Producer

Research

Who is a Producer?

A producer is key to a successful production. They are responsible for overseeing various aspects of a film’s production, from its inception to its release. Different producers have different levels of involvement in a film’s production. Some producers are hands-on and deeply involved in every stage, while others may provide financial support and have less direct involvement in creative decisions.

So… what will I have to do as a producer?

As a producer I will be responsible for:

• Budgeting,
• Casting,
• Securing locations,
• Scheduling,
• Producing call sheets,
• Writing risk assessments,
• And making sure everyone is OK and everything is running smoothly on the day.

And how much are producers paid in the industry?

According to Payscale.com a film/tv producer in the UK can earn anywhere between £27K and £80K with the average being around £45K. However this can scale with the production so, for example, if you are a producer working on a Hollywood blockbuster then you can earn significantly more.

Pre-Production

The Story

David knew that he wanted to direct a horror film, however whilst he had originally pitched an idea called ‘Shattered’ we didn’t end up going through with that idea because it wouldn’t have been possible to produce as we were unable to secure a house location in time. This meant that by the time we came to shoot we didn’t have a screenplay to work from and so we had to make it up on the day.

The Location

From the beginning of the process we had planned to shoot David’s film in Bitts Park after it was recommended as a location by Kyle. It seemed like the perfect location to shoot because it had plenty of natural light to work with and also seemed to be quite quiet during the hours we’d be shooting.

The Talent

Due to the many script changes it was unclear what talent we would need and in the end we were unable to secure external talent and so David volunteered to act as well as direct.

Production

The Paperwork

Shoot Day Photos

Evaluation

What went well and what went wrong?

Whilst overall the film ended up looking good, the process wasn’t exactly smooth. The screenplay went through multiple rewrites and eventually, we ended up not working from one which meant that planning for the shoot was very difficult. From a producer point of view, it was very difficult to get talent and plan locations without a locked script. We used Bitts Park as a location which was effective as we knew that we wanted to film a horror film in a forest even if we didn’t know exactly what the story would be and it had lots of natural light which would come in handy when it came time to shoot. We also secured the main prop in the film (the mask) quite early on as we knew it would be quite a versatile prop and could be worked into any number of stories.

The finished film is far from perfect, however, there are a few good, unique shots for example the shot where we see through Damian’s mask, as well as the shot where Damian cocks his head. The camerawork is very good and so is the acting however it definitely would have been nice to have gotten some external talent on board. Also, whilst I didn’t have much say on the edit, I do feel that it’s perhaps a bit too long as the brief asked for a 1 minute short film and the finished film is over 3 minutes long. Overall, I think that given the circumstances we were able to produce a nice short film which generally meets the brief’s criteria.