You’re caught between the budget and the deep blue brief.
How can you ‘Yes And’ without being a ‘Yes Man’*?
Time’s running out, there are too many ideas from too many people and everyone wants something slightly different, or additional. You have to weave both Beauty and Order out of chaos.
I remember the first few years as a writer/producer. Not unlike the horse in Orwell's Animal Farm, I made every aspect of this my problem and was resolved simply to try and do it all.
If I couldn't give everyone what they wanted in every rewrite, somehow afford a helicopter, stunt team, any given number of country shoots and somehow still make money for the production company, then...breathe...What on the gods green earth was I doing?
I'm not saying that the other extreme is any better. Whipping out the calculator (or AI Mathmeister) everytime people keep adding an ornament on the tree is fundamentally little better.
It might reduce requests for the idea to incorporate Indiana Jones meets The Jonestown Massacre meets Jingle All the Way (while starring a CGI Sophia Loren with an Australian accent), but it still doesn't address the issues. Namely:
-Chain of command
Where does the buck stop? Not 'who is influencing this person' but who makes the final call.
Arrange a conversation, transparently, with them and whoever else legitimately needs to weigh in. Explore the issues, the goals and guide them so that by the end of the meeting you, and they, have-
-Clarity
Everything else that isn't the sculpture then falls away from the block of marble.
Tangential Ideas/additions to this are neither good nor bad - they just aren't part of this project this time around. Now you can say-
-'Yes'
Yes to anything that strengthens and bolsters the idea. Yes to anything that makes it richer, more textured resonant, inclusive, and distinctive. Yes to anything relevant whatsoever that can be afforded with time and money.
This is all lovely but I appreciate the challenge is complicated if you get parachuted in mid-process (more on that in another post).
But if you're in at the start, you can set the DNA for the project with trust, mutual respect and clear comms.
