My slow, agonizing transformation into a producer's role came about in 2016 when I was tasked with putting together a documentary: contacting all of the interviewees, sorting out a budget, interacting with crowdfunding sources, figuring out the licensing agreements, lawyers, accountants, etc. It's the part of the work I like least, but it's so much like any other business I've owned, sourcing, pricing, covering costs, collecting accounts, etc., that in one sense I've always understood it, but I thought of myself as a creative, a novelist, a screenwriter, not a director, because I valued that talent and wanted the collaboration to make my written word better on screen. Now, working on another documentary, I've had to develop even more skills and take on more responsibilities. I've had to reach out more than the first time. Still, that title, "producer" does not roll easy off my keyboard. In my head there's this voice "No, I'm not, it's just what I have to do to get my vision, or someone else's vision, out there in the world and, well, because I want it to be beautiful." I'm wondering how many others have found themselves in a similar situation, probably most.
Producing : Becoming a producer by T.L. Davis
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Hi, T.L. Davis. Your post reminds me of the first movie I tried to make way back. Looking for funds, doing paperwork, etc. weren't fun, but they had to be done. I didn't know anything about producing movies when I started. Taking class and webinars on producing, reading books, etc. would've helped.
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I was doing producer tasks without thinking about it, until one day my partner (the director) told me I was a producer. That affirmation gave me permission to acknowledge the work I was already doing.
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Maurice Vaughan the startling part of it for me was that it was essentially no different from any other business. No one wants to loan a new business the funds to get started, they worry about the ability of the people to manage not only the work, but the insurance, bookkeeping, legal aspects of contracts, especially with the city and state contracts. They always have the equipment to repossess, but what good is a piece of machinery when the bank can't operate it themselves, either? They can sell it, but buying machinery from the bank isn't as easy as it sounds and companies aren't out there scouring banks for machinery, they tend to go to brokers they trust for that. Anyway, that was surprising. I actually have experience at that.
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Mike Boas I think that's the most common way a producer becomes one. I may be wrong, but it's how we got there.
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Here, here! T.L. Davis - you do what ya gotta do to get the job jone. Eventually you're spending less time behind a camera or at a keyboard than you are pounding pavement and chasing paper.
I know that I became a producer the day I bought a thick book of entertainment law, legal boilerplate. Although, I never admitted it. Ah crikey... it was all downhill from there.
There should be group meetings, a 12 step programme, for the likes of us: "Hi, I am Mo, and I am a producer."