Overall I have found the research a lot harder and more time consuming than expected. I consistently went over the time limits I imposed on each research section meaning i spent closer to 16 hours doing the challenge rather than the originally planned 13. This made me realize I did not plan times very effectively and I need to not try and cram in an unmanageable amount into each working session as it makes the work feel harder.
The research on producers in Film, Theater and Music got consistently easier as time went on, as I found that I got very similar information over and over again making it easier to do my research. I also fell into a pattern of how I researched, which made it easier. I found it very interesting how the different fields varied as well. It make me think about which field I would like to work in (mainly film and theater). I found that the initial section of finding out about different types of producers went better than the section zooming in on specific producers as I did not have to make a little informed choice about which producers to choose. It was also more easy to see what a producer does rather than evaluate which is best.
The research on producers really frustrated me at first. I found that my first list of looking at producers consisted all of white men, which really bored me. I changed the style of my research in an attempt to get more diversity for the next session, but found it didn't change the landscape much, which frustrated me more. The lack of success I met meant I had to change my plan significantly so it was less of an unmanageable task. Looking at just the 2 producers made me happiest as I could engineer it to be two women, the gender I hadn't looked at yet, though unfortunately it wasn't very multicultural. I liked looking at the variety of ways people had managed to make it into producing, though I would have been interested in finding out more about the early life of one of my female producers, but it appears she keeps the information under tight wraps.
Overall I have enjoyed my research on producers and it has greatly informed me on what they actually do, something I had no knowledge on when I started the BFI academy course. It made me consider it as a possible path. It was also nice looking at success stories. I may like to go away and look a little bit at failures at producing to see their career path and why it all went wrong.
Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Friday, 10 January 2014
Two Producers- Unit 1
I have been looking up two producers. I decided to look up two women as I haven't yet mentioned any female producers. They are also both British. Interestingly, one it was really hard to find out anything personal about like where she was born, and the other it was mostly personal. I chose these two as they have both done films I have enjoyed. These are my notes.
Park says she wrote to a comedy company called ComicStrip until they let her join in 1989. Once in she swept the floor and worked her way up to be production manager while the company shot short comedy films for Channel 4. In June 1995 she left to found Big Talk Productions (website http://www.bigtalkproductions.com/), where she continued working with Channel 4. They teamed her up with director Edgar Wright. Together they made the popular T.V series 'Spaced'. A multi-tasker, Park was working on several T.V projects when Edgar Wright started trying to push forward a film idea called 'Shaun of the Dead', so she left the other projects to work on financing the film project full time. After a time Working Title agreed to finance the project. Park formed alliances with them and they still work together. 'Shaun of the Dead' (website http://www.focusfeatures.com/shaun_of_the_dead) was released in 2004 and became her and Wrights break through piece. Park went on to produce the entire Cornetto Trilogy with Wright, Pegg and Frost as well as breaking into the American market to produce 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World' (website http://www.universalstudiosentertainment.com/scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world/).
Her work has won the audience award at SXSW festival and she was named one to watch by Varity magazine in 2005 and won Producer of the year in 2010 at the Women in Film and Television awards. Big Talk productions remains a action/ horror/ comedy production company, but pushed the boat out a bit in 2013 when they did a psychological thriller.
Owen started out reading English Literature at University College London. She volunteered on student films at the National Film School to gain experience then used the 'Music Video boom' to become a music video producer for MTV. She went on to work for limelight film and video, where agents heard she was making films and sent her 'doss' scripts. She impressed them by giving feedback on them all.
At a short film festival Owen saw a film which she liked and rang up the creators agent and got in contact to create her first feature film, 'Hear my Song' 1991. She went on to create Ruby Film and Television (website http://www.rubyfilms.co.uk/ which works with ITV in production and distribution and produced the BAFTA winning film 'Elizabeth' (1998) (website http://www.universalstudiosentertainment.com/elizabeth-the-golden-age/). She has gone on to produce many films and T.V films. Most recently she produced 'Saving Mr Banks' (2013) (Website http://movies.disney.com/saving-mr-banks) which she says came about after deciding to do an Australian-British co-production.
