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Meet Your Makers in association withLBB Events
Good Vibes and Good Work with Grant Keiner
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16/09/2026
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The head of post production at Ways & Means on the balancing acts of producers, the most rewarding aspects of the industry, as well as some of his own proudest projects, as part of LBB’s Meet Your Makers series
Grant Keiner is the head of post production at Ways & Means, overseeing the studio’s post-production pipelines. Here, Grant’s decades of experience leading teams and mentoring talent have made him a producer who believes in assembling the right team and maintaining high morale through honest, positive communication.
Grant began his career in Los Angeles, absorbing craft from the ground up as an intern, office PA, production coordinator, freelance colourist, motion graphics artist, and editor, before settling into post-producing, where he’s remained ever since.
Prior to Ways & Means, Grant worked as a senior graphic artist at FOX Sports, building on-air branding and promos for UFC, Golden Boy Boxing, and the UEFA Champions League. He later built out the post-production infrastructure at Super Deluxe as a VP, and spent time as a senior producer at Brand New School, where he delivered animation campaigns for brand clients including Google, Android, Honey, Oreo, AT&T, Adobe, and Visa, among others.
Grant sat down with LBB to discuss moving to LA to start a career, early industry lessons, as well as the project that kickstarted everything.
LBB> What first attracted you to production – and has it been an industry you’ve always worked on or did you come to it from another area?
Grant> I’ve always been in production in some form or another. I graduated from college with a BA in English/creative writing and moved to LA immediately thereafter. I was also following in my older sibling’s footsteps. I started as an intern for an editor who was cutting DJ Quik videos, then office PA, production office coordinator, before focusing on post production for a loooooong time.
LBB> What was your first role in the production world and how did this experience influence how you think about production and how you grew your career?
Grant> My first role was really as an office PA. I think the biggest takeaway from that was that it’s all about vibes and good work. Show up, be pleasant, have fun, stay until the work is done, do it well, and don’t let someone else’s stress get to you.
One memory that really stuck with me was on my first PA gig; I’d get sent all over town to do runs. This was the pre-Google Maps era, so you’d get an address. If you were lucky, you got a MapQuest printout, but mostly it was an address and the Thomas Guide. I’d make a game of figuring out the best route. I remember how surprised producers were when I’d get back sooner than expected. This led to more opportunities to do more around the office and learn more. This applies across the board. Do the work you need to do well and efficiently; that leads to more time to learn and grow, which leads to new opportunities.
LBB> How did you learn to be a producer?
Grant> I came to producing really late. I was in the indie film production world, but always interested in post. I really wanted to make stuff myself. I followed a path of saying yes to whatever work led to working with directors one-on-one and learning new tools. This led me to editing, then VFX, and colour motion graphics. But really, I started producing because I had to.
Some of my earliest producing experience was as a VFX supervisor/producer. I was perma-lancing for a VFX company, working on an independent feature that was originally supposed to be produced by it. But it shut down its LA office, and I inherited the project and just did it myself. I took a break after that and then came back to producing in 2015 when I had the opportunity to work at Super Deluxe. I had friends there on the production side. They wanted to do things differently and were building a vertically integrated new media company, and needed someone who knew how to run the post side.
LBB> Looking back to the beginning of your career, can you tell us about a production you were involved in where you really had to dig deep and that really helped you to grow as a producer?
Grant> It’s actually the project I mentioned briefly earlier. It was 2008, right when the economy was going to shit. We had a bunch of projects that were supposed to be moving forward, and then the company decided to close its LA office because it just wasn’t sustainable.
It wasn’t a particularly well-paying project, but I really liked the creative, and I liked the director (I’d actually worked with them very briefly on their previous film). It was kind of a labour of love. My wife and I also had our first kid that year, so I had a newborn and was taking this little kid to pre-production meetings because we didn’t really have a babysitter. Then, I ended up having to travel to Berlin for the finishing of the film, since that’s where they were doing all the post work. So, it was a demanding project. But it also taught me that sometimes you just have to be all in on a project and see it through.
LBB> A good producer should be able to produce for any medium, from film to events to digital experience. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why/why not?
Grant> I agree. Being a good producer is about asking questions and listening to the team that you’re working with, while keeping an eye on everyone’s goals, wants, and needs. And I don’t think that really changes across production and events, and even smaller-scale digital projects. A good producer is going to take all of that seriously, be an advocate on all sides, and help sort of balance the needs of the team.
LBB> What’s your favourite thing about production and why?
Grant> I like that every day brings new challenges and problems to solve. It’s easy to get into a routine with work, but the unique creative tasks that come up as part of production are always the most challenging and rewarding to figure out.
