ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

9 years, 6 months ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Number-based questions are almost impossible to answer as the scope is so wide for 'producer'.
How do they get started? By starting, usually working up through the production office or coming from AD department. Progress by being good so people want to keep working with you.
Personal investment - will vary so wildly it's impossible to answer. You do usually have startup costs, a few grand maybe.

9 years, 6 months ago - Nicole Behrens

Hey, it might be woth to contact the Production Guild for some of the info. Regarfin rates you can also check the Bectu rates.

It varies for most of those questions.

9 years, 6 months ago - John Lubran

I can't imagine why any producer of any real provenance would want to engage in Ross's investigation, at least for the reasons given for it and within the methodology of it. The label 'producer' is probably the most intangible and varied of all job descriptions in this industry. At one end a 'producer', such as directly employed by the BBC and other broadcasters is a salaried managerial roll significantly different from a business mogul at the other. In between there's numerous producorial circumstances where folks calling themselves producers fulfil every role from the sublime to the ridiculous. In my book, for the most part, a producer is a prime moving initiator and facilitator with ultimate control over the entire creative and business requirements of a production. Spilling ones beans to a complete stranger, about whom virtually nothing has been revealed (passion project?), would be counter intuitive to any actual producer; surely?

9 years, 6 months ago - AndBut Films

You might have a chat with Stephen Follows, who has done notable research on UK film industry statistics. https://shootingpeople.org/cards/stephenfollows

9 years, 6 months ago - Ross Lindgren

Hi, thanks for the helpful responses. Please keep them coming :)

John, I think you're missing the point. I'm a young person trying to understand more about the industry. The wide scope of my question is intended to gain a better understanding and fill in the gaps in my knowledge. I just want to understand what these different kinds of individuals collectively termed as 'producers' do and what sets them apart in the ways I outlined.

What you term as 'spill ones beans to a complete stranger' I would call giving some helpful advice to someone looking to come up in this industry and plan their career based on an empirical understanding of how the industry is structured. However there was some helpful information peppered in there so I do appreciate that. I just don't know why you'd approach my question with such suspicion.

9 years, 6 months ago - John Lubran

I appreciate your further explanation Ross but I have to stand by my post in response to the context and structure of your original request. I think it more helpful to be blunt to be kind in the face of naivete. Perhaps asking a TV producer of the salaried managerial type for details of their career evolution might be viable, if you can find one willing to be generous. For actual producers of the true creative entrepreneurial kind though the proof of my pudding will be in the eating; have you found a producer, I mean a real one, willing to provide you with such a consultation without first establishing a pertinent relationship? Do you appreciate just how much you're asking for?

What I would say is that becoming a producer, whilst being a learning curve of some magnitude, is rarely a process of trite statistical interest. The personal skills and experience required are more likely to stem from inherent eclectic talents and/or the sort of luck and opportunity that only such inherent talent achieves. I doubt that any linear process deriving from a merely academic perspective is likely to achieve much or even a useful data analysis. In short it's my experience that actual producers, as opposed to upper middle management employees, are born rather than made.