Managing a co-produced project

I'm curently having a production horror story with a project that is a co-production between our office and our client (this a DVD movie project). I head the design and development team, and I have a partner who is the project manager. To begin with it has turned out that we have three clients, one external and two internal (the content owner, the owner of our company, and the general manager of our ofc), all of which are difficult clients and all of them have different ideas ranging from the direction the project is gonna head to, up to the copy details, we really are still in the development phase where we all have to sort out the things we want to do, and yet what is expected is a fulfillment of the final project. Aside from the movie there are no other content material that has been approved, or decided upon. Me and my partner the project manager started the project all right but pretty soon after a week the whole thing was taken from us, the client meetings were restricted to the three bosses/clients, we have lost any feedback system, and the project is totally out of schedule. Every day there is always some rework that needs to be done with the packaging art (!!!) and the menu art, all of which are very difficult without prior approval of the final content. My project manager has already given up on the project and just generally waits for whatever is the day's changes. To top it all off, the boss/client wants a design for the package art that is really waaay below the industry standard for packaging art (this was designed from outside our team), believe me it was really messy graphic design and the boss loves it. I have said that the design isn't classy enough for a dvd of a movie that is supposed to be a classic film, and that it will look horrible when placed on a shelf of dvds with well-designed packages. No use. There is still no copy begun by proper writers to be approved. The special features content havent yet been decided upon. The menu art has not yet been approved. No precise deadlines or goals are being set, just the everyday reworks. There are of course nothing signed off. I'm at the stage where I'm thinking if I should care or not. I'm thinking of calling a meeting with the production team to regroup, but ultimately it is still not in our hands anymore, and it doesn't look like the bosses will listen or submit to the proper production process/ schedule. How do you think this can be turned around?

Mark,

I agree with the things Noah said -- if its part of your full-time job you simply will have to defer to the boss and try your best not to let your own work sink to the level of the other's whose work you find objectionable.

In addition, as I stated here before, Ralph Labarge's book does a great job of discussing specific ways to deal with the logistics of the client approval process. He includes forms and flow charts as well that are very helpful and very professional.

Even though I've been in "the business" for more than twenty-five years, and should know better, Ralph's book made me realize just how lax I had become over the years as far as securing agreements and written approvals from my clients. Ralph reiterates over and over again that getting clients to sign off on things is absolutely crucial to success in this business, and I can't agree enough.

David

Well then it is up to you if having steady income is more important than creative fulfillment. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and sometimes there's a better gig to be had.

Noah