LBB> What do you think is the key to being an effective producer – and is it something that’s innate or something that can be learned?
Grant> The key is having the right attitude and keeping team spirit high, even when things are challenging, which I think is mostly innate. And being able to balance that with a sort of practical problem-solving mindset, too, because those mindsets can be at odds with one another.
That’s been my general disposition. I think that keeping things positive is more of what I learned, but I’ve definitely worked with other producers who work the other way around; they come from a generally positive place and then have to learn how to be real about the project.
LBB> Which production project from across your career are you most proud of and why?
Grant> I don’t have just one, but a favourite that comes to mind is from my early days with Ways & Means (I joined the team in 2018 or 2019 – somewhere around there), which was a short, ‘David’, starring Will Ferrell, directed by Zach Woods. It was one of those rare projects where he had total creative freedom, since it was his own thing, and he wanted something simple and authentic… which was actually a challenge, because some folks on the team came at it with a specific idea of ’This is how you do it, these are the steps’.
Zach was steadfast that he just wanted it to feel a little more natural. We were able to pull that together in a way that became its own unique thing and really accomplished the vision he had. It also meant working with people who could set aside their own process to help Zach get to what he was actually going for.
LBB> And in terms of recent work, which projects have you found to be particularly exciting or have presented particularly interesting production challenges?
Grant> Every production has been its own kind of challenge, but I think the most recent Super Bowl spot Way & Means did for Hims & Hers is one that I’m proud of, because it was so much work, and it was all so down to the wire. We had so many moving parts, and the team really came together and pulled it off.
LBB> Producers always have the best stories. What’s the hairiest / most insane situation you’ve found yourself in and how did you work your way out of it?
Grant> I’m not going to get into too many details here, but there was a project going live the next day, and the client came back with a change they should have caught months ago.
Luckily, we were able to turn around this change within a couple of hours, even before everybody on the team was aware of it. (Probably because it was the weekend and no one else was working). But really, I owe that mostly to having a great team and being organised on the post end.
LBB> What are your personal ambitions or aspirations as a producer?
Grant> My personal aspirations as a producer are just to work with as many creative and interesting people as I can. I worked for a long time as a motion graphics artist, an editor, and even as a colourist for a little while. While doing that, I realised the thing that I love most is meeting all the different people that cross your path as you work on a production. I just love to work on new, cool, weird, and different stuff.
LBB> As a producer your brain must have a neverending “to do” list. How do you switch off? What do you do to relax?
Grant> I can’t say that I ever actually turn it off. But two things are going for walks and listening to podcast reading. Get away from the screens for a bit and switch off the background noise. Currently, my go-to is ‘Search Engine’ or ‘99% Invisible’.
LBB> Producers are problem solvers. What personally fuels your curiosity and drive?
Grant> I think it’s just a general interest in learning what people do and how they do it. Not to go back to podcasts, but another one that I really enjoy is ‘Song Exploder’. It’s not really all that relevant to post, but it does dive deep into the creative process and what drives people. That’s what it is for me – curiosity for the sake of curiosity.
LBB> What advice would you give to people who are interested in becoming a producer?
Grant> I would say it’s not really that hard to become a producer. You just have to be organised and listen to people around you. But do whatever you can to get on a set or a project and just talk to all the people around you and learn what they do. And make friends with some creative weirdos, because they always need help doing whatever they’re doing.
LBB> From your experience what are the ingredients for a successful production?
Grant> It’s a lot of planning and a willingness to be flexible. Because, as much as you plan, nothing ever quite comes out the same. And in the end, the best creative comes from understanding what it is you’ve actually made versus what you planned to make, and how to make that the best thing it can be.
LBB> What’s the key to a successful production-client relationship?
Grant> It’s all about communication. As a producer, I always try to be as transparent and upfront about everything – what’s going well, challenges, and even possible solutions. I think people generally value that, and clients do too. And again, this is where being positive comes back into play. There’s a way to say those things where everything is negative, and there’s a way to address them where there’s a solution and everybody feels good about it.
At Ways & Means, we have a number of clients who come back to us, and it’s not like they come to us for one specific thing; they come to us because they know that we can do lots of different things, and we can find the right people to do all those things they want to do.
LBB> Producers are naturally hands on – they have to be. How do you balance that in the more managerial role of an EP?
Grant> It’s a learning process. Specifically in post, there are a lot of technical specifics that I find myself just picking up because I know that I can do it faster than having to talk to the other three people to make it happen. But that’s not always the best solution, and I think the main thing is to trust your team, which is what I learned while becoming a more senior producer. You need to be really clear with your teams and trust that they’re listening to you and they’re going to do the right thing.
Meet Your Makers in association withLBB Events
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