Film Production: The Freelance Producer

• Posted on 2nd February 2016
• in Entertainment, entertainment books, Film Production, film production book, Hollywood memoirs, TV Commercial Production
• by Ben

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Film production

can be a complex proposition on multiple levels and when working as a producer the politics can offer more challenges than the actual filmmaking.

Excerpt from Circumstances Beyond My Control, chapter 15: Freelance:

“Freelance Producer was a job title of mine for three or four years. Later on I added First AD [Assistant Director] and often worked as a Producer/AD. … When you work as a freelance producer you really have three clients and it makes the job politically tricky.

“Your primary client, the entity that hires you and pays your fee, is the production company. They present you with a story-board, script and budget and your job is to get the spot (commercial) done within the constraints of that budget, into which you had zero input. In nearly all cases the person who wrote the budget was competing with other companies for the job and made it tight. In some cases this person had no real field experience and either overlooked or ignored items that were going to cost money and/or underestimated the amount of time (money) it would take to get it shot. So, going in, you’re under pressure.

“Your second client, the one you have to deal with when the shoot is in progress, is the director.

“Line producers and ADs are mostly film people. By that I mean we have a theatrical background and are trained or experienced in making movies, dealing with actors, scheduling etc. In movies most directors come form this same mindset either through film school, on the job experience, being film editors, DPs or something similar. Commercial directors, on the other hand, generally come out of advertising or photography. They are generally (and there are many exceptions) less secure in the craft than movie people and tend to ‘overshoot’ to cover their (insecure) asses. An extreme example of this occurred on a rugged mountainside in Arizona when an agency guy said to me. ‘Can’t you make him stop shooting? We had this covered hours ago.’ True story.

“Anyhow, my point is that your second client, the director whom you were hired to support is often your biggest headache when it comes to bringing the job in on budget.

“Your third client is ‘The Client’: the Ad agency producer who gave the job to your primary client in the first place and whose ass you usually need to kiss a bit. Sometimes they ask for things to be done that were not in the original specs of the job and then you have to negotiate budget overages. I could go on and on about this but as you see the pressure comes from multiple directions and you have to handle all this while controlling the shoot itself, dealing with the crew and actors, the weather, the helicopter that’s late, the local Sheriff etc., etc., etc. It’s sometimes a tough job.

“When you’re both the producer and the AD it’s even more politically complex (why does anyone even want this job?). I wanted it because it was challenging, and often fun. I thoroughly enjoyed being on location with a crew and exercising my managerial and logistical skills. I also relished the camaraderie developed among those who share and accomplish an exacting task. And how many top management jobs are there where you can go to work in shorts and sneakers?”

In the late ‘80s I gradually made the transition to director and had a chance to work with some fine crews in NYC, Montreal and North Carolina. Now I’m mostly working as a video editor and while I love the creativity of it I do miss the camaraderie of working with a bunch of dedicated, highly skilled and motivated folks on a video or film production crew.

Click here to get Circumstances Beyond My Control.