Film producer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Film producers)

Jump to: navigation, search

A film producer or movie producer is someone who selects a screenplay, initiating the process of film making. The title Executive Producer is normally reserved for a producer with a financial interest in the production. The producer oversees the whole process including co-coordinating, supervising and controlling matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel such as the film director, other producers involved on production, line producer, accountant and arranging for distribution. They also advise and control creating the scenes and conditions for making movies. The producer is involved throughout all phases of the film-making process from development to completion of a project. In the first half of the 20th century, the producer also tended to wield ultimate creative control on a film project. In the U.S., with the demise of Hollywood's studio system in the 1950s, creative control began to shift into the hands of the director.

Changes in movie and film distribution and marketing in the 1970s and '80s gave rise to the contemporary phenomenon of the Hollywood blockbuster, which has tended to bring power back into the hands of the producer. While marketing and advertising for films accentuates the role of the director, apart from a few well-known film-makers, it is usually the producer who has the greatest degree of control in the American film industry.^{citation needed} Many producers today are paid as a minimum $120,000 to $300,000 for a movie.

Traditionally, producers risk their own money and are considered the chief of staff while directors are in charge of the line. This "staff and line" organization mirrors that of most large corporations and the military. Under this arrangement, the producer has overall control of the project and can terminate the director, but the director actually makes the film.¹ The "line producer" is thus a producer who assists with day-to-day financial and production concerns "on the line" as the film is being made.

References

Notes

^ http://www.filmmakers.com/stories/Producer.htm

Further reading

The Producer's Business Handbook by John J. Lee, Jr., Focal Press (2000)
From Reel to Deal by Dov S-S Simens, Warner Books (2003)

External links

[0] ttp://www.filmmakers.com/stories/Producer.htm

1