If you don’t get on a director’s nerves now and then, you’re not producing the movie right. I say this as someone who has worn both hats and often worn them at the same time. And last year as one of the lead producers on THE PENDRAGON CYCLE, I often did exactly that! I pissed off the directors.
The role of a producer is multi-faceted but one essential part of the position is to be a second pair of eyes for the director, a second mind. While the director is focused (and sometimes lost) in the creative, the producer has oversight on everything: the set, the scene, the image itself. The producer is there to notice what the director misses and if it’s important, point it out. It’s the pointing out that often pisses he or she off.
“Why are we shooting the scene in this order? It would be more efficient if we started with this…”
“This performance isn’t strong enough. You can’t move on. You need more takes.”
“We haven’t covered the scene yet. You need another close-up or cutaway.”
“No, you can’t do that. It doesn’t fit what we shot yesterday.”
“This doesn’t work with the script. It’s not in line with the story.”
These might be some of the points a producer would make. As a director, they’re not fun to hear and sometimes they’re wrong. But more often than not, if you’re working with good people, they’re right. When I’ve said these things, they were frequently greeted with frustration. Rarely were they accepted or even acknowledged yet often times a half-hour later I witnessed the director repeating exactly what I’d said to the crew or quietly admitting a mistake in not listening to someone else on set.
There’s a balance of course. Directors need support and encouragement as much as anyone else. If a producer is a constant pain in the director’s side, the relationship doesn’t work. But if the producer is too soft, too pleasing then the result is even worse. The producer has to challenge the director when the director needs it and that’s what makes a good movie.
I’m about to go direct a new movie, my first in a couple of years, and I look forward to being pissed off by my producers.
The picture shows Michelangelo Antonioni and Carlo Ponti arguing
This will eventually be published on my website, runningwildfilms.com, and my Travis Mills Facebook page. For the next week, it is exclusively available here
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