笔记

HOW TO WATCH A MOVIE: THE PRODUCER

BY LAWRENCE TURMAN

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We Are Not the Enemy

Maligned, misunderstood, and often mysteriously credited, movie producers rarely get their props. Finally one speaks out.

... But the real deal is the producer, and only the producer, who is called onstage to accept the Academy Award for Best Picture.

... He or she just happens to be the cause, the reason, all the others are working on the movie. ... It is the producer who starts the ball rolling, and keeps it rolling.

GETTING STARTED: WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?

... I myself use a low-key, straightforward approach (for pitching): Here's my project, here's why I like it, here's what I think its potential is, I hope you share my enthusiasm. And they usually don't. I always expect a no and am rarely disappointed. But all it takes is one yes, and then I'm in the game. So we producers live on hope, and it does spring eternal. After all, a project is only dead if the producer quits working on it.

DEVELOPING THE SCRIPT: A SLOW ROAD

CRISIS MANAGEMENT

... On The Graduate, my brilliant director, Mike Nichols, fell in love with a church as a location for our story's climax, but the church refused to let us film there. The Graduate was racy, sexually provocative; this was 1967. So I told Mike, "No go. We have to find another church." His reply? "But, Larry, that's the only one I want." Shit! I maneuvered a meeting with the church elders in which I told them our film was dealing with the very issues (purpose, morality, etc.) that the church itself should be dealing with. Chuzpah, yes, but the truth. They relented, and their church is the glorious centerpiece of our climax.  

MINDING THE BUDGET

Producing is largely about balancing your artistic desires against the financial means you have to achieve them.

...

... The best producers have the taste and creativity of an artist, the mind-set of an entertainer, the people skills of a politician, the business acumen of a CEO, the insight of a psychotherapist, the ebullience of a cheerleader, the tenacity of a pit bull, the charm of a snake-oil seller, the delegating ability of a five-star general, the malleability of a chameleon, and the dedication of a monk.

... Many years ago, I was asked about the joys and sorrows of the job by a young reporter named Curtis Hanson. (Yep, before he was the Oscar-winning writer-director of L.A. Confidential.) My reply? "Nothing could be more rewarding or stimulating. Each day has new challenges, new struggles, new frustrations, new satisfaction. Each day I figure I'll walk into the office and get hit with a right to the heart and a left to the kidney, but I love it."

... The cake for me, is my personal expression: the idea behind each film I do, my conscious or sometimes unconscious signature with which I express my values. I like to think -- I do think -- that i can affect the world, or at least a few people in it.

...

Lawrence Turman has produced 30 films, and is the author of So You Want to Be a Producer...

 

 

PRODUCER DEFINITIONS

1. WHAT DOES A PRODUCER DO?

-- A producer initiates, coordinates, supervises and controls, either on his own authority, or subject to the authority of an employer, all aspects of the motion-picture and/or tel...