ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

9 years, 1 month ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

Hi, are you looking for someone to bring money to fulfill your dreams, or someone to spend money you already raised and manage the actual production? The former are unicorns - there simply are a lot more projects out there than money. YOU need to win the money over, inspire people to back you, take second and third jobs, steal from your family, enter bare knuckle prize fights (yep, I know a self-producing director who did that), and MAKE your own career. If it's the second you want, ask questions here in public on this site and one of several people can give ideas and guidance for free (if everyone benefits - private consulting costs money as it usually involves a lot of teaching!)

A feature *and* a TV series sounds extremely (unrealistically?!) busy and certainly expensive. Great to hear your enthusiasm, but I suggest focusing. No point making a mess of two projects instead of doing one properly (time and resources)

9 years, 1 month ago - John Lubran

Yep, just like Paddy says.

The old adage never changes; it's getting the money that's much more challenging than making the film.

If one has the money already then it's wisdom and grace that's just as important as having a great script. After that it's paint by numbers following an extremely skilled production plan with a director and crew who actually do know what they're doing.

As essential as great scripts are, they are "a dime a dozen"

9 years, 1 month ago - AndBut Films

Yes, as Paddy and John speak true. When you're starting out, the best person to find the money is you.
That said, there may be Shooters who want to launch their careers as producers or more established producers who see potential in his work and decide to help.

Filmmakers with projects should never hesitate to ask for collaborators on Shooting People: for every film announced there are several people reading who are looking for work/projects to join.

As producers do seem to be relatively scarce, any aspiring producers are particularly welcome to announce themselves: and sift through the large number of offers they will receive...

9 years, 1 month ago - John Lubran

The thing is, just what exactly does one mean when speaking of a producer? There's more jobs described as "producer" in this industry than there are twists in a box of Pretzels.

A 'starting out', 'trainee', 'student', 'beginner' producer is a contradiction in terms for me. If I seek a producer it's someone who has a track record as a producer, someone who knows what everybody else's job is and someone who has that extra special skill of being an accomplished business entrepreneur as opposed to just being a business manager.

There's TV producers who in my book are not producers at all if I have my Film Studio hat on, just as there are folks called editors in TV who've never edited. I guess there's a temptation to satire when some folk ask for collaborators when what they really want is for someone with that rare skill set to convert an idea into a materially tangible entity and garner all the wherewithal to make it possible. Unless that idea is astonishingly special, such as with the author of an international best selling book, or more probably, a series of such books, it's unlikely that such a producer is going to want any sort of collaboration where he or she is anything but in absolute charge of absolutely everything!.

Other scenarios are available in the no budget just for fun zone, but that's an entirely different reality bubble.

9 years, 1 month ago - Paddy Robinson-Griffin

There's an old thread which may be helpful for those wondering about producers...

https://shootingpeople.org/discuss/view/1fc0753c80fd3ad089ddca11