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Within the realms of independent filmmaking and corporate video, the role of Producer is something of a gray area. It tends to involve a lot of production management tasks which, on a larger project, would be handled by separate people. And that makes it an especially critical job.
Time and Money
An awareness of producing realities touches every aspect of my work, even concept development. In the very earliest stages of a job, I'm asking myself, "What will it cost and how long will it take?" Being creative without regard to these realities will lead you down a dark, nasty and expensive road.
Details, details...
After a script is approved, it's time for the Script Breakdown, a list of everything that must be bought, begged, borrowed or otherwise scrounged to complete the job. The producer also creates a shooting plan by converting the script into smaller, more manageable bits and assembling them into an efficient schedule.
On the clock
I create production schedules with a spreadsheet that calculates time. First, I break the script into setups: blocks of shooting which usually yield a number of shots. Next, I gauge how long each setup will take to shoot. I then add extra time needed for lighting, rigging, makeup, and so on. This gives me a number of minutes for each setup. When I've finished estimating, Excel does the math and tells me how many hours I need to shoot the entire script. It's proven to be very accurate.
When do we eat?
As producer, I also juggle things like equipment delivery, load-in time, meal breaks, moving among multiple locations and changes in ambient light. There is one optimum path among all these variables, and it's my job to find it. Also, the line between directing and producing can get pretty blurry. If I'm wearing both hats, I address issues as creative as choreographing a difficult master shot, and as mundane as making sure there's a bathroom nearby. All part of the job.
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