When I was first starting out in the business, the question of what producers do, actually, was a big one. Eventually I got a producing title myself on a project, which allowed me to share in the Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries for HBO’s From the Earth to the Moon. That’s me, in my younger days, on the far right in the photo above.

You may have noticed that when a movie wins “best picture” or a series “best series,” it’s the producer(s) who accept the awards. Not the director or writer(s). Although sometimes, directors, writers and/or actors are also “producers,” so they would be up there on stage.

Why is that? What is their role?

If you look at the credits for any series you might also notice a long parade of names with some sort of “producer” credit, be it Executive Producer, Consulting Producer, Co-Producer, etc.

How many people does it take to “produce” something, anyway, and what do all these people do?

If you have any vagueness on this topic, this post is for you. And since producers are often the principal people writers work for and with (and are hoping to impress), it’s important to know this stuff.

But first, a plug for my book, with a quote from one of the producers in the above photo (fourth from the right, next to Tom Hanks), the great writer/producer Graham Yost:

Let’s break down “producer” into the few essential categories and explain what each does:

1. Develop material and put together projects

This is the classic, highest-level version of what producers do. This kind of producer typically runs a production company, often bearing their name. Or sometimes not. As with Brian Grazer at Imagine Entertainment. He’s third from left in the photo above. Grazer has long been Ron Howard’s “producing partner” at Imagine, which they co-founded.

While Grazer is a “pure producer,” Ron Howard was obviously an actor and a director first. This happens often. When actors, directors or writers become mega-successful, they often have the opportunity to set up their own production company, and typically partner with someone who will handle the day-to-day running of the company and various producer tasks while they are often off wearing a different hat. Tom Hanks (center above) also has a production company called Playtone, and a “producing partner,” Gary Goetzman.

Whether a producer of this first type is also a writer/director/actor or partnered with one, their main function is to put together projects, and get them green-lit to production. At the highest level, a production company has an “overall deal” with a studio, network, streaming service, financier and/or distributor. Of course many companies perform multiple of these functions. For this purposes of this discussion, let’s call them their “Corporate Overlords” or “C.O.” In this scenario, they are paid overhead and salaries by their C.O. to keep their production company functioning. In exchange they put together projects for the C.O.

What does putting together projects look like?

Usually it starts with an idea for a movie or series, sometimes generated internally, sometimes given to them by outsiders or their C.O., or brought to them in the form of a pitch or finished script from a writer. If there’s not already a writer, they find writers to take the idea to script and eventually present that script to the C.O. (Sometimes they can hire the writer with their own funds. Sometimes they have to get the C.O. to pre-approve the idea and writer, and pay the writer.)

Producers at this level also look to “package” the project beyond the script by bringing on a director and/or stars, often in collaboration with one of the major agencies like WME, CAA, ICM or UTA. Most big producers are repped by one of them and also use them as a source of other talent that they can bring onto their projects. Is this a conflict of interest since they’re the bosses of these people, technically, and the agency is supposed to advocate for both sides of such deals, if they represent both the producer and whoever they’re hiring? Good question, and let’s leave that for another post.

Usually the production company/producer of this type gets a Producer credit, if it’s a movie, and an Executive Producer credit, if it’s a series. And there might be more than one person at this company who gets such a credit. (Such as Imagine’s Michael Bostick, far left above, who had a Producer credit on From the Earth to the Moon.)

Ultimately if the project is greenlit, this sort of producer hires the next type of producer whose jobs is to…

2. Manage day-to-day production

The first type of producer doesn’t usually get involved in the nuts and bolts of scheduling, budgeting, and hiring and supervision of crew. They’d be involved in the big decisions like what the overall budget is and who the stars and director are, and interfacing with the C.O. on behalf of the production, but they generally leave the day to day stuff to this second kind of producer.

On From the Earth to the Moon, Co-Executive Producer Tony To (fourth from left above) played this role on behalf of Executive Producers Tom Hanks (who was also involved in writing, directing and acting in episodes) and Brian Grazer. Below Tony was Supervising Producer John Melfi (third from right), post-production Co-producer Janice Tashjian (second from left) and visual effects Co-producer Bruce Richmond (second from right), who had double duty as an HBO executive assigned to oversee aspects of the day-to-day running of the show for HBO. (The C.O. in this case.) I also worked closely with Tony, learning a lot about producing from him and focusing mainly on the writing and interacting with the writers.

