Dreaming
the Dream by Myrl A. Schreibman
Author: THE INDIE PRODUCERS HANDBOOK, CREATIVE
PRODUCING FROM A – Z, Published by Lone Eagle Publishing, www.hcdonline.com http://www.indieproducing.com/,
Producer/Director/ Professor UCLA Film School
So
you want to be a producer? First you have to find out what a producer
is. There are so many producing credits on movies today that it is
tough to see who actually is the producer: the person who makes things
happen! Yes, that’s right. The producer is the creative force
behind any project. Certainly it starts with the writer and the director
comes in and interprets the words carrying it further into the vision.
But the creative vision begins with the producer and should be followed
through by the producer. The producer is ultimately responsible for
the creative vision of the project. The fact that it is the producer
who receives the Oscar for best picture is proof of that. The producer
must be the driving force for the project and someone with integrity,
creativity, inventiveness and ingenuity whether it is in putting the
project together, telling the story, casting the project, selecting
the director and in some cases, marketing the project. The creative
producer at any moment in the life of a project plays many roles:
mother, father, lover, romancer, persuader, psychologist, comic, best
friend, teacher, warrior, negotiator, arbitrator, dreamer.., and the
list goes on. The creative producer dreams the project, gives birth
to it and then holds on as it takes a life of its own, all the time
molding it, shaping it, providing it to the world and then leaving
it with the hopes that it makes a difference.
But to be a producer one must think like one from the time the project
is put together to the time the project is completed and in the marketplace.
And thinking like a producer means knowing the end result and use
of the creative vision to achieve that end result. This will affect
everything creative about the project from getting it into the marketplace
to the production to the investment package during development.
Development is one of the stages of the producing process, with pre
production, production and post production following. It is the stage
in which the project seeks out or raises the funds to make the project.
During this phase an investment package, business plan or creative
package is put together. Since what is being sold is a dream and something
that an investor cannot touch, smell or see, producers provide information
such as who is making the project, and its demographics. Sometimes
they are bold enough to say how much the project will make, a statement
that can never be backed up. Producers will include anything and everything
they can think of to try to raise the funds. But there are only five
basic questions that really need to be answered satisfactorily to
any investor to get the project funded. The first two have simple
answers. First, is how much money is needed for the project? Second,
is what does “money” receive as the terms of the deal?
The third question regarding timing of investment return is trickier
to answer since it will reflect either the structure of the deal or
the end result use of the project. Asking for some sort of guarantee
that the project can be made for what the package states is the fourth
question. Either it can’t be guaranteed or a completion bond
is acquired. This completion bond provides the assurance to a third
party that the project can be made in a first class distributable
manner for the stated investment. The company issuing the bond is
willing to stand behind that guarantee and watch over the funds to
make sure it does. But the fifth question of showing how the project
will get into the distribution market so that it can return money
to the investment is the most complex because there is no direct answer.
There are, however, various elements that a producer can pursue that
will increase the likelihood of it getting into the marketplace. Elements
such as an attached director, actors, or a distribution guarantee
may be of help. But circumstances arising from these elements will
affect the answers to the other questions since they can cause a domino
effect between creativity, distribution, and financial return.
The budget for the project is primary for the producer. It will determine
how and where the project will be made. It will determine the projects’
post production and define any potential compromise in creativity.
A lot has been written about budgets causing projects to leave Los
Angeles and become runaway productions. Producers say there are rising
fees in Hollywood forcing them to look elsewhere. And they blame the
rising fees on the craft people, unions and guilds for running projects
out of Hollywood. That’s not entirely true. What has contributed
to this are producers who worship the written word and believe that
the words in a screenplay are sacrosanct and should never be changed
to adjust for production. Instead they would rather change the production
and the budget to fit the written word. Let us examine this logic.
The screenplay is written by a writer from his or her imagination
without the detail knowledge of picture making. When you want to buy
a car or a house you have a set amount in mind. So why should the
budget reflect a project that was written without any regard to cost?
Writers are writers not producers and it is collaboration that movie
making is all about. It must start with the collaboration between
the writer and the producer in which the writer must try to make the
shoe fit the foot, with the foot being the budget and the parameters
of production and the shoe being the screenplay and the process of
production. This concept of making the shoe fit the foot (with the
foot being the budget and production limitations) should be used all
during the entire process of getting the project made if the producer
is to maintain integrity to every aspect of the project. The concept
can be employed not only with the writer but also the director, and
others who make up the creative collaboration of realizing the vision.
This notion encourages creativity as creativity flourishes when it
is faced with limitations and restrictions such as a production budget
or a projects’ logistics. This is the basic nature of creativity.
It nurtures the ego and the comprehension of ego is important to producing.
The connotation of this word is often interpreted as negative when
referring to someone. But a wise producer knows that “stroking”
someone’s ego can go a long way in making a project. People
that work in this industry not only do so for the money they earn
but for exercising in some way, their own individual egos. I have
been to hundreds of cast and crew screenings over the years and at
each screening every one in the audience was thinking about their
creative contribution to what they were seeing. They were massaging
their ego when they walked out of the screening with big smiles on
their faces chatting about one scene or another. Understanding how
ego works in the profession can help the producer achieve wonderful
results without spending a lot of money to get them. Ego goes hand
in glove with relationships. The relationships you build along the
path of the profession are the relationships that will stay with you
your entire career. It makes no difference if the relationships are
with financial institutions or with grips and electricians. All relationships
are equally important. A producer must never burn bridges. Just reconstruct
them. The entertainment industry is a very small one and the path
a person takes will cross the paths of many others again and again.
