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TV & Film - Articles |
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| So You Want to be a Producer |
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By
Peter Haig
What do Producers actually do, anyway?
What’s the difference between an Executive
Producer, Producer, Associate Producer, and
a Line Producer? Is there anything creative
to the role of the Producer or does it
involve only looking after the business side
of things? All good questions, and not
easily answered because there is often a
degree of ambiguity or shall we say,
creative interpretation, that creeps into
the ego-loaded process of determining the
hierarchical order of power of the top dogs
above-the-line. Oooh… that sounds like
something a director or crew member might
say when the monkey suits appear on set. The
role of the Producer is, indeed, an
important one, and there is a definitive
talent to being an effective and good one.
The job definitions and career paths vary
slightly between television, film, and
independent film-making, but whatever the
medium, producing can be a very creative job
and except perhaps in theatre certainly a
lucrative one. But before we take a serious
look at what it is a producer does and
explore the best way to become one, here’s a
take on producing courtesy of a producer
himself, Elliott Grove of Raindance fame,
posted recently on Shooting People:
The Hot Air Balloon...
A man in a hot air balloon realized he was
lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a
woman below. He descended a bit more and
shouted: "Excuse me. I'm lost. Can you help
me? I promised a friend I'd meet him half an
hour ago, but I don't know where I am!"
The woman below replied: "You are in a hot
air balloon approximately 30 feet above the
ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees
north latitude and between 50 and 60 degrees
west longitude."
"You must be a line producer" said the
balloonist. "I am," replied the woman. "How
did you know that?" "Well," answered the
balloonist, "everything you told me is
technically correct, but I have no idea what
to make of your information and the fact is,
I am still lost. You really haven't been
much help."
The woman below responded, "You must be a
producer." "I am," replied the balloonist,
"but how would you possibly know that?"
"Well," said the woman, " you don't know
where you are or where you are going. You
have risen to where you are due to a large
quantity of hot air. You made a promise
which you have no idea how to keep and you
expect me to solve your problem. The fact is
you are in exactly the same position as when
we first met, but somehow it's all my
fault."
The humor in a good joke comes from somehow
tapping a nerve of truth. But let’s put that
maligning image of the brash talking,
cigar-chomping producer aside for a moment
and start with a factual approach. On
www.dictionary.com, the third definition
of producer is: the person responsible for
the financial and administrative aspects of
a stage, film, television, or radio
production; the person who exercises general
supervision of a production and is
responsible chiefly for raising money,
hiring technicians and artists, etc. And
that’s what a producer does in broad
strokes.
There are distinctions between the various
producer credits although they can be quite
ambiguous. Usually, an executive producer
puts the financing or the deal together and
has no daily involvement with physical
production. The producer may be involved
with all aspects of finding the material,
putting the deal together, selecting the
creative team, and overseeing the production
on a daily basis. An associate producer, and
often as is a co-producer, is a credit given
to someone who is assisting the producer or
the production in a producing capacity, and
sometimes simply a friend being brought on
board the gravy train. The line producer, or
often a supervising producer in television,
plays a very technical role overseeing every
aspect of daily management of the
production.
The hardest part of making a film is getting
the financing. With a good line producer, a
producer doesn’t necessarily have to know
anything about making movies as long as he’s
gotten the financing in place. However, a
good producer is knowledgeable of production
and has an overall understanding of what’s
involved in making a movie.
In television, writers become producers.
This is because the material rules the day.
It’s all about having a good script. Writers
are the least appreciated, and arguably the
lowest paid, but are really the most
important part of the whole process. I think
the old studio moguls knew this and
consciously belittled them to keep them in
their place or gave them an office, a
contract and impending deadlines to prevent
them from getting any ideas about flexing
their power.
In addition to writers, lawyers become
producers, directors become producers, D
Girls become producers, and sometimes agents
become producers. A key ingredient may be a
ballsy, take-no-prisoners attitude. But the
best producers get there on their own merit
in terms of negotiating skills, net working,
and discernment of taste and talent.
One might say it all boils down to finding
the money. If you have the money, you can
produce a film. Aye, there’s the rub. How do
you get the money? That’s where finding good
material comes in. There aren’t that many
good scripts around, if you have one, you
have a property that others will be
interested in, that you can use to go after
the money yourself, or approach production
companies with, and even the Studios for a
production deal.