Nira Park
 |
| Nira Park |
 |
| Big talk productions logo |
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| 'Spaced' which ran from 1999-2001 |
Alison Owen
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| Alison Owen |
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| Ruby Film and Television logo |
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| Jane Eyre 2011, produced by Ruby Film and Television |
These are my two producers. It took me a long time to find the information on Nira Park as she seems to mainly only talk about the project she is currently doing, and never mentions anything like if she went to university. I cant even find out how old she was when she started at ComicStrip. Overall I have really enjoyed learning about these two producers. They seem to differ from a lot of producers I have already looked at in that they have never been actors or directors. They both worked their way up to being film producers through working in T.V and meeting the right people. I really enjoyed reading about both of them.
Bibliography
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom- Review
2013
Following Nelson Mandala's biography, the film follows Mandala from being a promising young lawyer to becoming a 'terrorist' to prison through to becoming president.
This was without a doubt an effecting film. It made me think about how South Africa only really stopped apartheid the year before I was born. However I think my mum, who I went to see this with got quite a bit more out of it than me. I knew the basics of Mandela's life like most people, whereas my mum lived at the time and took interest. Unfortunately, though a good film, this meant that a large proportion of the film seemed quite confusing to me. 10 years could be summed up in a couple of minutes, big events, personal and political were only skated over. I didn't find out what the group that Mandela is recruited to at the start was until very close to the end.
I think that the film was trying to cover so much information, it didn't bother explaining many things which is all good and well for those who know quite a bit about Nelson Mandela, but those who know less could be left a bit in the dark. This film celebrates a great mans life rather than informs the viewer about it.
Another symptom of the attempt to rush through so many important events was that the camera seemed to zoom around at an incredible speed. Every cut and scene seemed to be incredibly short, the bear minimum that got the point across.
This is not to say it didn't interest me. I was captivated, and needed to use all my mental energy to keep up, so I certainly wasn't wandering. The performances were all fantastic and sympathetic. It was lovely to watch. There were no dud moments as far as I am aware.
I think possibly something like a T.V series exploring Mandela's life may have been more informative, as there were a lot of facts I wanted to know, like who was the man who was arrested with Mandela who was obviously considered white? The film certainly whet my appetite to find out more.
Overall I really enjoyed the film, I just didn't manage to glean as much information as to what was actually going on. I feel the film only scraped the surface. However that is fair enough considering how much they had to cover in such a short time.
A Producer from 6 Continents- Unit 1
After the difficulties of yesterday, this turned out too be a much more manageable task. First I quickly realized that Antarctica don't really have a film industry, so it would be difficult to find an antarctic producer. I also found out that Oceania and Australia are really tied together in film and much more. So that puts us on 6 producers. The initial stage of finding one producer that is worth researching was the first difficulty, but I think it got easier. Here are my notes.
So here are the people I found.
Africa
During the colonial period, Africa was portrayed as having little history, just as a generally exotic place, with notable exceptions such as 'Les Statues Meurant Aussi'. After the colonial period more films were made that explored African heritage and stories. In Nigeria cinema really took off with a value of about $3.5 billion and the nickname 'Nollywood'. Most films made in Nollywood remain straight to video. One notable producer is Teco Benson. He started out as an actor in 1994, but quickly became involved in writing, directing, editing and production. His film 'Explosion' represented Nollywood in Israel in 2006.
Asia
Indian film and Bollywood are among the biggest film producers in the world. However after hearing about the rise in Chinese cinema, I thought I may research that. It was after the second world war when cinema was under Japanese control that Chinese cinema began to flourish. Now it is also one of the biggest film industries in the world, in 2013 their gross box being worth $3.6 billion. Run Run Shaw seems to be a prominent name in the industry. After opening a chain of cinemas in China and Malaysia, he started producing films as well as T.V with his brother in a company they called the Shaw Brothers. He became a mogul, on IMDb having his name as producer to 323 credits. He is credited with bringing Kung Fu to the mainstream audiences. The project that he was involved in that most western people will recognize is 'Blade Runner' (1982).
