Sometimes as a director you can have projects that just drift along. Some lucky directors find a producer early and they stick together as a team for years, but often directors are on their own, waiting for a project to get to a certain stage before a producer comes onboard.
Being a director sometimes means being a producer as well. Even if you’ve got a producer, they’re going to be much happier if you can lighten the load and help out. Pick up the phone, hustle your own jobs, schedule your own script. Be involved in everything.
On my short film Cuckoo I had a few producers over the course of the project. All good people that believed in the film, but people with other paying jobs to take care of. That meant I needed to step up and get things in order. Find a location, key props, cast etc. Just as the shoot loomed I put out a call for help and got the producer that ultimately got us through production. Even then it was a joint effort. We’re in post now and getting pretty close to being done. We check in with each other about how things are going, but it’s important that I keep driving the film all the way to the end.
Thinking like a producer doesn’t mean scaling back an idea just because it’s going to be hard. It’s finding a way to make something happen, taking ownership over the problem outside of just the creative side and coming up with practical solutions.
Otherwise, you might just have a battle you can’t win.
Producers have a tough job and I’ve worked with many amazing ones. Most of the time they get little thanks, not enough money and a never-ending list of responsibilities.
A good producer will back you up and fight for the project, make it easy for them and get your hands dirty. And if you don’t have one yet, then it’s up to you to pick up the slack.
If you’re a producer and you’ve made it this far, please get in touch!