From Idea into Production: Producers’ Multiple Roles

If you ever go to a movie and watch the credits, looking for a producer, you’ll see that there are many different kinds of producers. For example, there’s usually just one director. In a film, there’s usually just one cinematographer. In a film, there’s usually only one person who does craft services. But there can be dozens of producers, because all the roles that a producer is associated with may be broken up into several smaller jobs,” explains David K. Irving.
You have executive producers, producers, co-producers, associate producers, assistant producers. All of them may do overlapping jobs, or many of them may do similar jobs. The only way you can find out what somebody did on a picture is to call somebody from the picture and ask what they did on that particular picture. Whatever their duties are, the producer is very key because, as a director, you want to have a partnership with somebody who will be a buffer between you and the world, to make sure that you, as a director, can do the best job possible.
“In preproduction, the producer is responsible for raising money for the film. Again, the script will be his or her best asset if you can cast any name. People that help put a lot of elements together is called packaging, “Irving states. “Sometimes you presell the films, sometimes you take ideas to festivals and get some upfront money from a foreign distribution. Producers have a number of ways where they can gather all the funds to make sure you have ample money to do a film. Financing is key.”
“In preproduction, the planning, in addition to storyboards and floor plans, includes creating a schedule. The schedule and the budget have to be balanced, as does the schedule has to balance with the script, and the budget has to balance with the script. If you have a script that takes place on the planet Septetus with 55 aliens and spaceships, but you only have $200,000 to make the film, it’s going to be very difficult,” says Irving.
“The opposite is true as well. If you’ve got two characters on a park bench like the movie, I’m Not Rappaport, a $60 million budget would be too much for that film,” Irving explains. “Always finding a balance between the script and the budget is your job as a producer or your job as a director. The same can be said for the schedule.”
A director needs five things to make a film:
1. Adequate resources, which is the budget
2. A great script, which we’ve mentioned already.
3. A fabulous cast
4. A fabulous crew
5. And they need *COUGHS* their health
Once you have all those elements, you can make a film. The producer will help you make sure that all the elements come together.