What does a Producer really do?

Today I had a very informative lecture by my Course Leader Mike Parker, and it was to explain what exactly does a producer do in all aspects of filmmaking. At first, I thought a producer does the scheduling, budgeting, sourcing actors, etc. but it is a lot more than that. I found out that producers have a more substantial role than I first presumed. Of course, what i know of producing only comes from what we have to do within our student films, but I never knew what they do within big budget films or short films with a budget, and as it turns out, it's a lot more tedious than what we have to do in our student films.

First, producers are at the financial, practical and creative heart of a film or TV drama according to ScreenSkills (2022), from the spark of the idea, all the way to its release and beyond. They have the key role to find the funding for the film, whether that be asking around with their networks or presenting some sort of show reel or script. Usually, it starts at the script as once the first draft is written they'll usually pay someone to develop it so they need funding before the script gets approved. They also have a key role in that they have to be constantly communicating with the team that they have assembled and to create a good working environment to make sure everything runs smoothly (ScreenSkills, 2022). Also, they have the important job of finding the crew to work on the film if it's independent, as if it is a studio produced film, they will have already had a crew to work for them. Furthermore, at the end of the production, they have to organise the sale and distribution of the film, if it’s going to be a limited release, or if it’s going to go international and if so where in the world will they sell it to. At this stage it is important for a producer to know what target audience the film is for and research into where abouts the film will be well perceived if it is only going to be a limited release. Then they have to decide when and where to sell DVD copies of the film if they are going to sell a DVD of it at all, or if it's going onto a streaming platform then they have to communicate to that corporation and discuss the rights to the film.

Personally, I don't think I would go into producing at this point in time. As I prefer a more hands on type role when it comes to filmmaking such as the cinematographer or director, but possibly with further research into being a producer and opportunities to shadow a producer on a film to gain more of an insight, I could possibly find more of an interest in it.