TV PRODUCERS.
Who are they and what they hell do they
do?
If you glance at the credits of your
favourite TV show, you’ll spot the Big 3 of Writer, Director and Producer.
(There are often plenty of Executive Producers too, but that’s a whole other
blog).
It’s pretty easy to comprehend what the
first two mean. The Writer writes the script. The Director tells the actors and
crew what to do. The Producer … produces? Like a magician producing a rabbit
from a hat? Or like the American term for fruit and veg - he/she sprinkles the
Writer and Director with a watering can full of money, thereby producing a
prize-winning television marrow?
Probably the most vivid layman’s idea of
what a producer does derives from film: Harvey Weinstein with his cigar barking
orders, hiring and firing and placing large bets on movies with his wads of
cash.
That is the biggest difference between film
and TV producers. A film producer’s main job is to drum up the funding to make
the film. In the UK that usually means an eye-watering patchwork quilt of
financing deals and tax breaks and pre-selling of distribution rights. When it
all comes together, the film producer is like a cowboy or cowgirl heroically
forging a new frontier and creating a bustling town from an empty desert.
The TV producer’s role is different
because in TV the financial structure is much simpler. A TV series is generally
wholly financed by the channel broadcasting it. As soon as that one deal is in
place, the funding issue is effectively over.
So what do TV producers do? If you are a
writer going for your first meeting with a TV producer, who are you meeting?
I thought it might be helpful to break
down five very different types of people I’ve encountered in TV, all of whom
share the same job title of producer.
The
Creative Producer
This is the producer you want and need,
and if you find a good one, never let them go. The Creative Producer is someone
who understands both the creative and business side of what goes into making a
show. They are as comfortable dealing with actors and execs as they are with
reading and responding to scripts. They give you good notes – but not too many,
and at the right time, expressed in a helpful way. They praise you when your
writing’s going well and give you support and encouragement when it’s not. They
won’t micro-manage you, but instead trust you to do a good job and are there to
back you up when you feel like you can’t go any further. Above all, they put
the show first and bend over backwards to protect you and your precious stories
and characters from the slings and arrows of outrageous channel interference
and production meltdowns. I’ve been lucky to have worked with more than my fair
share of Creative Producers over the years and it’s one of the reasons I feel
protective when the ‘suits’ get a knee-jerk slagging off from writers. The true
Creative Producer is your bodyguard and friend.
The
Line Producer
A producer who does a brilliant job of
managing all the hugely complex elements of a production from the channel
executives to the catering, but doesn’t get involved in the writing process and
doesn’t give you script notes. Sometimes this kind of producer is exactly what
you need – particularly if you are getting creative feedback from other people
in the production, such as a trusted script editor or creative channel
commissioner. These are the ego-free heroes and heroines who keep a show on the
road without looking for glory or asking for admiration (although a bit of both
is always welcome). You’ll start to appreciate good Line Producers when you’ve
been landed with a terrible one and suddenly realise all the life-saving work
the good ones do without you noticing. It’s time to sing a song for the unsung
Line Producers – a song of long hours, endless emails and making sure the toilet
truck isn’t parked next to the catering van.
The
Empire Builder
The opposite of the Line Producer, the
Empire Builder wants and needs to be front and centre. This is the kind of
producer who is likely to announce (or merely think) ‘this is my show.’ Empire
Builders are much more focussed on relationships ‘up’ (who’s the most
influential exec at the channel?) than ‘down’ (how is the Second Assistant Director
getting on?). Empire Builders often excel as salespeople – their greatest strength
is being able to sell a show with their charisma, enthusiasm and political
know-how. They are half-human, half-iPhone. They know who’s in and who’s out at
the channel, who’s the power behind the throne and who’s a sock puppet. Or they
like you to think that they know. You need to watch out for Empire Builders when
you start to get the feeling that your show is merely a small principality in
their burgeoning, world-conquering domain. A principality they might at some
point need to dissolve and strip for parts if a larger territory has a greater
need. Try and use the formidable skills of the Empire Builder without ever
taking your beady eye off them.
The
Frustrated Writer
Now we turn down a darkened corner into the
land of Producers To Avoid. There are frustrated writers lurking within the
heart of most producers, but only the Frustrated Writers have failed to hold
their urges in check. They will attempt not just to rewrite your script, but
write it for you. None of your ideas will be good enough for the simple reason
that they’re your ideas, not theirs. There’s rarely a cure for an advanced case
of Frustrated Writer, so as soon as you spot the symptoms, don a protective
suit and leave the building by the nearest exit, throwing blank sheets of paper
over your shoulder as you do so.
The
Ripoff Merchant
We’ve journeyed up the producer river like
Martin Sheen, now it’s time to meet our Colonel Kurtz – the producer who abides
in the heart of darkness – the Ripoff Merchant. The Ripoff Merchant is a
producer who breaks the most important unwritten rule of producing – ‘the show
comes first’. As you get to know them you’ll be chilled by the dawning
realisation that they’re more interested in making money than making a good
show. Hopefully you’ll never encounter one of these but if you do, my advice is
to grab some garlic and a wooden stake and plunge it directly into their heart.
I thoroughly recommend Andrew Ellard’s
excellent breakdown of the 3 types of script editor, which helped inspire this
blog:
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