I recently received a call from a producer who wanted some advice about financing for his next film. He told me that he had no idea how or where to start raising money for the budget and was “too busy” to learn because all his time is spent working with the director and screenwriter on the script.
Sadly, this predicament is far too common these days. Many people seem to think that being a producer just means giving script notes and hanging out with actors on set, letting someone else deal with all the boring stuff and do all the dirty work while they bask in the glory once the film makes millions of dollars at the box office.
Well, that’s not really how it works, especially in the independent world. If you want to be a successful producer, you have to be ready to take responsibility for the overall success or failure of every aspect of a project, even if you really just want to sit around working on scripts all day.
So, what do you need to know in order to be a good producer? A producers’ role can generally be split into three parts:
Overseeing the creative elements of a project, including the development of the script, working with the director, overseeing the casting process, and making sure that the creative vision of the filmmakers can be expressed without sacrificing the commercial needs of the project and its financiers
Managing the physical production of the project to ensure that it is produced on time and on budget, with a high production value and as smooth a shoot as possible
Handling the business aspects of the project, including raising money, dealing with investors, returning their money (hopefully with a profit!), managing the sales and distribution process, and much more
Many producers are good at only one or even two of these things. But the best producers are genuinely talented at all three. They can see the bigger picture at all times. They can look at pretty much any aspect of the process and see where something is going wrong and needs to be fixed. They know how to marry the art with the business and satisfy both the filmmakers and the financiers. They know how to get the most out of all the tools they have to work with.
Of course, producers can’t do everything alone. Filmmaking is a team sport, after all. They need to delegate jobs within these areas. So the line producer should be able to handle the line items in the budget, the executive producers can work on the finer details of the financing, and so on.
But the producers will need to sign off on pretty much every major decision that is made on the project, and that requires a good working knowledge of each part of the process, however much advice they also get.
Now, if you’re still trying to break into the industry and don’t know much about all these areas yet, don’t panic. Producing isn’t usually a one-person job, so as long as the project has a team with complementary skillsets that can cover these three areas between them, they should be fine.
And the best way to learn about the filmmaking process is to be as prepared as possible and then jump in and go for it! Nothing beats hands-on experience for learning how to make a film or TV show. Just try to partner with the right people so that you can learn from the best and hopefully avoid any major disasters along the way.
But producing should be a journey of self-improvement, just like anything else in life. If you have no interest - or, as the producer that called me up believed, no time - to learn at least the basics of all three of these areas, then you should not be a producer.
There are many other roles that you can take on a project and ways that you can contribute to its success, but the producer role is all-encompassing.
Just as the president always says: “The buck stops with me”, well, so the producer must ultimately be responsible for everything that happens related to their project, both good and bad.
When your name is on the movie, it’s a double-edged sword. If things go well then, yes, you’ll be the one receiving awards, being quoted in the press, and being celebrated throughout Hollywood.
But if things go wrong, you’ll also be the one that investors will be calling to ask what happened to their money and why they haven’t got it back yet. And if that happens, you’d better have a good answer for them. Hint: saying “someone else was dealing with that” won’t usually cut it. Whether you like it or not, you’re the producer, which means you’re responsible.
Keep this in mind when you’re out there telling everyone about the movie you’re producing! If you’re not ready for the responsibility in case things go wrong, don’t be a producer.
Ricky Margolis has over 15 years' experience in the entertainment industry, and has been involved in the finance, development, production, and/or distribution of over 30 titles.
Check out his latest book "How The Hell... Do I Get My Film Financed: An Introduction To Film And TV Financing". Click here to learn more about how you can use this process to help get YOUR next film or TV project financed and into production!
To see all the books in our series "How The Hell... Do I Get My Film Financed?" on film & TV finance and production, please click here.
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