North America
American cinema is the most well known to the average British cinema goer. Its film industry has been dubbed Hollywood, and is the 3rd most prolific creator of films after Bollywood and India. I have chosen to mention Steven Spielberg again as he is the highest grossing producer in recent USA cinema. at $6,468.3 million. He started out as a director, creating classics such as 'Jaws'. He founded Dreamworks studio with Stacey Snider. He continues to be a director and be involved in a high number of cinema releases.South America
In the early 1940's and 1950's Latin American films were popular in Hollywood. This popularity has waned slightly, but South America still exports a lot of talent, such as directors Guillermo Del Toro and Alfonzo Curon. A notable producer is Alejandro González Iñárritu. Starting out as a radio host, then moving on to direction. In the 1990's he set up his own production company called Zeta Films. He produced his own films in 2000, and was nominated for an Oscar for 'Babel' (2007). 
Australia/ OceaniaAustralia was quick off the mark in creating film. It boomed in the 1910's only to decline in the 1920's. It slowly built itself up, but not back to the same level, finding it hard to compete with American film, as most English speaking countries do. Many of its stars such as Cate Blanchett defect to Hollywood. One producer is Antony I. Ginnane. He stated out studying law, then set up a small distribution company. He is most well known for his art house films. He attended Cannes with 'High Tide' in 1987.
Europe
The Lumiere brothers disputably created film in Europe. As I am British I am going to focus on British cinema in this section. The Golden age was the 1940's with British films very popular around the world. Britain continues to have a fairly respectable output, managing to produce Blockbusters such as 'James Bond' and 'Harry Potter'. I am going to look at David Heyman, who struck gold in managing to be producer for the 'Harry Potter' franchise. He started out as a production assistant, then became a producer, founding Heyday Films. He has other big films on his hands such as 'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas' (2008) and 'Gravity' (2013).So these are some Producers from around the world. I notice the domination of white men again, but not exclusively this time. I may have to work on getting a female producer into this blog. As per the trend, this took me longer than expected (by about half an hour) but I found it less stressful than last time because my aim was more precise, so it was easier to look when I knew what I was looking for. I think next time I am going to zoom in on the lives of two producers, and hopefully one of them will be female. I will probably choose two British producers.
Thank you for reading.
Bibliography
Thursday, 9 January 2014
Some Top Producers- Unit 1
This was unexpectedly the most difficult research I have done so far. I was envisaging a top 10 scoring system with the pluses and minuses of each producer etched out and their success sitting with their box office hits. However this was not to be. Firstly, how do you rate the top producers? By how much they are worth? In that case money from different pies contaminates evidence. The most famous producer? But how famous someone is doesn't necessarily reflect how effective they were at producing films. The highest grossing producer? But that is weighed towards those making blockbusters and knocks out older producers who may have made more of we made all money worth the same as it used to be. Google suggested these most searched people were who I wanted:
Although a list of prominent people, I have to admit people like Brad Pitt, who produced, but were more known for other things, were not who I was after.
I couldn't think of what to do, so I googled other peoples lists to get an idea of what they thought. I was attempting to look world wide, and failed at that miserably. What I managed to find was a lot of white American men who hog the tables. This was the resulting mess.
To try and narrow my search, I firstly decided to only count those who produced films, giving executive producers less weight than those with producer next to their name. I then stared at a massive list of names. I tried looking into them one by one in more detail, but there were just too many. In a feeling of complete hopelessness I went through the lists and found those mentioned three times or more and compiled them into a list. Unsurprisingly, the list was made up of white American men. I could go on a rant about this, but that would be unproductive.
I downgraded my goals, and made the task ahead manageable. I am going to create a list of 5 American producers of note. These people may or may not be the 'top' producers, but they have contributed enough to western film enough for me to feel they can be a little top 5.
Firstly lets start with Steven Spielberg.
