You Need A Producer

“You need to find a producer” I was told by my friend The Van Man. Oh Hellz ya I do!

I would love nothing more than to have someone take over all the nuts and bolts of my projects. But I’ve tried. I’ve put out word to friends who’ve done this before. And random people who I’ve known done producing. The fact is, it is working backwards, if I intend to direct the project. A director/filmmaker cannot find a producer. A producer has to find the material and then find a director. So, there is a strange limbo when it comes to small films. It’s also they are making their own projects. You can get pushy but, their passion for their own stuff trumps yours no matter what. You could’ve made “Lawrence of Arabia” but when they’re headstrong into their own dreams, you are the bottom priority.

In the independent feature world, producers are the money people. Which they also double as production managers (and sometimes 1^st assistant directors, which is really a conflct of interest). They are basically accountants “how many people do you need on how many days at what price?” These questions go on by the thousands. I’m in a jury trial now that deals with the same logistics. They are in manufacturing, so I suppose this is somewhat like manufacturing. How many units do we need to have by the end of the week divided by our work force equals how much in the budget versus what the revenue would be. The end should be greater than the beginning.

In the studio world, producers are time managers. Very few see the project from start to finish (including marketing). It’s a team that puts together the massive circus. Some do find projects and slap them together with actors and directors, then call it a day. This packaging is really friends helping friends. The nuts and bolts part, trickles down to the minions.

People fall into producing. Because, on this level, there is only “doing it for the love of the project.” Case in point, a producer on a short independent film had to pick up a hard drive from our office. On a Saturday. She wasn’t getting paid on this gig. Our security had misplaced the drive and I drove down spending a good three hours to locate the drive. In the meantime, she was taking calls from the director, who was already a ball of stress, and coordinating whether she should have the editor come down with a duplicate drive to dump off files. Re-coordinating a pickup with a composer to get to the director’s place to spot check score. AND, above all re-structuring her life now because of this delay. This unforeseeable action caused a reaction. What the talent and the public who eventually watch their project don’t know. There is an odd assumption most people consider a producer. My friend Kris once told me he wanted to learn a real trade, as he spent time being a t.v. producer. It’s so vague.

What I can tell you is, if it’s your money and you know what goes on, you can only do things yourself. Until you rack up enough street credit for people to want to be involved. Yeah, this sounds shitty. Like they don’t believe in you until other people do. But it’s not. You would do the same. You can only put so many tickets out there, believing the numbers hit (and I’m not into luck, in that sense).

The problem stems from having creative friends who want to do creative things. And the type of producing at this level is nothing but putting out fires and a desperate attempt at negotiating without money. Try it with locations in Los Angeles sometime. I spent a month begging for a train station (that was abandoned, mind you). Then comes the money talk “this is what we want for the location” Um…well… “this is what I have” Never to hear from them again.

And I know some of you assholes will pull this shit “well, if you love it, it wouldn’t feel like work.” Yeah, moving the puzzle pieces and assembling them is great, but building the machine to cut puzzle pieces, then finding the right density cardboard and opening a factory to build puzzle pieces, you tell me if that’s a hoot. Just because I love puzzles.

In college, we were trained to be producers. From start to finish including budgeting and directing. Back then, it was great, because there was no real structure of a movie crew, just a rotating job description. You became really what you wanted to eventually do. I wanted to be doing camera work, so I became a director of photography. Those were generally the two lines drawn. Directors would always want to use so-and-so. There was only one production I was on that there was a producing team. These kids loved producing, in that same sense that they like the notion of what producing was. This included coordinating a three block shoot down Melrose in the early mornings of a weekday ending up at The Bungalow Club (which to this day, have ZERO clue how these two knuckleheads pull it off). I think we were really ballsy back in the day. This required a generator, and piles and piles of cables and lights. Film, Steadicam operator, a music video dance number…so extras…that can dance. Oh, the whole movie started out with a car driving sequence on Lincoln Boulevard with a car mount. As a DoP on that short film/music video, I understood the weight of the coordinating that took to achieve it. But…sometimes we shouldn’t know the logistics. Less we be hindered artistically because of it.

So yeah, I would LOVE a producer, but also as the person who will inevitably still be putting the money together to make it, it’s not feasible. Backtracking a little, do you know anyone in you life willing to be a carnival barker on your behalf to get money? So why would a complete stranger or even a casual friend go that distance for you? They’d have to REALLY believe in what you’re doing. And, that’s the toughest sell of all.

In reality, I hate to burden someone who doesn’t really understand what it takes to make a movie. Most of it takes initiative and a strong will. No one hand holds you through the process, because it’s SO different from one project to the next. You have to be really flexible. And as William Goldman wrote in “The Princess Bride”…”get use to disappointment.” I’m surprised most of my fellow film school friends DIDN’T become producers. A lot really got a kick out of logistics. I did at one point too. But, I was too inflexible when it came to the parceling out of resources. It was at a point where I could tell you how much footage you’d need to cover a 2 page script with 3 set ups. Or…calculate how much per foot each scene SHOULD cost with the budget they had. Or how much each minute of running time should cost on a short film averaging at 30 minutes which includes film, meals and gear rental but NOT salary (answer: $1,000/min. when shooting on film..this is 2001 numbers).

Do you think I could ever explain to the creative people I know, this is the foundation and responsibility of what I need for you as a producer?