TV Commercial Production book: Best producer, a correction

For Assistant Directors in TV Commercial Production the exec producer hires you but the line producer – either staff or freelance  – is the one you have to work with.

What I originally wrote in Circumstances Beyond My Control (my film production book) is: “Iris Films had on staff the very best line producer with whom I ever worked:

Ellen

Ellen Rappaport.”

Here’s the correction. Ellen was the best staff line producer with whom I ever worked over a period of years. This adjustment in no way lowers Ellen’s status in my personal hierarchy of producers it simply adds two others to her echelon. Freelancer Carl Zucker was right there in Ellen’s class and tirelessly worked as my producer in our ill fated attempt to bring my screenplay Warrior to fruition and, along with Ellen, is a lifelong and treasured friend. Geoff Hansen with whom I worked on several big jobs when he was both a freelance and a staff producer was also on Ellen’s level. But I didn’t have the opportunity to work with Carl or Geoff on any where near as many productions or with the variety of directors as I did with Ellen so when I was writing this chapter I didn’t – as I should have – include these two fine fellows in my top ranking.

Carl and Geoff, please accept my apology.

While I’m on the subject here’s an excerpt from my film production book on the subject of TV Commercial Production and producers:

“Freelance Producer was a job title of mine for three or four years. Later on I added ‘First AD’ and often worked as a ‘Producer/AD’. I know that I defined these terms in general in Chapter 12 or 13 but in order to understand what I was doing and the concomitant pressures you need a little more information. 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?”

Buy Circumstances Beyond My Control

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