Born in 1946 in Ohio, he started out as a director, making hits such as Jaws. He first started producing in 1961 with a short called 'Escape to Nowhere'. Spielberg is at times also one of those director-producer people who I have mentioned now and again. He is now has 138 credits on IMDb, a large proportion of those in films. He is one of the highest grossing producers with $6,468.2 million to his name. He is also high on the very famous producer list, with his face popping up first on the Google most searched producers. He formed Dreamworks studio along with Stacy Snider, which has been a part of many classics such as Shrek. The reason he made it onto my list is because he is so unbelievably successful as a producer.
Next lets talk about Don Simpson.
He is not on the Google most searched producer list, but most of the biggest producer lists which shows how much Google knows. Born in 1943 in Washington and brought up in Alaska, he started out working at Paramount. He worked his way up to president of production, then left to be a producer with Jerry Breckheimer. Together they produced many popular films such as 'Beverly Hill Cops'. An attempted partnership with Paramount failed dramatically but the subsequent partnership with Disney fared a little better. In 1996 he died with 21 different drugs in his system. He made it onto my list for being successful, and because most people count him as influential on their lists
Simpsons business partner Jerry Bruckheimer also makes it onto the list.
Born in Michigan, also in 1943, Bruckheimer started out with a Pepsi advert, made it onto producing T.V with his biggest success being 'CSI'. He produced a few films such as 'Cat People, got noticed by Hollywood, then started producing with Don Simpson. Bruckheimer became the part of the duo with the contacts. After Simpson died while making 'The Rock' (which ended up being dedicated to him) Bruckheimer went on to produce very successful films, including 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. He is said to have grossed $4681.8 million, have brought $13 billion to Hollywood and earn $120 million a year.
Also worth a mention is Stanley Kubrick.
Born in New York in 1928, he is a character most will have heard of. Starting out as a photographer, he then made short documentaries, creating 'Fear and Desire', his first feature film in 1953. Although primarily a director, he produced films such as 'The shining' which are never far away from our public consciousnesses when we think about film. He grossed $368,994,651 worldwide. He died in 1999 in England.
Last but not least I want to talk about Walt Disney.
Everyone knows about Walt Disney and his empire. Born in 1901 in Chicago, he started out making shorts with Ub Iwerks. Unfortunately they were soon bankrupt. At Hollywood he managed to develop new cartoons with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit starring, but this character's rights and all its animators were stolen from him by a rival couple. Disney then developed Micky Mouse, gaining huge success. In 1937 he produced the 'folly' that was the immensely successful 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'. He went on to produce a huge amount of animated and non animated films and even developed theme parks. He died in 1966 age 65. What makes him so important as a producer is that his Disney company continues to be one of the biggest studios, grossing $36,853,643,730 with films with inflation factored in. As a producer that managed to create a franchise, he must be considered successful.
As promised, 5 very important producers that all turn out to be white american men. Researching this was the hardest thing I have tried to do in two hours. In fact it ended up taking me three. The lack of diversity in mu producers annoys me. But then again I have judged by Hollywood standards. I propose I change my Action plan a little, and spend the next two hours looking for some top producers from each continent, and try and shoehorn in some who are not white, american or male. Then in the final two hours I look into two in depth still.
Bibliography
Wednesday, 8 January 2014
La Belle et La Bête- Review
Director- Jean Cocteau
1946
A man whose lost all his riches picks a
rose at an enchanted castle, angering the beast who is the lord. As consequence
he has to give up one of his daughters or return to die. Is daughter Belle goes
in his place, and despite being initially disgusted by the beast, she slowly
warms to him.
This film really made me laugh, but
probably not in the way that was intended. The leads over acted their hearts
out. Every movement Belle made was delightfully over the top and I have rarely
seen as camp a walk as the Beasts. I found neither especially convincing, and
the Beasts beastly voice was naff. I don't approve of the direction as I found
it hammy. All in all the camp-ness of the leads detracted from any romantic
themes for me.
That said, I found the sisters and the
brother of Belle absolutely spot on. Their over the top acting suited their
roles. In fact I could have done with seeing a bit more of them in between the
scenes that tried far too hard to be serious.
The double rolling of the Beast and the
brothers best friend seemed a little odd to me, I don't really understand why
they did that. It didn't make me like the beast, as I disliked the brothers
friend, so I am unsure to the motive.