Having a good property is essential.
Yes, that all sounds naively simple but
having a good property is essential. You can
write a script, or commission a script, or
option a script. How do you find them?
Fortunately, there are thousands of aspiring
writers who have scripts they’d love to see
produced, now easily located with a little
research on the Internet. You can start by
checking out
www.inktips.com and
www.triggerstreet.com. Francis Ford
Coppola started a website years ago for
writers to submit their short stories that
has grown into an active community for film
makers and offers “powerful collaboration
tools for producers,”
www.zoetrope.com.
If writing your own script is not in the
cards, you can develop material. If you have
a high concept idea for a film, find a
beginning writer who you can talk into
working with you on spec. If the writer
likes the idea and believes you can sell the
project when the script is done, they may be
willing to make a deal with you and write
the script, either based on a story by you,
or develop the story with you and write the
script. In either case, make sure you
execute a signed agreement that fully
outlines the understanding between you and
ownership of the property once written. If
you can “hire” a writer to work on a
deferred basis or for some form of back-end
participation, you’ll be earning your
stripes as a producer from the get-go. If
they won’t write on a “work for hire” basis,
consider forming a partnership and talk
about a slate of films. Any good producer
has several projects in the hopper, in
various stages of development and /or
production, and always an eye out for the
next best script. You can also look to adapt
material from the stage or a book or a real
event. In all cases, the producer needs to
obtain the rights to the material,
preferably with a low cost option that
grants the producer the right to make a
television program or film of that material,
i.e. develop a script and sell or produce
it, for a limited time. Option extensions
are usually included in the agreement with
all fees spelled out should the project
actually get made. This is where
entertainment lawyers come into play and
every producer sooner or later has their own
right hand lawyer or battery of lawyers on
call. Again, thanks to the Internet, almost
every type of contract needed can be found
online for free. There are also many books,
some quite inexpensive, that cover the
subject.
Networking is crucial.
Networking is an important element of
producing. Cultivating contacts in the
Industry allows you to form relationships
that pay off in dividends when you actually
set up a project. If you are young and able
to work for a song, finding a job as a
producer’s assistant, which may be mostly
answering phones, running errands, and
secretarial work, is a great way to learn
the ropes of producing and to make contacts.
Make an effort at forging good working
relationships and if possible, find a
mentor. Entry level jobs at a studio, for a
production company, at an agency, or as a
reader will all give you valuable experience
that can lead to becoming a producer. There
are also many virtual film communities
online and it’s easy to find and join some
type of social networking group of film
people dedicated to furthering each other’s
career. For starters,
www.indieproducer.net.
A line producer, on the other hand really
needs a nuts-and-bolts knowledge of all
aspects of the production. It is likely that
a line producer will actually have worked
their way up the ranks of production from
assistant directing to production managing
and then line producing. The job requires a
more technical understanding of film making,
in all departments, as well as the
administrative side from scheduling,
budgeting, to cost reporting and cost
control. The best way to gain experience
towards becoming a line producer is to start
working on films, in any capacity.
Theater and making short films can open the
door.
Because it’s less expensive, it’s a lot
easier to produce a play or make a short
film and if you produce something that is a
critical success it will usually open some
doors and lead to bigger projects, which can
lead to a brilliant career. There are lots
of acting schools and films schools
scattered across Los Angeles, all of them
with vibrant communities of aspiring film
makers. For probably the best introduction
and how-to manual on making your short film,
read Ian Lewis and Alison Reddihough’s book,
How To Make Great Short Feature Films: The
Making of Ghosthunter. You can find a used
copy on Amazon for as little as $6.92,
www.amazon.com/Make-Great-Short-Feature-Films/dp/0240516249
Also, Chris Jones' Guerilla Handbooks are
indispensable. If you've already got a copy
of the Handbook, I recommend you go get the
Guerilla Filmmaker's Movie Blueprint (the
big blue one), read it carefully and use it
as a template.
So once again, the best advice may be to
just jump right in. The water may seem
threatening, certainly the idea of swimming
with sharks is, but once you’re in, it’s
really not that cold.
There’s plenty happening out there. You just
have to go out and find it … or go out and
make it happen.
Tune in for the next installment.
If you have any queries or comments, please
contact me - Peter Haig here.
Copyright
2008 Peter Haig. All rights
reserved.
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