Director Ron Howard spoke about project management with Charlie Rose this week.

On executive sponsorship of projects...

If they're going to make a movie, it's a big deal. Every movie is an investment, a commitment. You want a studio that believes.

Finding a project's spirit. Project scope as narrative...

It's my hook on the movie. It's making some sort of connection or defining a thematic value that I think I understand and that I think I can express to an audience. Then I have something to bring it. Otherwise I'm a technician setting up camera angles. I can do that, but I'm not really offering anybody much. But if I can come to understand the story, then I have conversations with the actors that can add up to something that can be meaningful. And I have a way of evaluating each and every moment. Because at the end of the day it's not so much about setting up camera angles, it's really about making a thousand little choices during the course of any one day.

The payback from effective communication of your vision...

Once you discover what the film can be, you can then begin to sort of rally everyone. And it becomes a kind of an organism. And it's moving together. And it's exciting to be at the center of that. Because this consciousness is now making a lot of creative decisions and suddenly it's very exciting because everyone's ideas are working in concert in synch. As a director you wind up saying 'yes' a lot more than you say 'no' because you've been able to create a sort of a sensibility, you know how to fulfill it and everyone starts seeing roughly the same movie. That's what I love, that's what excites me. 

Can you say emergent project management? 

[a klog apart]