Film Roles: Producer

Note: Don't confuse the Producer with the Executive Producer or the Line Producer, because they're a little different, and we'll deal with them in another post!

Steven Spielberg produced Lincoln,
War Horse, Super 8 and Munich.

If the Director is the "Manager" of the film, then it's probably easiest to describe the role of the Producer as being the "Supervisor", because that is pretty much what he or she does. His role is to supervise  or to oversee everything that goes on with the film.
It is his job to know exactly what is going on, so that he can report back to his "boss", which is more than likely the Distributors or whoever might be financing the venture.
Quite often the Producer works directly for the Studio who have commissioned the film to be made, however it is not unusual for the Producer to work independently. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly common for the Director to also be a Producer of his own film. It is also common for there to be several Producers working on one project.

The Role of the Producer

The overall role of the Producer changes constantly throughout the filming process.

Early Days:

Initially, their job is to find a film worth making. This involves finding a really good story, which could be a script written by the Director or a known script writer, or it could be a novel. Many films are based on books, with popular ones including Twilight, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, About A Boy and The Da Vinci Code amongst others. 
It is then the Producer's job to encourage to writer of the work to sell them the film rights. Whilst most writers are happy to sell the rights to their novel, there have been a notable few who have stuck their heels in and refused to grant permission. Perhaps the most notorious was Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger, who refused several requests from Producers right up until his death in 2010. In fact, members of Salinger's family are still fighting for the films to never be made, which is a shame.
If the original content has come from a book, then it will be the Producers job to find a script writer to "adapt" the book into a script. During this process, the Producer will also choose someone to direct the film, which may well be himself.
Once they have the script in place, the Producer will organize castings and the hiring of crews. He will also negotiate deals with film distributors nationally and globally.

Production:

Christopher Nolan produced his own films:
Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, as well
as Man of Steel.

The reason why there are often several Producers working on any one film is because the job is just so films - especially the really big budget ones - will have a main Producer is is the ultimate Boss, but he will then appoint other types of producers who cover different areas of the film. Several Producers will probably do the same job, but in a shift-type pattern, as the hours of work are just too immense for one person alone.
immense, especially throughout the main production period. Typically, most
Other types of Producer could include the Executive and Line Producers that we mentioned above, as well as Unit Production Managers.

Post-Production:

When filming on a movie wraps, and the cast go home, this is typically when the real work begins on areas such as editing, sound and special effects. It will be the Producers job to supervise all of these areas, approving all edits, cuts and soundtrack choices.
Despite the fact that this is considered to be "post-production", it is quite common for the Producer to call actors back to the set to either film new scenes or to re-shoot them. Re-shoots could be done for a variety of reasons, such as bad lighting or if the Producer isn't happy with certain elements, perhaps due to censorship.
As you can see, the role of the Producer is a big one, and according to the New York Times:

"Three major Hollywood studios, in a move to regulate the often chaotic ways in which producer credits are assigned for films, have agreed to let the Producers Guild of America certify some of those credits..."

For more details, I highly recommend reading the original article, published November 2012 on the New York Times' Media Decoder pages.

Find out more about other Film Roles:

The Director
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