I also found the editing really bad in some places. There were a
few scenes one after another which were too short and didn't really say
anything, and a few scenes felt like they came at the wrong time in the story,
for example Belle getting angry at the Beast coming to her room really deserved to be earlier.
Back to the positives however, the sets
and costumes were brilliant. I admit that Belle spent a rather lot of time
being over dressed, but it was lovely to watch. The castle was stupendous and
the family home was that homely fairy tale like image straight from a book. I
loved the hands and moving faces in the beasts home, they definitely added a
sense of magic (though I am never quite sure why Belle didn't try and
communicate with them, I certainly would have something to say to a door that
decided to inform me as to where I was).
The cinematography was also gorgeous.
There were some lovely moments with flowing curtains and people walking into
the camera.
Overall, it was a nice thing to see in the
cinema. It reminded me of going to watch a panto more than a fairy tale
picture, but I may have been spoiled by Disney. You can certainly tell that
Cocteau was a surrealist with the likable quirks in the scenes, but I would say
that there was some badly over the top acting and dodgy editing which
prevented it from being added to my classics list.
It was good fun to go and watch, but not a favorite.
Evaluation: Film, Theater and Music producers and directors.- Unit 1
So I am now half way though my 12 hours of research on producers and I am taking this moment to sum up my findings on the different jobs and I am going to compare the different types of producer and director jobs. (Better mention that the 'producer' role is often split up in Film and Theater)
Quick summary's:
Film Producer- Works from the start of the project in getting the budget and the script together, hiring the cast and crew, schedules the shooting, editing and marketing. Has the last word on decisions.
Film Director- Hired by the producer. Controls the artistic and dramatic aspects of the film. Chooses cast. Is the group leader and guides the cast and crew in creating film. Often helps in editing.
Theater Producer- Selects, finances and controls development of play. Schedules, casts and chooses crew and marketing team. Oversees ticket prices and seating. Has the 'bible' script containing cues and stage directions. Stays to oversee for length of production.
Theater Director- Oversees the creative side. Hired by the producer and unifies the artistic look of the play, the sound and the acting. Directs actors. Job considered done on opening night.
Music Producer- Normally deals in records. Is the project manager, choosing the artist and helping with song development and choice. Often helps with post production editing.
Music Director- Pulls together all the aspects of a live production, choosing the music, scheduling, rehearsing and conducting.
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From reading that you could say that all the directors and producers have similar roles to each other. They all bring an art form to life. Music is perhaps the dark horse as the directing and producing don't really come close to each other.
Production
Firstly looking at production, all three different types of producer are there for most of the project. They all choose the project and oversee its making in a practical sense. However Film and Theater producers are both concerned with amassing the budget and hang around for the marketing and other such aspects, while I could find little evidence of Music producers overseeing the marketing and budget of the project. The Music producers are more primarily involved with the artistic aspects of the project than in Film and Theater where the producer has a more admin heavy role.
Direction
Directors also have a fairly similar role to each other with Music being subtly different. All three are team leaders, overseeing those working on their project. However Film and Theater directors are primarily involved in the purely creative aspects of the project, such as the look, and sew it all together to create an image. Music directors in contrast have to choose things like location that the producer would normally choose.
Both these are generalizations. You will find producers and directors that buck all the trends I have noted.
In Film and Theater (though not in Music as the roles are so separate) there are those who chose to merge the roles very explicitly. This leads to confusion as to what each role is because they are so overlapping. Music is kind to those who research it in this way while Film and Music are cruel.
This pretty much sums up my findings. It took me a shorter time than expected, but not much shorter. Then this is not in much detail, however I already find I am repeating myself. My final statement is that all these roles are ones that bring about the creation of something beautiful in some way or another.
Quick summary's:
Film Producer- Works from the start of the project in getting the budget and the script together, hiring the cast and crew, schedules the shooting, editing and marketing. Has the last word on decisions.
Film Director- Hired by the producer. Controls the artistic and dramatic aspects of the film. Chooses cast. Is the group leader and guides the cast and crew in creating film. Often helps in editing.
