Sometimes It Helps To Think Like A Film Producer

Written by Mike Shapiro | | October 1, 2015

Next time you’re wrestling with how you ought to be spending your time and energy leading your organization, imagine you were making a feature film.  (For purposes of this exercise, don’t get caught up in distinctions between line and executive producers, each with different responsibilities and with several people sharing duties under each of them.  Just look at this role of “producer” as comparable to your role in heading up your project.)

Here are some aspects you’d think about in approaching your job:

  1. Focus on delivering a result vs. managing or administering an organization.  Someone fortunate enough to get the green light to produce a film is not going to waste time getting bogged down in roles and responsibilities, the organizational message or changing a culture.  He or she is going to be 100% focused on getting the film made.  Everyone on board will be expected to know their roles and get busy.
  2. Bring the seeds of the vision.  Sure, the director will have his own ideas as will the screenwriters, but the producer is expected to bring the general idea of what the movie is about.  As the others are brought on board and start making their contributions, the producer will serve as a sounding board for making sure all the pieces are consistent with the original idea.
  3. Identify talent and assemble the team.  If you’ve ever stayed in your seat long enough to watch the credits, you’ve no doubt been amazed at the sheer number of people it takes to make a feature film.  Technically, they all “work for” the producer, who has to be sure he or she is getting the right talent needed to get the job done.  Sure, the producer has worked with some people before and has some pre-existing relationships, but all that has to take a back seat to the exercise of his or her best judgment about what’s needed right here, right now for this project.
  4. Encourage building, monitoring, learning and modifying.  Read up on the “making of” a movie you’ve seen. How many different scripts were written and re-written?  Did they end up changing directors? Did they get the actors they originally wanted or someone else — who turned out to be better (or not) than the ones they first tried to get?  What about the editing?  How many versions did they go through to get one that was true to the original concept?
  5. Help separate productive iterations from the others.  Was there 100% smooth sailing all the way from start to finish?  Doubtful. With so many talented and strong-willed personalities on the project, there are bound to be differences of opinion, and conflicts about artistic merit and box office appeal.  It’s the producer’s job to make sure conflicts are resolved so the best ideas get into the finished product.
  6. Represent the “investors’ interests.”  Someone’s advancing the money to make this film.  Just like that project you’re running.  It’s the producer’s job to make sure the investors’ interests are protected and the project gets brought in on time and on budget.
  7. As effective and productive as the organization is, it all closes down after the “wrap.”  Everyone knows and accepts that the whole project and the organization set up to run it are inherently temporary and will shut down when the job is done.  There’s no job security in the movie business.  Of course, if the project — the finished film — is successful at the box office, the producer will get another chance to assemble another team and make another one.

Try bringing that results-orientation, urgency and special-purpose organizational outlook and mind-set to your next project!