Through the Eyes of a Producer

I am a gaffer by trade. My opinion of "producers" up till this point was not a very complimentary one. My idea was that all producers did was look for the bottom line and ignore any of the artistic decisions made by the director or department heads. I thought of producers as people only interested in the dollar amount, constantly trying to find ways to cut corners and save money, even at the expense of the creative choices.

Now that I have done a lot of producerly work for this film I have come to realize that producers do a lot more then just worry about the budget(though that is a huge part). I have been doing things like arranging meal donations, calling cast and crew to maintain the flow of information, schedule the shoot days, balance the budget, arrange transportation and contact the equipment vendors and film labs. In this short time I have learned so much of what I thought I already knew about the entire production process that I wonder how I ever thought a production was possible without such knowledge.

My work station, which normally consists of some carts with lights on it and my tool belt with my light meters, is now a mobile command center complete with laptop, cellphone and lots and lots of paperwork. I get up early and spend most of my time checking and replying to emails and returning phone calls. I get up early(ish) and get coffee and go over to the dinning table that is now my desk and spread out all my papers and go through my to-do list for the day. I do constantly check the budget to make sure we aren't spending more money then we have, and I seem to have become a little bit of what I hate because I keep telling people, "we can't spend it, we have to cut things..." I now see WHY they are always looking at the bottom line and it frustrates me but I understand it at the same time.

I am constantly on the phone, constantly putting out fires and trying to accomplish as much as I can in the short amount of daylight hours there are in a business day. It's a lot of work but it is exciting and I like the feeling of accomplishing a lot of tasks in a short amount of time.

PhillM tip-of-the-day:
You will find that a lot of people want to participate and get involved with your project, all you have to do is be able to ask. This is a hard thing to learn how to do, I am still learning it. But if you can get past the fear of asking for things then it seems to come easier.