Theater Producer- Selects, finances and controls development of play. Schedules, casts and chooses crew and marketing team. Oversees ticket prices and seating. Has the 'bible' script containing cues and stage directions. Stays to oversee for length of production.
Theater Director- Oversees the creative side. Hired by the producer and unifies the artistic look of the play, the sound and the acting. Directs actors. Job considered done on opening night.
Music Producer- Normally deals in records. Is the project manager, choosing the artist and helping with song development and choice. Often helps with post production editing.
Music Director- Pulls together all the aspects of a live production, choosing the music, scheduling, rehearsing and conducting.
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From reading that you could say that all the directors and producers have similar roles to each other. They all bring an art form to life. Music is perhaps the dark horse as the directing and producing don't really come close to each other.
Production
Firstly looking at production, all three different types of producer are there for most of the project. They all choose the project and oversee its making in a practical sense. However Film and Theater producers are both concerned with amassing the budget and hang around for the marketing and other such aspects, while I could find little evidence of Music producers overseeing the marketing and budget of the project. The Music producers are more primarily involved with the artistic aspects of the project than in Film and Theater where the producer has a more admin heavy role.
Direction
Directors also have a fairly similar role to each other with Music being subtly different. All three are team leaders, overseeing those working on their project. However Film and Theater directors are primarily involved in the purely creative aspects of the project, such as the look, and sew it all together to create an image. Music directors in contrast have to choose things like location that the producer would normally choose.
Both these are generalizations. You will find producers and directors that buck all the trends I have noted.
In Film and Theater (though not in Music as the roles are so separate) there are those who chose to merge the roles very explicitly. This leads to confusion as to what each role is because they are so overlapping. Music is kind to those who research it in this way while Film and Music are cruel.
This pretty much sums up my findings. It took me a shorter time than expected, but not much shorter. Then this is not in much detail, however I already find I am repeating myself. My final statement is that all these roles are ones that bring about the creation of something beautiful in some way or another.
The difference between a Music director and a Music producer- Unit 1
This is the final of the three groups I decided to look in to and by far the most easy. I am not a very musical person, in fact when making the short I made in my group, the thought of using music in our film didn't even cross my mind. When it was suggested, and even when I heard the music I still couldn't visualize it. It was only when it was all together I thought that it was a good choice. When watching films 90% of the time I don't even notice the music. I was therefor surprised to learn there was even such a thing as a music director. After that bombshell here is my research.
Music directors and Music producers are so easy to look up as they are so different. There is no confusion between the two roles as there is in film and theater. In fact they may not even cross each others paths. For this reason I can define the two separately. First is
Music Director
This job can actually be a variety of things:
- Director of music in a film/ theater/ t.v production
- Director of music played in a radio station
- Head of music in an institution like a school
- Bandmaster
- Head organist or Choir master
- Someone who makes the creative decisions in a live performance (more commonly known as a conductor in Britain)
Any way this person will often really have to fulfill the roles of principal conductor, Artistic director and Community arts leader as well as sometimes dealing with budget and schedule.
The director would be employed by someone, so would often already have musicians to work with. Once there they would have to do quite a bit. Their timeline would be something like this:
- Choose Music
- Check score availability, may have to rearrange for instruments available
- Interpret score (e.g. pace, balance of instruments and voice etc.)
- Schedule rehearsals and performances
- Consider location and any artistic choices e.g. are you doing it in blacks or costumes
- Lead rehearsals
- Conduct the performance(s)
Now lets consider the other side of the court.
Music Producer
This job appears to be more to do with records. There are probably Music producers that help with Lady Gaga's next extravaganza, but when you say Music producer most people will think you mean a record producer.
Now these people can be divided into two main camps of Executive producer and Creative producer. We are mainly concerned with the more creative producer person. This is because:
Executive producer- Looks at finances
Creative producer- Works in the production of the music
As you can see an Executive producers job is less meaty to talk about.
Anyway moving swiftly on, the producers job is as a bit of a Project Manager. Apparently they can be compared to a film director in their involvement. They guide the making of the record and can often also be musicians themselves so can contribute musically. Their timeline may look something like this:
- Choose artist
- Allocate Budget
- Gather ideas for songs
- Write up some and possibly do scratch recordings, contribute to writing
- Choose best songs
- Coach the artists
- Schedule rehearsals and recordings
- Control the recording
- Supervise or do the post production arranging of song
Engineer- More involved in post production editing and settings
Mentor- Gets others to engineer and spends more time mentoring artists and helping them develop
Golden Ticket- A producer who may have a template for their artists, who seems to be of the habit of propelling them into success
Re mixer- Will remix already produced songs
Musician- May be very involved with writing the songs
Artist- Also performs in song
Visionary- Always trying to create something new
Most producers are probably a mixture of the lot. But this is a general list.
The Difference
This can really be summed up by the words Live and Records. Directors are putting together a live production with a team, producers are developing their artists tracks and putting them together on a CD or what ever music release thing we are going towards.
This was definitely the most easy category as the differences were so clear cut. It took me about 10 minutes short of the full two hours to do this section . I quite enjoyed it, but came up against a lot of terms I didn't really know of. And I found out a lot about how they make music. Its a lot like film and theater really, just trying to get all the elements of an art form together in such a way as it isn't a disaster.
Thank you for reading.
Bibliography
Friday, 3 January 2014
The differences between a Theater director and a Theater producer- Unit 1
After once again consulting professor Google, these were my results.
These are another two jobs that are whatever you make them. Depending on the scale of production there may be a different amount of people doing the producers job, and the small productions an director can find themselves as the producer. The two jobs can be very interlinked or very separate.
When looking at both roles, it is worth considering whether the producer and director are both independent or attached to a particular theater or company. This can significantly change what they need to do, for example a producer who is attached to a theater doesn't need to hunt around for ticket sellers and such like as there is a good chance they are all ready attached to the theater as well.
There are also differences in roles depending on what kind of production is being put on. A small touring company may find that their producer is very much part of the crew, where as a big west end production may find that their producer is mainly an investor and their are actually different administrative roles with which they come face to face.
Let us define them both roughly.
Theater Producer- They can find the play and possibly where it would be staged, negotiate the rights and other legal issues, hire the director and the production team, market the show, set the schedule, overlooks the production team to make sure they are meeting the directors vision, find the materials needed for the production such as wigs and props, hire the in house staff such as the ticket sellers, once the show is running replace things that wear out and take care of contracts.
Theater Director- Works with the writer on the script, interpreters the script, researches relevant information, considers physical restraints while working with creative and production teams, ties together all the different ideas in the production to create an overall piece.
There are different styles of direction which can in turn influence the type of production. The main styles are the dictator, the negotiator, the creative artist and the conversationalist. A dictator-ish type of direction may work better when the producer is a very separate entity which has a harsh schedule, where as a negotiator really needs a producer who is more flexible and involved.
We can sum up the differences quite broadly as the producers concerns being more practical while the directors are more creative. The producer is also on the project longer, as the director has generally been considered as having done their job after opening night, after which time keeping everything together falls to the stage manager who has the 'bible' which contains the script with all cues and directions.
Let me illustrate their different jobs with parallel timelines.
Producer Director
Develops idea
Raises Money
Budgets, Vague schedule
Hires Director and Production team Possible input into hiring production team
Marketing the show, Schedules rehearsals Works on script, interprets
Casting , Casting
Oversee design team Rehearsals
Previews
Opening night Opening Night
Replace and continue to watch over Production
What you have here is just a possibility, there will be crews with a wildly different template. As you can see the Producer stays with the project much longer, and is the primary diving force. What I find amusing is that marketing is done before casting, which would explain discrepancies between the adverts and the show in some shows.
As you can see int this example from the crucible theater, the marketed photo of the daughter in law in the show of the same name bears distinct differences from the actress who portrayed said daughter in law.
Another difference between the producer and the director is that, as with film, the producer has some financial risk when creating a play. They have got the money that they hope to pay back and have sometimes contributed their own money. They have to have a lot of conviction that the play is going to come off. The director has no such risk, as they will get paid come hell or high tide. The only thing they have at stake is their reputation.
