Today’s guest post is from NYC-based feature film producer Adam Brightman.
Recently I was asked by a couple of smart but fairly inexperienced producers some good questions about how producing teams can work well together (and not so well). For better or worse, in my career, which is now in its third decade (ouch), I have averaged about 70/30 good to bad. Maybe that is par for the course. Maybe it is reflective of how much of my film work has been on non-studio, extremely challenging films. In any case, since they asked, and since it is a crucial and, perhaps, unappreciated part of the filmmaking process, here are my thoughts.
1. Everybody counts. All producers on films today are important, and unless they are clearly dead weight or baggage (a star’s manager, an executive’s friend, what have you) then every producer makes a valuable contribution. And whatever the credit one gets on a movie, if you are part of the producing team then you are a producer. Plain and simple. So as I said, everybody counts, and the producing teams that recognize and acknowledge that fact work well. The ones that feel a need, for whatever reason, to undermine and minimize each other’s contributions do not work well.
