If you read the credits of a film, there is an awful lot of "producer" titles going around. And if you ask people (even actual producers themselves) they will have a hard time defining exactly what a producer does. Dr. Campos explained what a producer does.
A producer...PRODUCES!. She is involved in actualizing the movie from a writer/director/creator's imagination into an actual physical product made of atoms. She is involved in assembling resources that are needed to make the movie.
In Hollywood, this means she raises $100 million to make that blockbuster. And distributing that money according to a budget, so there are enough resources to complete the film. She would budget for equipment, talent, locations, post-production/legal fees, etc.
On a smaller scale, it means she assembles:
- Equipment: camera/lighting/sound etc
- Talent: Cast and crew. She flyers/posts electronically, helps interview interested parties and helps assign them tasks according to their interests and abilities.
- Location:She talks to the owner and gets them to open the doors for us.
- Paperwork: She keeps track of the release forms signed by actors/crew/ and the owner of the locations. She helps select festivals to submit to, and fills out the forms to submit to them.
- Miscellaneous: She does whatever is needed to get the movie to happen. This might be raising morale during a hiatus in filming. (Crew can get frustrated that a light burnt out and they're twiddling their thumbs.) Or running to the store to get a replacement bulb. Or driving those w/o a car. Or holding a reflector because there are 2 crew members, one on camera, one on sound, and we need a third to bounce light, and she's the only one left to do it.
Ultimately, a producer is a natural facilitator. She helps the creative types to create, by taking care of details that would distract the creatives from their job
