Film producer

A film producer oversees the making of movies. The producer initiates, coordinates, supervises and controls matters such as raising funding, hiring key personnel, and arranging for distributors. The producer is involved throughout all phases of the filmmaking process from inception to completion of a project.

In the early 20th century, the producer also tended to wield ultimate creative control on a film project. However, with the demise of Hollywood's studio system in the 1950s, creative control began to shift into the hands of the director.

Changes in movie distribution and marketing in the 1970s and 80s gave rise to the modern-day phenomenon of the Hollywood blockbuster, which tended to bring power back into the hands of the producer. While marketing and advertising for Hollywood films accentuates the role of the director, apart from a few well-known film makers it is usually the producer who has the greatest degree of control.

Kinds of Producers

• Producer: the classic producer who typically has the greatest involvement and oversight among a film's various producers
• Executive producer: usually a representative of a film production company that is producing or financing a film
• Associate producer: typically a title granted as a courtesy or to one who played some role in getting the film made
• Co-producer: usually reports to the Producer and is more involved in the day-to-day production
• Line producer: oversees a film's budget

Some notable film producers

• Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman, Michael G. Wilson, and Barbara Broccoli – The James Bond series
• Jerry Bruckheimer – Top Gun, Crimson Tide, Con Air
• Howard Kazanjian – Raiders of the Lost Ark, Return Of The Jedi, Demolition Man
• Walter Mirisch – West Side Story, The Sound Of Music
• David O. Selznick – King Kong, Gone With the Wind
• Irving Thalberg – Mutiny on the Bounty, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Grand Hotel, A Night at the Opera
• Hal B. Wallis – The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Elvis Presley films
• Darryl F. Zanuck – many Shirley Temple movies, The Grapes of Wrath, All About Eve, The Longest Day

See also

• List of Hollywood movie studios
• List of movie-related topics
• Producers Guild of America
• Television producer

External links

• Producers Guild of America Frequently Asked Questions