SPECIALIST SUBJECT INVESTIGATION -
This assignment was broken into two parts, part one being the Oscars rundown, and the second part is an in-depth essay on our specialist area.
Our assignment was to research and critically examine the influence of historical and contemporary contexts on your own practice.
The first part of our project was to produce a magazine show, based around Oscars season, our episode had to focus on our area of interest as we were required to research, plan and produce a multi-camera, studio-based show that provides the audience with a greater knowledge of Oscars season whilst focusing on those we admire in the industry and that also practice our industry specialism.
For this assignment, I made a magazine show pice that included me and ollie, we both had the same specialist area which was producing so we decided to work together to talk about our areas.
Our oscar rundown talked about producing and producers who have won at the Oscars and how they got to that stage. We researched information on what it takes to win an oscar and famous producers and how they have worked their way up to that role.
Watch our finished show below -
For the second part of this assignment, we were asked to produce a piece of extended writing of a minimum
of 2,000 words on our individual area of interest, this piece of writing should be well researched and based on a range of academic and cultural
findings.
The question for my essay was why
does the title of a producer cause so much confusion and what does the role of
a producer entail and how does this differ in terms of the many other
production roles?
Find my finished essay below -
Matthew Hooton
Specialist Subject Investigation
2,000 words minimum
Specialist
Subject Investigation
This
essay will aim to answer the question why does the
title of a producer cause so much confusion and what does the role of a
producer entail and how does this differ in terms of the many other production
roles?
The role of the producer has always been a
little unclear, both within and outside the film and TV industry. A writer
writes, a director directs crew and actors and an editor edits the film
together, but it’s never really clear what a producer does. This essay will
give an explanation into the role of a film and TV producer and the background
of what it entails.
They are many reasons at why someone way be
confused by the role of a producer, one of the reasons why people may be
confused is part due to the fact that the role of the producer has shifted and
expanded with the market demands and the changing conditions of which films and
TV shows are now made.
Many may not think this but the producer has
the biggest role and responsibilities on any film or TV production, they are
responsible for a verity of things, first they must find and develop a material
to eventually turn into a film or TV show, The project always starts with the
producer, they find a story from something weather it’s a newspaper article,
book, or a script that has already been written, it is the producer that finds
the story and brings it to life through earning the rights to making it into a
film and finding a writer to develop the script and get it ready for
production.
Arguably, the producer’s biggest
responsibility of all is sourcing and securing the funds needed to producing
their idea, this is what scares many people away from producing. It’s their job
to gain initial funding for the project through various ways of selling the
idea to an audience such as pitching. This is where I believe the business side
of the role comes into play. Many may think the producer just finds the idea
and makes it with a crew on set, but in reality, the producer is actually more
involved with the serious business side of the production rather than the
creative and production side, they need to have a very business orientated mind
and need to know how to get the money it’s going to take to produce their
project and how to keep within that money budget when creating their media
text.
The producer must take into account all
aspects of the production to create an accurate budget so that the crew doesn’t
over spend, as this will all come back to the producer.
What people don’t ever realise is that the
producer hires the director, not the other way around, the stereotypical view
is that the director has more power than the producer. This is a point that I
will consider later on in this essay. The producer is responsible for sourcing
all the production crew including the director.
A producer is a role that starts at the very
start of a production and finishes at the very end, they are responsible for
everything in-between, from pre-production to distribution of the finished
product. They are not just an on set role as they have to make deals months
before the crew start to go on-set. When everyone else goes home the producer
continues to be the champion of the film.
As mentioned before the stereotypical view is
that the director has more power than the producer. This is where I would like
to show the differences between a producer and a director. The producer has
much more of a business role compared to the director, the producer is the one
who finances the film where as the director is more in control of the visual
effects and how the film looks. While the director may appear to have a more
important and significant role on set as they are the ones controlling all the
crew, is It actually the producer who has all the power as without them there
would be no idea to create into a film and no money to do it with.
In the industry, Directors are almost always
more well-known than producers even though the producers do the hard part of
the work, this maybe because the directors are seen as the people in charge of
the production, and as this is true to an extent, people believe that there is
no one above when in fact the producer is higher. Directors also sometime star
in their own films which gives them more exposure than a producer as they tend
to stay behind the camera. For example, Woody Allen has starred in his own
films.
