What's a producer do?

Filmmakers' Blog

Lorie Marsh

Tue, 02/02/2010 - 22:00

Think of a producer as an entrepreneur, coach, project manager, counselor, and artist all wrapped up in one Tasmanian Devil whirl of a person. First, I look for stories and characters that stand out and are well-told. Then, I work with writers and directors to draw out their visions and sharpen them, in order to communicate them with crew, cast, editors, and ultimately, audiences.

I figure out what the movie will be as a product. Who is its likely audience? How shall we reach them with our movie? Will a studio want to buy this movie? Will a foreign market want to buy this movie? How about a cable network...? Will we be selling it out of a van during our film festival run?

Based on researching these answers, I figure out how much we should spend to make the movie, and I spec out target revenue streams and projections. I do homework on how to market the movie. How it should be cast. Who our competitors are (upcoming films similar in ways to ours). And, I put together a plan, mapping it all out over the next several years, including detailed cash flow tables (my favorite part - not).

Then I ask strangers for money!

In other words, I solicit private investors. And, depending on the particulars of the project, if I can line up other means of financing to augment equity participants, I pursue those, too. This might mean foreign co-productions, state tax incentives or rebates, or lots of other boring film financing jargon.

In the meantime, I work with the filmmaker to assemble our crew - uncommonly kickass always, and beloved. You gotta feel a lot of love to make indie movies together. Because, it ain't for the money. :) I keep in mind always how to make their jobs flow - do I/we foresee any upcoming bottlenecks in the production process? If so, what can I do to dissolve that bottleneck before we get there? How can I create an environment for them to do their best work?

I also work with our casting director and production attorney to begin approaching talent, negotiating contracts, and signing on cast.

In a perfect world, I also keep up with anticipating marketing and publicity needs in advance of shooting principal photography, during post-production, and well in advance of debuting the movie. That includes creating press releases, soliciting relevant media sources with story ideas, shooting behind-the-scenes video, creating posters, and on and on.

Oh, and there's this whole Internet and social media thingie to use, to communicate with our friends, family, and fans.

I don't believe in cloning, but I could use at least another 10 hours in each day.

I'm delighted that you're here and happy that you're still reading. :) Please come visit often!