So You Wanna Be A Producer ?

A movie producer figures out what a project is going to cost, raises the money, gets it produced and then waits. You need to have a divining rod when selecting projects, as it will be six months to two years before the audience finally gets to see it. Will today's "hot topic" still be relevant? Will the critics be kind or take pot shots at it? Will it be properly promoted in an increasingly crowded field? With a theatrical movie, it's a one shot deal: all the eggs in one opening weekend basket. There's a quick hook waiting for a film that doesn't perform as expected.

Execs yank a new TV series off the air after two or three episodes if it doesn't immediately attract the anticipated audience. Back in the old days, a show was on the schedule for an entire season of 26 -39 episodes until people got used to it and knew where and when to look for it. All In The Family and Seinfeld are only two examples of mega-hit series that wouldn't have made it in today's hair trigger climate. Sometimes a TV show deserves a second, third and fourth chance until the actors settle into their roles and the writers find their voices.

On a daily basis during the actual production period, the producer gets to referee the ongoing battle between the Show vs. the Business. Sometimes the producer decides in favor of art over commerce and fights with the studio/ financier for a little more time and money to make something better. Then there is the prick bastard producer hired by the studio to ride herd over a group of profligate kids who pulls the plug just as a climactic moment is about to be shot and doesn't100 really care about anything other than the bottom line. The director yells at you because he or she didn't get all the coverage they needed to complete the scene. The creative producer diplomatically points out that if they had been better at clock management or hadn't screwed around on a particular scene earlier in the day or were unwilling to compromise their creative vision, they would've finished within the agreed upon time frame and gotten the day's work in the can.

When big egos are involved and you don't own or happen to be related to someone who owns the studio, the producer becomes the referee who tries to call a fair game. You know going into the enterprise that it's going to be rough going and there's a good chance you will be a casualty. When it's a big time feature film director, fugetaboutit. They have the power to pretty much do whatever they want, the budget be damned. They often operate under the Eric Von Stroheim philosophy of not-so-secretly wanting to bankrupt any company that is myopic enough to hire them. The business be damned because they are only interested in making art.  

If you have gone a little bit over budget, the financiers grumble but all is forgiven if the audience loves the show. If the show doesn't find its intended audience and the producer brought it in under budget, they want to know, "Why didn't you spend the damn money and make it better?" If the show turns out poorly and went terribly over budget, the not-so-subtle message is get out of here and don't darken our doorway again. One way or another, if things go wrong it is usually the producer's fault. They are the most convenient scapegoat and someone must be blamed.

Art is an amazing game. Nobody's right and nobody's wrong and everyone has an opinion. One man's junk is another man's fortune.  What somebody is willing to pay for something isn't always an accurate reflection of what it's really worth. The perceived value or the previous success of the evaluator is often what drives the marketplace.  

The audience doesn't know how much the average movie-of-the-week or TV show costs, nor should they care. It doesn't matter to them that the star had pneumonia, bad weather washed away the sets or the director was going through a messy divorce and had a drinking problem. These are the producer's problem. All that matters at the end of the day is did the project live up to its promise? Was the audience satisfied? You'll certainly never find out by thinking about it. Sooner or later, somebody has to take the plunge and commit to financing this risky art form.

Every year a couple of small independent films break out of the pack and flies in the face of conventional thinking. The following films, and many more, were produced outside of the studio system for budgets less than two million dollars ($2,000,000.00). Some have won Academy Awards.Some have spawned film sequels or successful TV series. An independent producer had an idea or found a script they fell in love with, raised the money and without the oversight committee watering down the premise, went off and produced a little gem of a movie. Next, they had to find a distributor with some guts who was willing to spend money on a speculative venture call the P&A fund (prints and advertising). The average film print costs under fifteen hundred dollars ($1500.00). The lion's share of the P&A money goes for buying thirty and sixty second TV spots and a couple of ads in the trade papers to let everyone know that the movie exists.

Once in the marketplace word of mouth, the absolute best form of advertising, kicked in and the audiences lined up around the block to see these micro-budget movies. These films not only proved to be very profitable but also launched the careers of many big stars and directors: