Film Production 101: How to Become a Film Producer by Sophie Haines | Wedio

this little baby that you've nurtured through development pre-production and production now come together on a timeline and actually see it become a physical product [Music] hi everybody welcome to wedio academy my name is sophie haynes and today i'll be talking to you guys about film production uh the different stages of film production how to get started and how you break into the industry i am a co-founder and producer at london-based production company a few good productions i have worked in the production field in both film and commercials over the course of the year and so i'll be talking to you about producing and production so film production is essentially a term that encompasses all the different stages of making a film or you know a television series or a commercial so you have different stages within film production you have development pre-production production post-production and delivery but effectively film production itself is encompassing that whole that whole process and my role as the producer is very varied but essentially my job is to make sure that the film production is always on budget on time and on brief so i manage everything to ensure that those three key aspects are always maintained and are always kept exactly as they need to be it's never an appealing job it never sounds like a very appealing job but i think it's a very rewarding one because you get to be in a leadership position and it's very analytical but it's also very creative you get to exercise both sides of your brain you have to be a really well-rounded person i think to be able to be a producer you have to be a people person you have to be able to jump into situations that you might not be very familiar with and be able to sort of muddle your way through um well and you have to be you have to be okay with making decisions right then and there it's a that's a really key part of being a producer you you have to know what decision to make right then and there on the spot because those decisions will impact the rest of the production so with great power comes great responsibility and i think that's the other side of it is that you you have a lot of responsibility um and you are in a leadership role and you know you you are responsible for the project and so that means that if something goes wrong it is it's on you as well um so you you need to be cautious uh but also quietly confident i think to be able to really thrive as a producer there's a million different ways that you can go into film production and film producing specifically you know no you ask any different producer no path is the same some people come from post-production some people come from production management some people come from um you know brand work client work it also massively depends on the niche and that you're in within the industry so a producer on a feature film is a very different type of producer to a commercial and a very different type of producer to television and then within producing roles you also have different types of producers so i'm sure you guys have heard of those you know you've got executive producers you've got co-producers you've got producers you've got associate producers you have production managers and each of those roles within each indus within the industry and within each niche has a different set of responsibilities um the one that i've worked in as a producer is i worked with afgp to produce a online content and have worked in the commercial space as well and i worked in production management on a documentary feature film as well so my role has been quite varied um but the realistically the way that you get into the industry itself is through either being a runner a team assistant an office assistant or a production assistant those are sort of the four roles that i can think of that are really the entry level roles and once you've gotten into those roles you can kind of specify which way you want to go depending on you know what company you're working at so i would say if you're interested in becoming a producer one day you definitely want to stay within the production sphere so you're looking at production companies um if you're looking to go into features or you're looking at if you want to go into commercials you're looking at agencies marketing agencies or um branded content production companies and starting there as a runner or an office assistant and then basically working your way up um through the various roles of production management um or you know development as well there's there's quite a few different routes and it can get quite convoluted um but the starting place for everybody and i've i think that this is it's the best education you can get is going in as a runner an assist or an assistant or an assistance assistant because you don't have much responsibility at that point but you get to see so many different aspects of the industry and you can really decide whether this is for you there's a lot of different roles within the industry and i think that the roles themselves can sound a little bit confusing to somebody who's new to the industry or hasn't worked in it and doesn't really know where to start um so i mean i just want to give a little bit of an overview in terms of the roles that you can have within the director department and within the production department i mean there's a million different departments with a million different roles but i think those are the two that would be most important for somebody who's wanting to go down the producer route to really understand before anything else so within the production department itself um you will have different roles and each role has a different responsibility really it starts out as a runner so you'll start as production runner or office runner and as a runner you're running you're running around you're doing whatever production needs you might be going and picking up you know stationary or getting the director his coffee or tea or picking up snacks for the crew or you know helping organize walkie-talkies or you know printing things it really varies it's whatever you're needed for on that day that's what you're doing um that's the entry level as a production runner or an office runner or a team assistant sometimes it's called team assistant or office assistant um and those are sort of the entry level roles then in the production department you go up and you've got the production secretary and features or a production assistant in commercials and they are the lowest of the production level um but theirs is an office job and they will be you know looking after maybe they'll be looking after talent or crew or um you know they might be assisting the production coordinator um or they'll be assisting the production manager and whatever they need to be doing they are effectively there the chain of command goes production assistant production secretary and they'll be assisting the person above them above that you have a production coordinator um in features you can also have production coordinators and commercials and they are essentially generally production coordinators are responsible for all the accommodation or the travel um of everybody and um you know running that side of things so making sure the bookings are done making sure the visas are done making sure the equipment's getting where it's supposed to be um all the cars are getting all the people on set and managing those timings and making sure that you're not going over budget um that's what a production coordinator does then you've got production manager and production manager is the person who basically manages the production day-to-day so um they will be the one who'll send out the call sheets they'll be the one who'll be sending out the schedules call sheets are sent out every day they are like basically a little bible or a little blueprint of what is going to be happening on set the next day and what time everybody needs to be there what scenes are being shot whether you know contact numbers it's called a call sheet because it has everybody's phone numbers so you can call them um you know and that's the role of the production manager to basically run the production um for the line producer and so the line producer will be the one who will in connection with the lead producer create the budget um and so the production manager runs the budget for the line producer the line producer then checks the production manager's work and then the line producer hands over the budget to the final produce the lead producer who will make sure that everything is you know in accordance with where it's supposed to be those are sort of the production roles in the production team and they pretty much work like that throughout pre-production and during production as well generally a production team will work um away from the set uh they'll work in an office or a unit base or elsewhere they won't generally be on set because they need laptops and wi-fi and printers although if you can go green and don't print as much but um yeah so generally that will be the production role then you've got the uh director department and so with directors you've got a first lady a second ad a third ad a crowd ad you've got lot and they're all ad is short for assistant director um a first assistant director is actually the person who really runs the set they're the person who makes the schedule and then the person who's calling things out on the day making sure that the director's on time making sure that the shots are on time making sure that everybody is where they're supposed to be and doing what they're supposed to be doing they are really the one who is sort of like the they'll be the loudest on set in terms of like calling out things that they need and they have a team to help them their assistant director's team to make sure that you know the talent's coming on at the right time and you know the right person is going to be on set and the right crew member has done the right thing and that they are basically responsible for the workings of the set um and then you have the second and third ad who are there to assist the first ad and a crowd a.d which will be in charge of the person the background artists or the extras um and that department as a whole will also have runners so if you're interested in going and being the person who runs the set um then you'll be looking for the ad runners and as an entry level job as a producer your role is essentially there to facilitate the production so you tend to be the one who's doing all the hiring or you're in charge of that but that doesn't mean that you're giving the crew and you know the people you're hiring an opportunity to work in film they are giving you the opportunity to make make sure that your film is being done so i think ensuring that you always keep it in mind that the crew isn't working for you you're working as a team and making sure that you keep that humbleness is really important because at the end of the day as a producer you're only as good as the crew around you and if the crew around you don't like you or don't want to work with you or don't enjoy their working environment for whatever reason which is your responsibility you're not going to end up having a very good production that would be the main thing um my main point and then i suppose you can look at it from other aspects as well there's attention to detail when you're when you're producing content you have to think so many steps ahead of where the production is currently at you're always working weeks and weeks in advance of where the production is is currently at in its stage because you're preparing for that next stage so making sure that you are really detail oriented and making sure that you're really checking double checking triple checking the work that you're doing to make sure that when that time arrives where that production is in that stage you know you are actually able to sort of leave that behind you because you know you've worked on it and you know you've done everything that you need to do and you don't need to sit about and sit and think about it and worry about it and that attention to detail also makes sure that there aren't mistakes that happen because if you make a mistake as the producer it has such knock-on effects to the whole production and to the all of the crew and all of the cast and the the production as a whole that sometimes it you know it can be really catastrophic so making sure that you're not making those mistakes and that also comes from that that comes from learning and time and experience you know you're going to make mistakes obviously everybody does but at the same time doing the best you can to avoid those is really really important because your role is all about organization and planning this is also why i think it's so important that you start off as a runner because a producer essentially has to think through the whole project from start to finish and organize everything you know they organize the budgets the creatives the schedules they are ultimately responsible for all three of those things um so in order to be able to do that you have to really understand every department and you have to understand it better than just a little bit you know if you if you don't really understand how vfx works or the timelines and schedules involved with vfx that could be catastrophic if your film it ends up you know being vfx heavy because if you haven't built in enough time into the schedule or built in enough money into the budget at the beginning in the development stages when you get to that post-production stage when you're doing vfx if you don't know that you needed to leave this amount of lead time or you needed to leave this amount of budget for it you're stuck with a film that's half done that you can't complete so you need to be able to understand all of the processes and all of the stages in the production as well and as much as possible in order to be able to do your job and to go further to to go from a good to a great producer i also think it's really important that you spend as much time learning the departments within production as well that means understand as much about cameras about um data you know codecs all those kinds of things editing about makeup and hair and costuming and wardrobe and all those different aspects the more you can learn about those the better you're going to be as a producer because you'll be able to first of all empathize with people and understand why the you know hair stylist needs an extra 35 minutes to put on a specific wig or why you know set needs an extra three days to build this specific thing because you have an understanding of the basics of it yeah so i think the thing that sets apart a good from a great producer is somebody who has experience and is really well-rounded in as many different departments now you don't need to phoenix you know you know you don't need to be you know the best editor the best hair stylist the best cinematographer in the world to be a good producer but understanding all of those things is really important because you won't be able to do your job as effectively if you don't in film production there are five key stages of the production process so you have development pre-production production post-production and distribution now i'm going to talk about all of these different stages in as much detail as possible but i also want you to bear in mind that the stages and the processes of each one will vary depending on the niche that you're working in so if you're working in feature films um the processes will look very different to commercials and again very different to television they all have that overarching you know five stages but the details and the finer you know intricacies of each stage will vary depending on which niche you're working in and that's because essentially you're creating different things although it's still a film at the end of the day and certain things have to stay the same um you know the development of a of an advertising commercial or and a feature film are going to be vastly different to also a tv commercial or tv series right um and within that you also have different producers who work at different stages so you'll have a development producer you can have line producers you can have post-production producers um you know you have distributors who effectively work as producers for distribution um you know and you've got all these different producers who carry the process through each stage as well um and you'll always have one producer who works at the top at the whole and oversees the whole production and is that sort of thread throughout every stage and through out each stage you bring on different people with different skill sets to be able to manage certain aspects that you as the producer you know of the whole project might not not be able to do so i want that to be really clear and be kept in mind um because otherwise it can get a bit convoluted so we'll start with development so development the key the three sort of key parts of developing any project is that the script has to be completed the financing has to be in place and the various partners have to be brought on board for a commercial project the way it would start is the script will essentially be created by a marketing agency who will be instructed by a brand that they would like to do a film of some sort marketing agency have internal teams that would come up with the whole creative then a creative brief will be created by the marketing agency and that marketing agency brief will then be sent out to a production company that's where the producer of the production company will come on board so they will read that brief and then they will create a budget they will budget the project based on the script and the creative and the timelines and how much money is available and then they'll send that back to the marketing agency for the client and the marketing agency to decide um on whether they want to go ahead there will also be a point where different directors and key creatives will be um sent to the marketing agency as sort of options of who can be the creative helm of this project um so it's it's essentially your pitching for the work and the budget is created by the producer alongside pitching the different directors so you send that off to the marketing agency they then decide hopefully you win the job and that's the end of development and once you get the green light then you move into pre-production that's commercial work now development in features is a whole different floor game so let's say in this scenario it's the production company that have the script so what will happen is a producer will work with a writer to create a script and you'll develop the script so you have also got bear in mind you've got development producers who can work alongside here and they generally are constantly on the lookout for new stories and new ideas reading loads of books watching the news reading loads of different just they've got so many different resources that they pull from to find a story and once they find a good story they pair a writer together they write the script that script is then researched and researched and put through so many different tests to see how it will appeal to audiences and in the meantime the producer starts putting together a business plan and um and a sort of massive pitch document they then go out and start sending out the script or the business plan the pitch deck whatever they have already and they start looking for finance and you can find finance from i mean you've got private investors you've got film funding bodies you've got crowdfunding you've got studios distributors that you can find financing co-productions um there's a whole different way and financing and of itself is a whole other topic and raising finance but yeah effectively whilst the script is being developed the producer of the project will go out there and they will effectively sell the project to as many people as they can to try and get financing for the film at the same time you'll also if not already attached have a director who's coming on board to direct the the project and you might even send the script out if it's in a state to be sent out to uh agents to pass on to cast to hopefully get talent attached to the project talent attached to a project also massively helps with um financing a project if you've got a big name attached to a feature film script saying yep i'll play the lead role if this ever gets the green light that will help with film financing because that also helps with marketing down the line and distribution so yeah so those are sort of two ways and effectively once you've got the script finalized the financing in place and all the various media partners and you know creative partners on board to the project you're out of development but it is a long process it can take years in some cases some feature films 10 years in development you know commercials not so much but yeah so it is a very lengthy process and it is the the role of the producer is to really manage that whole process and be the um lead of the business end and the um creative end too so then you go into pre-production so then once you get into pre-production this is where the you know the role of the producer really changes so previously where you were you know going around networking trying to find finance you know bringing people out to lunch and trying to convince them to give you money to make your film or you know talking to an agent an agency or a client or pitching you know your um your work now that you've gotten that work and it's all signed off and you know that you can you know do the film uh you need to start preparing for production so that effectively means you are going to start working on crew hiring all the right crew you're going to start working through um the permits the locations the cast the creatives needed and you know you'll be setting up the accommodation if there's travel if there's visas the equipment and you need to get all of these things in place and ready so that when you turn up on the first day of principal shooting everything goes off without a hitch you know and that's so you'll spend i mean sometimes you'll spend a week sometimes you'll spend three weeks sometimes you'll spend two months in pre-production sometimes a year it really varies on the project but that's all worked out in development because the budget's already been done the finance has already been done um so you know how much time you have for pre-production so the production team as a whole are effectively working towards the deadline and the deadline is first day principal shooting and you'll have various teams that will come in as you get closer and closer to the deadline to start working um for example costumes set um the director will be there the whole time they'll be prepping all the creative sides of things and making all those creative decisions talking to the different people and talking to whoever needs to have an answer that day getting the cast all done rehearsing sometimes yeah so pre-production is a very hectic time for a producer um but it's a very exciting time because this is where you really get to get your teeth stuck in you get to start organizing and really start pulling things out and making sure that everything is set up for first day of shooting um and then yeah once basically once you get to the end of pre-production that means you're in production so that's when the hard work really begins um and that's where everybody turns up on set you know it's what everybody knows it's where everybody turns up on set and uh principal filming begins and um for a producer you tend to work i was saying earlier you tend to work weeks in advance because you do so if a producer i always say the producer's done their job well on set they don't really have anything to do because on that day because they've already done it all that's already been planned you know two weeks out they're working on two weeks or four weeks ahead and that's what they'll be doing that day so as long as all the attention to detail has been met and all the work has been done correctly on that day the producer doesn't really have anything to do with the day-to-day runnings that will be the assistant director who runs the set the first ad alongside the director obviously he's leaving leading creative um but yeah so in production basically all the producer does is make sure that production is running smoothly they'll sit there they'll watch the dailies they might watch um you know what's happening on set making sure that everything is going well but really they're they're prepping for post-production and prepping for distribution and making sure that all the funding is still coming in make sure they're going to be able to pay everybody and you know running all of that making sure that you know everybody is happy and if there are any issues generally you'll push that up the line um you know we'll start with the production manager who will get the brunt of the issues and if the production manager can't fix it if you have a line producer then it will go up to the line producer if the line producer can't fix it then it would go up to the producer so really on a that's on a feature film so really if you have a lot of buffer between what's actually happening in the nitty gritty on set um on the day between you the producer and you know the actual production team on set that's on a feature on a commercial you won't have as many people in between you might depending on the budget but generally you won't um so the producer will probably be more involved in the day-to-day um but they will still be thinking about you know what's happening in the next few days in post-production and managing all of those things and setting things up so that way the project can go off without a hitch once you're out production so yeah so once principal filming is finished you're out of production and then you're moving into post-production post-production is where the magic happens it is where everything comes together and you get to see everything for the first time and it's also where you get to see everything for the first time um but it's really exciting i love post-production it's my favorite part because you get to see all the hard work of everybody come together and you get to see you know this little baby that you've nurtured through development pre-production and production now come together on a timeline and actually see it become a physical product so that's where the editors um will come in and vfx and sound and you know colorists and oh goodness there's there's a whole host of people in post-production i mean i could go on for days about post-production because it is it is complex i actually think there might be a master class that rory nichols has done on editing you might want to check that one out um but yeah so post-production is really it's a whole other workflow and you have post-production producers as well um for a for a producer a lead producer of a whole project their role really in post-production is managing budget and managing creative and well they're also managing time but um you just you'll be sitting there you'll be doing a lot of reviews um you'll be making sure that the you know if you're working on a commercial the client is happy with it and the client is happy with the final end product if you're working on a feature again you might have a client depending on who's financing um you know that the client is happy with the with the film and you'll be doing reviews and you'll be giving notes and feedback and you know you'll be you'll be sitting there alongside the director and the director will ask you for feedback because your job as well is to give creative input because you have to make sure that the job stays on brief so whilst the creative leader is really the director as a producer you're also giving a lot of creative um you know input which is great um so yeah so once the film is out of post-production then it's in delivery and distribution that's a lot of paperwork more than anything else for a producer more than anything else it's just a lot of paperwork and and you know you'll be working with a distributor if you're in a feature film you'll have you'll have met and decided on a distributor before you've even started pre-production so those plans will have been in motion way before marketing the film would have been in plan way before you started anything because you need all you need all of those contracts for cast for example written up you need to know where they need to be if you're going to be doing promos with the cast if they need to be at the premiere and all those kinds of things all of those things will already be agreed upon in development um so really it's just about distribution is from a lead producer's point of view is really about executing the plans you agreed in development and getting the paperwork done and that is long very very long but yeah essentially those are the five stages of production and the role that a producer has in all of those five stages so there's this saying in um in the industry i think it's like oh we'll fix it in post we'll fix it in post and that's when you sort of you make a mistake during production or pre-production generally it's production um and you know you think okay well how do i fix this how are we gonna remedy this and you go it's fine we'll just fix it in post my secret tip [Laughter] just you can't fix everything in post sometimes most of the time generally you can fix things in post but this sort of goes back to why i think it's also really important that you understand as many of the stages in as much detail as possible because some things you genuinely cannot fix in post and i mean it's a bit of a joke on a set when someone's out fix it in post and you know all the editors are like oh yeah that's my job now to fix the problems that productions are made and you know and it is a very real issue there are times where you know it does need to be fixed and post but as the producer it's your call so in order to be able to make that call you need to understand the capabilities of post-production and the capabilities of an editor or a vfx artist or a colorist or you know whatever it might be because some problems yes can be fixed in post but some problems just just cannot be fixed in post and if you don't know the capabilities of post-production you can't make that call there on on the day when you have the talent when you have the crew when you have the whole setup you can't make that call to go actually no we can't fix this in post we need to do it now and reshoot now because say you don't know what happens right in post or say you don't know the capabilities and you go yeah cool we'll fix it in post then you get into the cutting room you get into the editing room and the editor turns around goes yeah we can't fix this you then have to go back out set a whole you know second shoot up again and reshoot whatever it is that's been messed up that you didn't shoot originally on that day or that wasn't quite right on that day so yeah you can't always fix everything in post [Laughter] thanks guys for watching my masterclass on film production my name is sophie haynes and i've been here with wedio academy and it's been great and make sure you don't miss all their other great master classes and you can check out some of my work on www.afewgoodproductions.com and i hope to see you guys in the future in the industry all right bye guys [Music] [Music] you

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Keywords: film production, film producer, producer, how to become a film producer, what is a film producer, film, filmmaking, filmmaking 101, film production stages, development, pre-production, pre production, production, post production, post-production, editing, distribution, London, cinematography, masterclass, Wedio, Wedio community, film production tips, film producing, producing, cinematography 101, film 101, film production beginners, film production for beginners, being a film producer, academy

Id: qOyrV1oj2gc

Length: 35min 18sec (2118 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 24 2022