In the Spotlight: The Producer

To come full circle with the roles I am assuming during my 'Me, Myself, and I', I will now finally turn to the producer's job role to get an idea of what I will need to do.

The probably most obvious tasks of a producer are the organisation of cast and crew, film production, finance and marketing as well as the monitoring of the above-mentioned aspects. They often also provide the film idea or find a film script to put into production and generally keep a tab on all the documentation and paperwork that is required for the production of a film, be it drafting contracts, securing rights and funds, hiring locations, controlling the production flow and approve of any changes made, and finally taking care of marketing and distribution.

Asking Creative Skillset again, I looked up the personal qualities that would be required for the job. Thus, a successful producer would need to:

- have a good understanding of finance and an overall good business sense, being able to organise and create the budget and negotiate when necessary,

- possess a (self-)motivating personality and be skilled at solving problems as well as communicating effectively,

- understand the Health and Safety laws and procedures and ensure that regulations are met whenever possible,

- understand the creative aspects of film production and also possess intuition for creative processes and,

- be stress resistant, trustworthy, and reliable.

Since this is a wieldy field, I can easily understand the claim that it would be difficult to find someone who would be able to pose as a producer in all these stages. This would require someone who not only has an extensive network of various go-to sources, but who thus also possesses a lot of experience and expertise in the film making process in general.

This also means that a producer needs many soft skills, flexibility and an impeccable time-management since they function as the central figure in all communication and organisation. They furthermore need to have a strong sense of responsibility since they need to ensure and adhere to the local Health and Safety standards, protecting cast and crew.

Looking onto this job role description, I have been affirmed in the assumption that taking care of the overall organisation of bookings, props, schedule, risk assessments and Health and Safety regulations will be my most important job.

But it also becomes apparent how important the role of a producer is... and of how stressful it might be. To be honest, I cannot imagine becoming a producer, since this does not sound like an attractive job to me. I find that, though creativity is considered a vital part of being a producer, the actual creative aspect is getting not enough attention.

Through this read, I learned that the film making process consists of four stages, which brought me a lot of clarity and insight into the producer's job and helped me find a structure to adhere to during my 'Me, Myself, and I'. These are, just for the sake of completeness:

1. Development

2. Pre-production

3. Production

4. Post-production

References:

Creative Skillset (n.d.) Producer [online] http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/757_producer [Accessed on 20 November 2017]

Biography.com (n.d.) Steven Spielberg. [online] https://www.biography.com/people/steven-spielberg-9490621 [Accessed on 20 November 2017]

THR Staff (2015) 30 Powerful Film Producers Hollywood [online] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/30-powerful-film-producers-hollywood-883194 [Accessed on 20 November 2017]