Although Tony dealt with big creative issues in addition to day-to-day logistics, so he played a kind of dual role, this second kind of producing usually is more about management of the process and not the creative decisions. Sometimes they will get the title of Line Producer (which specifically separates them from the “creative” type of producer above), and below that, Unit Production Manager or UPM.

3. Put up the money

When I was still in film school and didn’t know what producers do, I speculated that they provided the money. I didn’t understand everything that goes into the making of a movie or series that requires development, business sense, advocacy, supervision and logistics that most directors and writers don’t really know how to do or want to do, or have time to do. And that’s really what producing is.

But it is true that financiers sometimes get producing credits, usually at the level of Executive Producer or Co-Executive Producer. If a C.O. puts up all the money, like in the traditional studio model, this might not happen, but sometimes there isn’t a C.O. involved, or they only put up some of the money. On indie films, filmmakers often give investors/financiers one of these credits as their main “perk” outside of financial participation in the film.

4.  Have expanded authority/money added to their primary role

Producing credits can be negotiated by the principal creative players on a project, and lead to a greater salary and/or back-end profit participation, plus a greater “say” on the big decisions that the first type of producer above typically makes (with the ultimate approval of the C.O.) Projects are usually fairly top-down in their hierachy, so how much “say” this gets someone can vary, but “having a producer credit” means they’re not just a writer, actor, director, etc. but are “also a producer.”

This usually doesn’t mean they’re doing the same things the three types above do, and often doesn’t mean any expanded responsibilities or different job at all. Just the title and more money that goes with it.

But it can. And the biggest example of this is in television, where there is often a large writing staff, most of whom have some sort of “producing” title in addition to getting writing credit on some of the episodes. This is how a show can pay writers to be full-time employees who help generally on writing-related tasks for all the episodes of a show, even though they might only personally write one or two a season.

These titles tend to work in the following decreasing order of money, authority and responsibility:

Executive Producer – typically reserved for the “showrunner” who is in charge of the writers, directors, scripts, crew, staff and basically the entire series, answering only to the C.O. and the first type of producer above.

Co-Executive Producer

Consulting Producer

Supervising Producer

Producer

Below Co-Producer, you might also see writers with the lower titles of Executive Story Consultant, Story Editor, or, at the bottom, Staff Writer.

These other levels basically all have the same job, being part of the writers room, pitching ideas for episodes, scenes, jokes, etc. on scripts they might not be the writer on, plus writing some episodes themselves. Maybe they also go on set to be the voice of the showrunner on episodes they wrote. Maybe they also work with the editors on the “producers cut” of the episode after the director is finished with their cut. But mostly, they are simply a writer on staff, with the track record to negotiate a higher level title and more money that goes with that title.

5. Know the right people/have leverage

Sometimes “producers” don’t have any role on a project at all, other than a connection to someone on it or how it was birthed that gives them a right to a title (and usually some money commensurate with that).

This could be the star’s manager. Or someone who was involved in developing the underlying source material or perhaps an earlier iteration of the project who had to be “bought out” to move forward with this iteration. Producer titles are even sometimes taken by people at the C.O. who the other producers ultimately answer to, but who mostly just approved the budget and package and oversaw it from a further distance than a typical producer would do.

 

So what does all this mean for writers trying to break in?

Other than just information about how the industry and its productions work, there are three main takeaways here for writers:

1. The first kind of producer is who you ultimately have to please.

They are who hires you, typically, or buys your project (as representatives of the C.O. who might back them). If they’re operating at a high enough level that they can do those things, you probably can’t get to them directly. That’s what agents and managers do for writer clients: introduce them to producers and advocate for them and their projects.

2. Consider a day job in the industry (which I highly recommend).

This might involve working at a production company and even working your way up from assistant to someone who is actually “producing,” in category one above. It could also mean getting on the career path for the second type of producing, which usually isn’t something writers do, because it’s more about “long hours on set” vs. “being around projects and writers as they develop in a 9-to-5 office job.” Pursuing type #2 typically involves working on one production at a time, starting as a production assistant (P.A.) and working your way up through either the production coordinator or assistant director path.

3. You might become a writer-producer some day.

This tends to be the highest level of creative control, power and money for a writer. You might be producing your own projects and overseeing those of others, like a Shonda Rhimes or Judd Apatow, both of whom were writers first. As long as you are “just a writer,” you typically answer to producers (and, in movies, to directors), but when you become a “type 1” producer, usually through having a lot of success first as a writer and possibly director, you’re really at the top of the game.

 

Did I leave anything out? Any follow-up questions to any of this? If so, please comment below!