The role of the producer is mainly financial and organizational. He is the first and most important person to enter the film production and distribution cycle and also the last person to leave this cycle. He is present from the first stages of planning to all stages of production, broadcasting, and advertising (creating promotional teaser and broadcasting it) and oversees it. He is the one who reaches a script (scenario) in different ways and takes the final decision about it. After the script is approved by him, he starts the filmmaking project.
Duties of the producer
The producer is the one who has been able to finance the film, either from his own funds or by finding financial sponsors, so the director is also responsible for handling most of the film’s budget concerns. He should know how much his film costs, try to use agents, locations, actors, etc. that are compatible with the film’s budget. This may include hiring low-wage actors, using family members or friends to help with some of the behind-the-scenes work, or setting up low-cost solutions to implement ideas.
Anyway, in the financial situation of these days of cinema, a smart director should pay a lot of attention to these points, the producers are much happier spending less capital to make a movie and get more profit, for example, the producer’s friend The film is about to be completed in 50 days instead of 80 days, so if a director cannot meet the producer’s expectations and his film cannot sell well in the release, the producer will no longer work with him and will quickly move on to other directors. To make a quality movie with less money.
In fact, the producer is responsible for the following tasks in the pre-production stage:
Duties of the producer in the pre-production stage
Selection and recruitment of the agents that he intends to participate in the film production group with himself. Factors such as production manager, procurement manager, project manager, secretary, accountant, etc., of course, he can hold some of these positions at the same time.
After the completion of the pre-production stages, or in other words, the preparations and the beginning of the production stage, the producer is responsible to advance the project according to the script. During filming and editing, the producer usually acts as a liaison between the writer or director and the film funding company. After all the stages of making the film are finished and it is ready, the producer is often responsible for organizing the advertising and marketing for the film, distribution and showing and recovering the costs of the film production. If the film participates in festivals and film festivals (both domestic and foreign), he is responsible for planning and organizing things.
The producer is attracted to a film project in the following ways:
The producer may be independent. He finds film projects and tries to get the agreement of film production or distribution companies to finance and participate in the project. The producer may work for a studio or a film production company (real or legal). In this case, his job is to plan for the film and also accept the project that is assigned to him. A producer may be hired by a studio or film company to take on a project they have in mind and arrange it.
Sometimes the producer interferes with the artistic nature of the film and leaves a decisive impact on the final quality of the product. In fact, some producers are so dominant over the films they produce that the resulting film is actually a work of them rather than the director. Irving Thalberg was one of these producers who, in addition to the power he exerted on his film, also had high artistic and filmmaking knowledge. Thalberg was so successful in his career that the Academy of Arts and Sciences in America has an award named Thalberg among its awards and gives it to prominent figures in filmmaking.
Due to the power that the producers had and still have, some directors wanted to immediately establish their own film production company or at least be the producers of their films, so that in addition to enjoying more profit, all Exercising power and making decisions is up to them. Among these directors, we can mention Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, etc.
In this way, the great and famous producers of the world cinema are usually skilled, cinematographers and competent people who have full knowledge of all aspects of filmmaking, including technical, artistic, and financial aspects. They are not necessarily rich and basically, they have the duty to produce a film with proper, favorable, and economic conditions.