I always thought the producer was basically the CEO of the production company. His job being to get financing for the project and make sure all the legal stuff is taken care of. To me this sounds like the job of the Executive Producer. However, I’ve seen many movies and TV shows where the person I thought would be the EP is not. For instance Spielberg is listed as a producer for Super 8, not an EP. So, the EP is not the top guy?
What are the differences between an Executive Producer and a Producer? What about Associate Producer? If you watch the credits of Family Guy there are a ton of producers and co-producers for each different kind of producer. So, whats the deal with all the producers?
Executive producer is often just a major investor in the film. Associate producer credit is often just a vanity plum that an actor or writer’s agent might insist upon.
“Producer” by itself is the credit given to the overall boss of a project.
Producers are also people with creative input and authority who are not actually directing the actors. They might rewrite pages and consult on even shut down the production because it’s not going well, as I understand Men in Black 3 just did, temporarily.
Another reason is chain of events.
Say that our OP, Daddypants, has a great I idea for a TV show, “Killer Nuns!” about nuns who are hitmen.
Unfortunately, Daddypants doesn’t have a lot of contacts, so he asks DMark to help get this off the ground.
Next thing you know, Daddypants DMark Productions start working on a script and find an agent.
They get Blue Sky Inc. interested in casting and financing a pilot.
Now you have Daddy Pants DMark Production working with Blue Sky Inc.
They get the pilot finished and Warner Brothers likes it and decides to cast one of their people in the show in re-shoot it, re-naming it “Sister Shooters” starring Betty White.
Now the show is a Daddypants DMark Productions, Blue Sky, Warners, Betty White Inc. production.
CBS picks up the show, and later it is distributed by Xeno Distributors.
Now when you see those opening credits:
A Daddypants DMark Production
Blue Sky
Warners
Betty White Inc
CBS
Xeno
Lots of fingers in the pie, but each was written into the contract.
So, do they all have a say in the final series? Not necessarily.
But they will all get “credit” and some will work on it day-to-day, while others have nothing more to do with it other than get some royalties and glory.
However, each one had some input, at some point, and was able to get a good agent to get them a good contract that kept their name alive.
Sometimes, less connected and less experienced people along the way will simply sell off any rights (and name attachment). Sometimes, people who have absolutely nothing to do with the creation of the project will have a clever agent, and good lawyers, and get their name attached anyway.
Excellent analysis, DMark, and it supports my own intuitive version of shows with lots of EP and AP types. The old days of David O. Selznick and his ilk are much less common these days. So the credit (and blame – and liability) gets shared a lot more.
Side issue: can anybody pinpoint the movie or even the year when the end credits expanded to the long scroll we see today?
Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) is the generally accepted pioneer of extensive closing credits, but the practice didn’t really catch on until the 70s. I think Superman was probably the film that really started the current trend for really long ending credits.
I can’t tell you the year(s) this happened, but this came about with union negotiations - when suddenly everyone who ever worked on a film pretty much has the right to be officially listed in the credits. This is why you will see the name of the caterers, drivers, flower arrangers, you name it - they all work for a union that demanded they get screen credit. Granted, that credit is often in a font of 3pts that scrolls by at 56 mph at the end, but hey - your name is up there!
(It also helps on future resumes to say you got a “credit” on such and such a film or TV show or whatever…)
Do you get a little smile whenever the commercial channels run those end credits by in a little corner box on the screen (at at least the velocity you said) while promoting some dipshit show they have coming on two weeks from Friday?
Back around the time of the Academy Awards, NPR did a piece about that movie’s fifteen producers. It offers a similar narrative to DMark’s post above, but also mentions at the end the efforts of the Producers Guild to begin standardizing the titles.
I don’t know about movies, but in TV it seems to be related to the pecking order of the writing staff, and has nothing to do with “producing”.
I got this info from an autobiography by Drew Carey, who explains in detail the different producer titles on his television show. I’m not near the book but basically each title comes with its own payscale, perks, etc. I’m not sure if anyone with a producers title (except maybe for the idea guy - like Jerry Bruckheimer on CSI) is actually a producer. The writing credit explains why William Petersen became a producer on CSI (as do most stars of shows).
Someone else that knows TV food chain hierarchy stuff will be able to tell us more.