A producer’s integrity will keep them on that path and they
will be positively greeted by everyone they meet. As a producer’s
career builds he or she will go back to the same people for assistance.
They will learn from each other. Producing is an art form and as with
any art form it is never just a job. Producers need to maintain the
relationships they cultivate and nurture people’s ego in order
to be successful. It is the one skill that will allow the producer
to bring about that passionate one lifelong project and have people
rally when it comes time to produce it.
Other skills a producer must have are skills in negotiating. Ego and
relationships play into that skill as well. In one way or another
a producer is always negotiating. Whether it is negotiating a distribution
deal or a deal for talent, or navigating through the creative mine
field that can often come between a director and a producer, the producer
is always negotiating. There are twelve major points that a producer
should use to govern their way of negotiating.
1. Plan with limitations in mind by knowing what
are the limitations. If there are any budget limitations, know them.
If the producer does not have an established relationship and know
the person with whom they are negotiating then they must do research
to find out as much about them as they possible can.
2.
Establish a rapport with the other person. If the producer does not
have a relationship then it is important that one is established.
This is done through positive conversation often times talking about
things outside of the subject to be negotiated. Where and how this
negotiation is done is also important as it will have an impact on
establishing relationships. As an example, a phone conversation will
have a different impact than a face – to – face meeting.
3. Pitch the elements if at all possible. The producer
must try to paint a picture of whatever is being negotiated so that
the other party clearly understands the discussion. If the producer
gets the other party emotionally caught up in the vision of the project
it will give the producer strength in negotiations as it will bring
the other party along.
4. Be honest. A producer must always be honest. This
furthers the integrity of the producer and makes the producer a person
someone wants to respect and work with. But the producer should always
remember that there is honesty and there is honesty as it may not
be critical for everyone involved to know everything about the project.
Therefore producers must select words very carefully so it does not
negatively impact on the negotiations.
5. Watch and look at the body language during negotiations.
Producers should not only listen carefully to the phrasing of words
but also watch the body language as body language will often be telling
as to what the other party is thinking. The producer should always
avoid using chit chat or mockery when negotiating and to always be
careful when using humor since many people have a strange sense of
humor or no humor at all.
6. Approval must be given in negotiations by the
producer to the person he or she is negotiating with. That is it is
important that the producer recognize the importance of the other
person during negotiations. This is usually not expected and when
the producer does recognize the other person’s importance it
could give the producer the upper hand in negotiations. At the very
least it will cement the producer’s relationship for future
negotiations.
7. Humility is a virtue during negotiations. And
showing it is always a positive as it too can provide the producer
with strength during the negotiations.
8. Be upfront and try to take the initiative during
negotiations. The producer may not succeed without taking the initiative.
9. Exposing weak points of the deal from the producer’s
perspective may give the producer an advantage. In the industry one
of the basic motivations is to often help the underdog and by exposing
some of the weak points will unconsciously suggest that the producer
is in need of support to make things happen.
10. Words used by the producer such as “we”
and “us” puts everyone on the same side of negotiations.
When a producer uses words like “I” and “mine”
as in “I want the movie to…..” it is interpreted
as arrogance and will definitely not sit well during negotiations.
11. Having a game plan is crucial when entering into
negotiations of any kind and the producer must be willing to walk
away if the elements of the negotiations do not meet the game plan.
There are many roads to Mecca and a minor detour should not keep the
producer from getting there.
12. Instincts become the producer’s barometer
since instincts are never wrong. The producer’s instinct is
his or her creative self and if they listen to their instincts, they
will be way out in front during negotiations.
Thinking and behaving like a producer is only one side of a producer’s
coin. Understanding the knowledge of the process of production and
the producer has to take to complete the project through its end use
is the other side. Today most people calling themselves producers
are one - sided which is why there are so many producers listed on
one movie. The process towards a projects completion has four basic
stages. Besides development, there is pre - production, production
and post production. Pre-production is the period that begins as soon
as the financing has been secured and the main creative team contributing
to the producer’s vision is put into place. Post production
is the phase when the project has completed principle photography
and experiences the technical “magic” of editorial story
telling. But the production period is the most volatile stage. It
is the phase in which most problems can occur and the producer’s
true enemy, Murphy’s Law, will creep into the project. Because
of this volatility there is no substitution for solid groundwork in
pre-production. What the producer fails to do in development will
affect pre-production, what the project fails to do in pre-production
affects production and what the project fails to do in production
affects post – production –all of which will affect the
end result. This simple statement is a key element in creative producing
since many producers go down the path from A to Z without knowing
what to expect until it happens. But when a producer plans a project
from Z – A rather than from A – Z they will foresee some
of the difficulties in producing and plan for them during the appropriate
stages of making the movie. By looking down the path backwards from
the projects completion to pre-production and by planning carefully
for each phase of the producing process they will be minimizing any
of the potential problems and thus be more effective and creative.
Creative producing takes skill and artfulness. It takes a keen eye
for what makes a good story and finding it. It takes a creative vision
and a passion to reveal the human condition to an audience. It is
about dreaming the dream, and making it happen.
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