What Does A Film Producer Do?

Do you know what the film producer does? If you don’t know, this article is for you. Hope you will like this article.

“If no producer, no movie” – Dino De Laurentiis

This quote is told by Dino De Laurentiis who was an Italian-American film producer. By these simple 2 lines, he emphasized the role of a producer in filmmaking. Before knowing the important role played by a film producer, you have to know first who is a film producer? What Does a Film Producer Do? So, let’s briefly define a film producer’s introduction.

Who is a Film Producer?

A film producer is that person who inaugurates, coordinates and overlook the whole production. He is the money man who invest on films. He carries out the job to finance the film that is the most important part of film-making. He has the power of creative control. He gets paid even after the movie released on the contrary he takes bigger risks as there can be big loses or profit. The entire management of films, television shows, web series and commercial videos, among other productions is the core responsibility of him.

In short, A producer is a man who covers all the steps of production from beginning to end, including coordination, supervision, financial control, talent selection, craftsmanship and distribution.

Core Responsibilities of a Film Producer

There are several segmentation of producing a film and so role of a film producer is also divided into several designations like line producer, associate producer, co-producer and executive producer. If I want to outline the basic duties of a film producer, I have to mention 7 core responsibilities that every producer does while making a film. These are:

Find and Develop Material

A producer is always looking for a new script. He buys the ownership of a book themselves or hire an author to write it. Sometimes an author writes a raw script and show it to a producer. The producer may like the concept then then develop the story for his film by a screen writer. Sometimes it may happen too that the producer himself is the scriptwriter and want to invest on his own written story. Then make the script in good enough shape to attract a director.

Budget and Schedule

Before funding on a project, Producers set a budget together. This helps the investors to decide whether the production is going to be time worthy or not. Producers remain very careful before making a budget since It will also keep on track in terms of hiring cast and crew. After finalize a budget, they develop a shooting schedule. Producers usually create schedules so that they can fix the shooting days within budget limits.

That is why budgeting is so important. If budget limit is on the head of a producer, he knows exactly how many days they can shoot.Money Arrangement: Producer’s main headache is getting the money to make the film. They also look for people who can help making money. This is usually where pitch decks are created to sell the concept of the film in anticipation of the involvement of potential executive producers.

Hiring Cast and Crew

Producer’s one of the major jobs is to hire a whole production team including cast and crew. In fact, Producer of a film may hire a director too. The reason behind a producer hires a particular director is because of the proper execution of film’s plot. In addition to, the producer and the director also work together when casting.

Overlook Pre-Production & Production

As I mention before different producers do different jobs. It is the ground producer or line producer who look after whole set during actual shooting. He communicates with all department heads to assure everyone is doing their job properly.

Conduct Post-Production

At the time of shooting, producers also contact with the editors. They often send footage to the editor before pack up if it requires. Sometimes, in larger productions, the producer also works as a middleman between the director and the studio.

After the production is packed up finally, the producer along with the director ask editors some help if they need. The producer also may help the director to hire a VFX expert or any other post production requirement such as a composer or colorist.

Marketing/Distribution

Here a producer may play a vital role. He works with distributors to secure the distribution of the film. This may include showing the final cut of the film to the distributors. Runover the distributors continuously and take part in advertising campaign of the film.

A producer is a part and parcel of a film production. It seems like a producer’s responsibility never ends. From starting to the end, he has lots of works to do. He is the ultimate man who can capable to produce a qualitative film within a fair enough budget. If he doesn’t cooperate properly, a film can never release successfully.