In a previous article, I wrote that you become a movie producer simply by declaring yourself to be one and then to go about doing what a producer does. So what exactly does a movie producer do?
First of all there are lots of producer titles: Executive Producer, Associate Producer, Line Producer. Most of the titles mean they don’t really have to do much at all. The creator of a television show may have the title “Executive Producer” but is rarely involved in the day-to-day production activities. An agent may get a title as Associate Producer as a bone. I am going to only discuss the work of the actual producer.
In general there are two things that a producer must do: gathering and smoothing. OK, this is kind of general and abstract so I’ll get more specific and go into some detail.
Producer as Gatherer
What the heck does that mean, you are probably think. Like in One Million BC when our ancestors were hunter-gatherers, they roamed collecting roots, berries and nuts? Well, sort of. But instead of gathering berries and nuts you are gathering the resources needed to make the film. And what is the most fungible of resources? Money, of course.
Generally speaking three kinds of resources are needed to complete the film: people, equipment and locations.
Basically a producer has to find sources of funding for the film. This could be suckers investors or it could be funded by someone’s credit card. Once funding is in place, the producer can start filling all the slots needed to complete the movie. Gathering the workers and equipment.
Screenplay
The very first resource you need is a script aka screenplay. Maybe you already have one. If not, you have to get one by either: buying a screenplay, paying someone to write a screenplay, writing it yourself. Normally a producers only talent is in delegating everything to someone else, either buying a script or finding someone to write the script is the preferred option. For no-budget productions, writing a screenplay yourself may be the only option. But unless you are a talented writer, it will probably suck and not be worth producing.
Above-the-Line Talent
Above-the-line people are the ones who get credit at the beginning of the movie: Screenwriter, Director, Producer, Director-of-Photography, Production Designer, and lead actors. Above-the-line means that they participate in the gross sales or profit of the movie.
Below-the-Line Crew
The rest of the crew are below-the-line. Their credits come at the end of the film. They are paid a day rate and have no participation in gross sales or profit.
When it comes to hiring the below-the-line crew, the first guy you hire is someone to do all the hiring. That guy is the Unit Production Manager (UPM). Get the UPM on board first and now you can delegate the rest of the hiring to him.
As for equipment, each department will make a list of the equipment that needs to be rented: cameras, lenses, lights, grip truck, etc. Some technicians like sound recordists and makeup artists usually come with their own equipment.
Producer as Smoother
Once all the resources are in place and the show is ready for production, the producer’s job should be over until post-production. But there are always problems that come up and sometimes people get angry and cause a fuss. These could be problems with a location, with an actor, the crew, a neighbor, or the cops. This is where smoothing comes in. I’ll give some examples.
When shooting on location, often a neighbor will get disturbed that there is filming going on somewhere in his neighborhood. So the neighbor decides now would be a great time to saw up logs with his chainsaw, making it impossible to record sound. So the producer has to smooth things over with the neighbor, sometimes offering him a crisp $100 bill.
Here is a personal experience I once had in Santa Monica. We had permission to film in a big insurance office, but no permit from the City of LA. The office was one of those huge open sea of desks type offices. It was nearly impossible for anyone to know that we were filming because everything was indoors. We pulled up the grip truck and quickly unloaded what was needed. Then we parked the truck a couple of blocks away to avoid suspicion.
After awhile, an elderly gentleman walking a little dog noticed our grip truck parked in his neighborhood. He became suspicious that there was filming going on somewhere in his neighbor and was determined to put a stop to it. He walked that poor little dog up and down the street for maybe two hours trying to find out where the production was taking place. Eventually he saw somebody come out that looked like part of a film crew and pinpointed our location. The jig was up. The LAPD was there in about 15 minutes. The producer did all the smoothing she could with the cops which bought us some time. They let our crew shoot a few more scenes before shutting us down.
So there you have it. Gathering and smoothing. The life of a producer.
Here are a couple of good books by Robert Koster, who was a long-time UPM in Hollywood:
