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.
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