What Directors Look For in a Producer

As a director, I used to fantasize about a producer that would one day come along and make my life easier. A producer to raise all the money, defend why I was the only director who could handle the material, defend the material itself, then to basically be a parent to me on set while I tried to articulate my vision to people and make my film my way. When that producer never came, I was forced to become that producer myself.

Now, as a producer of several low budget short and feature films, I have seen myself attempt to be (and hopefully become) the producer I always fantasized about having.

The absolute best experience I have had as a producer, as I always say, was during the strenuous, yet glorious production of Brian Ackley's Uptown - and had it not been for Uptown, I'm not quite sure I would have wanted to go on producing so many movies. Writing and directing is always my first love, but if I have to produce, that experience is the one I always hold up and compare others to. It was a perfect mix of hands on, hands off, respect, love, joy, hard work, and the stars being aligned, that for me, will be hard to compare it to anything else - especially in the ultra low budget realm of filmmaking. If you are making a film for next to nothing, make sure you are working on a film like Uptown, where the film was literally about the group - it wasnt about the stars, it wasnt about me, and it wasnt about the director, it was about the group. Everyone collaborated, and that, in my opinion, is what made it a stronger film. Although a couple times I wanted to strangle Brian because of time issues, I can honestly say that it was a pure joy working with this man, and because of this, I cannot wait to produce for him again. They say directors find the perfect producer, but in this case, I felt I found the perfect director. A director who knows what he wants, yet gains the affections of his entire team, by stepping aside and allowing others to do their jobs - from production paperwork, to sound, to editing, to promo art - we've heard a lot of praise about the experience of working with him on this film. And it helps if you ended up meeting two of your favorite actors and people in the process, stars Meissa Hampton and Chris Riquinha - 2 people that redefined the term "professional" for me those 9 days. With this as an experience, the wonderful reception the film is receiving is simply the icing on the cake.

Here is an interesting discussion about what directors look for and need in their producers. This is Episode Seven Of Christine & Ted Talk To Directors At Sundance '09, Lee Daniels speaks of the need to turn water into champagne, Alan Cumming talks about sharing passion, and Jeff Lipsky about protection and not knowing:

For more about Uptown go to their official site HERE.

- Princeton