to elevate the dishes they’ve already made — plus how deep character backstory research turns into real moments on set, the hardest day she’s ever worked through, and the mistake early in her career she’ll never make again. Stick around for a round of “guess the show” built from Paula’s own directing credits, and a rapid-fire close to wrap things up.

Two people whose entire job is leadership under pressure join this week's episode: DGA 1st Assistant Directors Mark Hansson (Dark Matter, Candy, Kingdom Business, Hunt, Hunters) and Laura Sylvester (Pretty Little Liars, The Sex Lives of College Girls, Truth Be Told, Bookie, the upcoming Presumed Innocent) sit down with Jackie Krichevsky to talk about who actually runs a set day to day — including the time Laura had to tell a director mid-take that it wasn't safe to roll.

After news on the DGA's new four-year contract (which raises health fringe rates for ADs and UPMs), the Brand New Day box office streak, and China's first AI-produced theatrical film, a round of Would You Rather gets Mark and Laura giving opposite answers on the same question. From there they break down what a 1st AD actually owns on set and where that authority stops, how the job shifts across genres, what the DGA trainee program puts candidates through, how to keep a crew's morale up on a day that's falling apart, how streaming and alternating DPs have changed the job over the last decade, the hardest shows either of them ever worked, and the advice they'd give anyone starting out today.

No guests this week — it's just Jackie Krichevsky and Alysha Haran, co-owners of Lost Light Films, going deep on leadership. Alysha draws on 17 years as a Navy surface warfare officer to break down "command by negation" and how watertight-integrity thinking translates to running a set. Jackie shares how two decades as a producer turned her from a hard "no" into a problem-solving "yes, but." They cover accountability when a vision doesn't land, leading a crew through a brutal 100-degree shoot day, safety as a non-negotiable, and the 2am phone call that became their feature Ashes and Ink. Plus a surprisingly dark round of "Two Truths and a Lie" with real on-set stories, and industry news on the $110B Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery merger, Zach Cregger's Resident Evil box office record, and the new federal film tax credit bill in Congress.

In this episode of The Production Report, hosts Jackie Ryan-Krichevsky and Alysha Haran break down three industry stories:

summer 2026's record-breaking $4.76B domestic box office (led by Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey), The Odyssey crossing $1B internationally, and the first-year results of California's Film & TV Tax Credit Program 4.0 ($6.6B in projected economic impact, 41 new projects approved).

Then they sit down with Aaron Roberts (CEO/Co-Founder) and Drew Burns (CFO) of the Chula Vista Entertainment Company, where Alysha also serves as COO, to talk through CVEC's $170 million, 250,000-square-foot virtual production studio complex breaking ground in Chula Vista. The conversation covers the two-phase build, financing structure, projected economic impact on the region, and why CVEC is betting on virtual production and a data-first infrastructure approach for the future of California filmmaking.

In this inaugural episode of The Production Report, hosts Jackie Krichevsky (independent producer, PGA Physical Production Committee co-chair, co-owner of Lost Light Films) and Alysha Haran (writer/director/producer, co-owner of Lost Light Films, COO of Chula Vista Entertainment) kick things off with a quick rundown of the week's industry headlines — TIFF's 51st edition and its first-ever film market, Nathan Fielder's secretly-filmed Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything headed to A24 in October, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day's run at the all-time domestic box office record — before diving into a round of "Fund It, Reboot It, Shelve It."

Then they're joined by two guests who build the worlds you actually see on screen:

• Oana Miller — Production Designer and Art Director who got her start in Creature Effects on Roland Emmerich's Stargate, with recent credits including Twisters, The Mandalorian, The Morning Show, Mindhunter, and Lost Light's upcoming feature Ashes and Ink.
• Jared Krichevsky — Creature designer and concept artist with 15+ years in the industry and a decade teaching at Gnomon School of VFX, with credits on Godzilla x Kong, M3GAN, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and Pete's Dragon.

The conversation covers how a design actually goes from brief to final approval, the relationship between concept art and production design, notes that completely changed a design, the hardest days on set, designs they're proudest of, how AI has (and hasn't) touched their day-to-day work, and a rapid-fire round on advice for breaking into the art department.

New episodes on independent film and physical production drop every Thursday.