Becoming a producer is much harder than first
thought, people may believe working in the creative industry isn’t a real
career and that you can’t earn money, but what it takes to become a producer
isn’t as easy as it seems. Within the industry if you want to become a film or
tv show producer then you are expected to attend university to study
film. But in the industry, there is something much more valuable than a degree
from university, and that’s experience within the industry. Company’s and
people need people who have the skills and experience to produce projects and
bring them to life. Anyone can go and get a degree in film but showing people
what you have worked on or created already is nearly always more important and
overall more impressive. The average experience needed to join a production
company or team is between 1 and 5 years. This makes company’s much more
comftable with implying you if they already know what you’re like. When
becoming a producer, having critical skills are a must. These include: -
thinking, writing, decision making, time management and listening.
No one ever starts out straight as a film
producer, it takes years of gaining experience but it’s one of the best things
to do to stand out to future employers. The experience needed to become a
producer is much more important.
Because working in the film & TV industry
is such a high target job, producers gain a lot of power. Successful producers
can gain fame and popularity which also leads to power within society. With a
following they are influencers who can easily influence people and make
themselves into a brand. The power can be a great thing but can also bring
negatives. An example of this power being used in the wrong way is in the
recent Weinstein scandal.
Weinstein had been accused of sexual assault
to woman within the industry, and has now been more recently found quality,
people may have not said something right away purely because of the power that
he had.
When something like this happens the persons,
career is now dependent on what the audience thinks of them. Their career can
be suddenly taken away in seconds because of one story. This is the reality of
being in the public eye.
Examples of other producers are people such
as Michael man, Tarantino and Stephan Spielberg all people who have worked in
the industry for some time now and have built themselves a brand that they can
gain power for themselves with. With a world now full of social media this is
now easier to do than ever.
An example of the difference between a
director and producer can be seen by the scott brothers who are both famous
filmmakers. Tony Scott was a British film director while his brother Ridley was
a producer. Tony was always the more well-known brother purely based on the
fact that he was a director. Even though some say ridley made the better films
he was always less known compared to his brother. This is an issue that still
goes on to this day, which leads me onto my next topic of how the role of a
producer has changed over time and why it’s now the most important role on and
off set.
Many years ago in Hollywood, the producer was
the creative force behind a project, something that still applies today to an
extent, Once a project was ready to be screened the producers job was over and
the responsibilities went over to the studios distribution team.
Over the last 10 years, everything has
changed with the huge market of digital filmmaking and shearing platforms. The
world has been flooded with digital content and the producer has come to be
something more. Though finding funding for the film is still their main job the
role of producer has become something so much more. From finding the idea in
the first place to now marketing the film and distributing it to an audience,
the producer has become the link between the filmmaker and the audience even
though they take upon the more business side role of the production.
Productions are now bigger than they ever
used to be and the role of producer has adapted to help with this, years ago
films used to have small budgets and crews and would now feel like a walk in
the park to produce looking back. But these days crew sizes are in the hundreds
of people and the producer is now in charge of all these people. The role has
developed into something so huge that doesn’t really get the reignition that it
deserves.
In
conclusion, I believe there will always be a confusion between the roles of
director and producer, due to the fact of the roles being similar and people
who are not fully involved in the film and TV industry thinking that they are
the same thing and also not realising how many business skills are needed by
the producer to create a professional production these days. The role will
always be more business than creative as there needs to be someone on a
production that can deal with money, people and finding crew to produce an
amazing final piece. There would be no way productions could work without a
producer and they play such an important role which doesn’t really get
recognised.
References
Anon, (2020). [online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293008955_How_to_Measure_the_Power_of_Actors_and_Film_Directors [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].
BBC News. (2020). How the Harvey Weinstein scandal unfolded. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41594672 [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].
Careers In Film | Film Schools & Colleges. (2020). Producer vs. Director: Who’s the Boss?. [online] Available at: https://www.careersinfilm.com/producer-vs-director/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].
En.wikipedia.org. (2020). Film producer. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_producer [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].
Garden, H., HowStuffWorks, Entertainment, Movies and Awards (2020). How Movie Producers Work. [online] HowStuffWorks. Available at: https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/movie-producer2.htm [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].
Huffingtonpost.co.uk. (2020). HuffPost is now a part of Verizon Media. [online] Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/preetam-kaushik/the-changing-roles-of-film-producers_b_2483863.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAM_KmI6WAAJtLz5DYDPByDmzhpnJ0ZBnk-3394J7lE0YGAIWbY2xD17ZXXccbpO-d5U7T8fACzai26G8uuCSXju_hwvBVL7oYshXGtC0HU-3YkhdWxjB3JA2AbmfyjYvT9_Zb2oQNlNFjY1vEV3VPmjzxR0y0R4jbUbXHH5utJi7 [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].
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Study.com. (2020). How to Become a Movie Producer | Education and Career Roadmap. [online] Available at: https://study.com/how_to_become_a_movie_producer.html [Accessed 6 Mar. 2020].
