I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell - June 8, 2008

I get some variation of this question all the time, this email worded it very well:

"What I truly want to know, is how hard it is to produce a movie. If you watch a show like Entourage, they make it seem like it's grabbing coffees and getting extras for the movie. I'm sure it's a ton more than it seems.

It should go unsaid, but I respect you immensely. As I read these boards, I'm slowly learning what it's like to be in your shoes, but I'm sure you don't give everyone on the board nearly close to what it's like.

I don't know, you may or may not respond to this, and I am completely sincere in this question. You've mentioned that it's hard in many posts, but how hard is it truly to do such a thing as produce a movie? Is it harder than actually writing the script? Is it harder than working in a law firm (obviously completely different scenarios, but work load wise)?"

First off, let me be very clear about this: If you think anything in Hollywood is like Entourage, or comparable to Entourage, you are a fucking idiot. But the question is still a valid one:

How hard is it to produce a movie?

The short answer is that it depends on who you are and what you bring to the table. There isn't one answer to this question because there isn't one way to be a producer. You can be a producer by any of the following ways:

-Finance the movie. This is the easiest way to become a movie producer. Cut the check and you are a producer, even if you do nothing else. If you have the money, clearly this is very easy.

-Put the elements of the movie together: When you say "movie producer" this is the primary job that it entails, and what most people think of when they say producer. I am in the process of writing a series of posts about what the exact job of a producer is (this is the first one, Part 1: From Concept To Script, the rest are coming later), you can read that and decide if you think it's hard.

-Bring something necessary to the table: Even if you don't do anything with the movie per se, if you bring two elements together, like the script and the money, then you can get on as a producer. We have two executive producers on the movie, Ray Mansfield and Shaun Reddick, and that is pretty much what they did--bring Darko and I together, and along with Aaron Ray, help negotiate the deal. They had nothing to do with script development or anything creative, and probably won't even come to the set. But they are still producers because they brought a necessary element to the table.

-Make the movie: I presume the question is really centered around the last thing: How hard is it to actually make the movie? That my friends--making a movie--is extremely difficult. Right now, we have two people in this movie who are experts in actually making a movie: Darren Demetre, the line producer, and Sean McKittrick, the producer of Donnie Darko who came on board to do what Nils and I really can't do, actually make a movie.

So, how does any of this compare to the difficulty of any other job? It's hard to say really. I have worked as a lawyer, a restaurant manager, and various other jobs in my life, and I would have to say being a movie producer is much more difficult. The main reason is because of the breadth of skills you have to master--art, finance, business, relationships, logistics, negotiating, etc, etc--and the fact that there really isn't a defined playbook to this job. Almost every other job has a very defined and specific way to do things. Not movie producing. There are as many ways to be a producer and to produce a movie as there are movies.

I recommended a bunch of books about the movie business in this post, but to be honest, I learned about the creative and political elements of movie producing from Max Wong for the most part, and the financial and strategic aspects from Aaron Ray. That's another thing that makes it difficult: You kinda have to learn by doing, and there are not a lot of people out there to teach you.

That's kinda the point of this blog: I want to give people an in depth, as it happens, accurate and complete-as-possible picture of what it takes to be a movie producer. Like you hinted at, I do leave A LOT out of this blog, but that's mainly because I have to leave it out for strategic or business reasons. But if you read this, it should at least impart what it feels like to do this.

When the movie is done, if it's the huge success I think it'll be, Nils and I will probably put everything into a book, including all the shit we had to leave out of the blog for strategic, political, or personal reasons. But those are all just details--I put enough important stuff in here that you should be able to get the idea. At least I think so.

Comment and discuss

Posted by Tucker Max at 5:52 PM