I’ve never been very clear as to the role of a movie producer. The picture has been muddied even more with the escalating number of producers on recent movies. I usually watch the credits at the end of the film and have noticed screen after screen come up listing producer after producer. Some are labeled as executive producers, some just as producers.
Are most of these people just investors in the film? Do others have some more direct role in the process of making the film? If so, what do they actually do?
A movie is a complex business enterprise that needs a vast amount of money and resource management. That’s the producer’s job: business manager of the movie production.
The term has gotten devalued and misused to the point where some “real” producers insist on being called a line producer. The others - every form of “executive producer” especially - are people who wrote checks. Sometimes, in the case of big name executive producers (Spielberg, Lucas, etc.) they provided studio space, material rights or other non-monetary support.
But in the end, “producer” or “line producer” was the boss man of the effort, and “executive producers” wrote checks to see their name on the screen.
A good distinction is contrasting the roles of the producer and the director. The director actually makes the movie: he’s the one that yells “cut”. He directs the actors, sound, lighting, and everything else that actually goes in to making the actual physical product. He takes care of the “artistic” aspects of the movie.
The producer is like the CEO of the movie, and is in charge of the business part of the movie. His job is to put together the financing, solve any problems with the other principals on the movie, control the budget, and point everyone in the same direction.
Depending on the people on the movie, some of these jobs may overlap. For instance, casting may be affected by both the producer and director. Producers may have some influence on the script, all the way up to veto power on anything in the script. (Directors hate that.)
This is the reason that sometimes a movie has the same person as the producer and director. It allows the director complete artistic freedom to make the movie they want (with some limitations, of course).
Producers come up with, that is, they “produce” the financing, means and method of of all the artists getting everything done, including logistics, etc. They usually start with an idea that would make money or good art and hire artists and other producers to get stuff going. Sometimes they are artists themselves. Some producer titles are just for ego, but real producers get a hell of a lot done. And get the money. They and the investors they put together generally own the movie minus some percentage they might give to land certain artists.
Producers do things like rent studio/sound stages, rent cameras, lights, sound recording equipment, select scripts, hire directors, casting directors, all the crew (some with the director’s approval), make certain the various guilds and unions are happy, and a whole bunch of other stuff.
Eric Idle once gave an interview that a movie producer is the one who “begs, borrows or steals” the money and other resources a film needs. This is very true. The producers combine their personality, show-biz know-how, and personal contacts in order to get the film made. I’d also heard that the director decides what to film, the producer decides what to cut. Actually, the roles have become muddled, but the director is an artiste, and the producer is a business man. If one of them totally dominates the other, you can end up with a crap movie. But a good story, acted professionally, and filmed from the correct camera angles, isn’t a movie. It seems like all the elements are there in the description, but it just won’t work. Somehow, the film has to combine – star power, and fit into audience perceptions.
Sometimes, the best thing a producer can bring to the table is not money, but the name recognition. I can imagine many phone calls were returned when George Clooney left messages to various people who would be best suited to work on the film.
And it does help to get the best-of-the-best to work on your film.
Good luck getting those people to return YOUR call.
Essentially while everyone else - actors, directors, writers, cinematographers, editors, stunt men, best boys, gaffers, etc - makes the movie, the producers are the people who get the movie made.