Production Manager- Oversees technical aspects such as materials needed, wardrobe, lighting etc.
House Manager- Works on ticket sales, Ushering of Patrons, maintaining the building within which the play is taking place, looking after the in house staff
Stage Manager- Makes sure directors ideas are carried out. Compiles and looks after the 'bible' script containing all the stage directions and cues
Most productions will have a separate stage manager as it is quite time consuming. The production and house manager sometimes are one person in smaller productions. In really big production even these can have sub divisions.
Overall the producer initiates the project, then makes sure it is carried through in the correct manner, while the director is hired to create the dramatic piece, often overseeing it in its entirety.
I am no expert on this, all has been gleaned from internet research. If there are any mistakes, please do say. I found this easier to research than Film producers and directors differences, mainly because in theater the producer seems to have less potential to be involved in the creative aspects, so the roles are more easily defined. There is still a lot of overlap though.
Thank you for reading.
Bibliography
Thursday, 2 January 2014
The differences between film producers and film directors- Unit 1
For my first 2 hour block I researched the differences between film Directors and Producers. I think I underestimated the amount I would need to write, hence incredibly small writing even for me.
After much time spent working with Google I created this map of the information I found.
If I was summaries my findings, the main point is that both jobs are what you make them. They are interacting and fluid roles that frequently overlap. Really these two people need to get on.
To start with I will quickly define both.
A Director
Employed by the Producer to create an artistic and dramatic vision and realize said vision.
A Producer
Finds the story then employs the director, cast and crew to create the story. Generally more concerned in budget and schedule etc. liaises with studio so that director can create vision. After the film is created works with the distribution of the film.
There are often a few different types of producer:
Executive Producer- Takes care of accounting and legal issues (e.g. copyright, royalties). Often contributes to budget and has some artistic control.
Line Producer- Works in human resources and logistics. Oversees all the departments to make sure they are working towards the director. Also work in admin. Often liaise between the crew and the main producer(s)
Unit Production Manager- Also admin. Creates the working budget, selects the key crew, breakdown of shooting scheduled. Looks at location, transport, equipment etc.
Once again there is a lot of overlap here. To simplify things we are going to look at it as if there is one overall producer, as there can be on smaller projects.
Each obviously holds many more roles. Many of these roles over lap. A Venn diagram may help here.
Producer Director
I didn't include every single job, just the main ones. As you can see, they work very closely. What needs to be remembered is that the producer is the directors boss, and is on the project longer, even though they are often payed less than the director. In fact when trying to finance a film, a producer's name is less likly to attract a studio. The director is really needed to get attention. If you imagine the production like this:
Pre-production Producer
Money harnessed Producer
Director, writer employed Producer, Director
More financing Producer (Director)
Casting and crew employed Producer, Director
Filming Director (Producer)
Editing Director (Producer)
Distribution Producer
As you may be able to see, the producer is there more, though when the film is actually being realized they are less present. You may notice the brackets. This is because the directors and producers personality really comes into play here. You may have heard of directors who produce their own film, or vica-versa. During filming a producer may or may not be present depending on how much they like to get involved on the creation of the vision. So as to what the roles are, it really depends who is producing and who is directing.
One thing is that the Producer will probably spend a lot more time being a middle man; between the director and the studio, between the star and the director during an argument. They are managing everyone, whereas the director is only managing the cast and crew in relation to the vision.
A final difference is that the producer, especially if they are independent, have a financial risk. Before the film gets picked up by a studio, they are often putting in their own money to get it noticed. Once the director is hired, they have normally already got some interest, therefore the director is risking less.
Overall, the two roles overlap, but in general the Producer is the overall manager while the director is just creating their vision
So That is my whistle stop tour of Film Direction and Production. Please do say if you notice any mistakes or think I have missed something massive out. I don't claim to be any expert, so it would be most appreciated.
I found finding information on Producers and Directors easier than I thought it would be at first, but then I found that much of the information was repeats, and then consolidating it into something that made sense took 22 minutes longer than I anticipated. I am not sure how reliable my sources were. It was a very interesting search though
Thanks for reading.
Bibliography
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