#QOTD

 

Job Role Research

For the Transitions unit; my role is a producer. Producers play an integral role in the tv and film industry and they are the ones who would mainly be seeing a project through from the start to the finish. They are the people who work closely with every department on a shoot, for example the director, the editor and the production staff. Roles that a producer usually takes on

 

- Raise money needed to fund a shoot

- Come up with the content, storylines etc, but hire a writer to follow

through with the physical script

- Either create budgeting and scheduling documents (on bigger shoots

there would be a production assistant to do these tasks but a producer

would be working closely with them)

- Ensure that all the relevant insurances are in place for shoots

- Keep in close contact with the director to ensure everything is going as

it should

 

Being a producer is closely associated with managerial titles; its a lot

about keeping organised and knowing whats going on within each

team/department at all times. Producers can spend a lot of time in an office, taking up the above organisational, more administrative tasks.

 

Within the 21st century, a new role within the TV industry has appeared; knowns as a 'show-runner'. this is a role that would have complete and utter control of a production, its a mixture of a writer and producer job role. This takes the creative role of a writer paired with the more managerial job of a producer and puts them together. A lot of shows, particularly sic-fi such as Doctor Who, have adopted these roles, with one person taking control of the a series, deciding what content shall go into it, and then writing a good amount of the episodes that go into it. This is something that really interest me because whilst i resonate well with because of the roles that come with it, however writing is also something that really interests me. Looking at some research, the term 'Showrunner' is the term given normally to one of the executive producers of a programme. The main job is to 'maintain the integrity of the overall canon of the series'. A showrunner wouldn't write every episode but would have creative control of most of the narrative aspects that occur within a series.

 

Real Life Producer Research

                                                        As part of my research for being a producer, i thought i would look into a specific producer and their                                                               work to try and inform mine. I have chosen Steven Moffat, mainly because whilst he is a producer, he is                                                         a writer as well, and on many shows has acted as this new role of a 'Showrunner', i thought this would                                                           be best for me to look at.

 

                                                        Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer, perhaps he is best known for his role as a                                                             showrunner on extremely popular shows 'Doctor Who' and 'Sherlock'. Whilst he began his career as a                                                          writer on many shows, he eventually began producing as well and he started to combine the role of                                                                producer and writer together. For example, he with Doctor Who, he was made executive producer in                                                              2007 but he was also a writer. The way his role worked on the show, was that he was also head writer,                                                          Moffat alongside a team would devise the narrative for each series as a whole, and Moffat would write                                                          the beginning and ending episodes of each series. Other writers would then write the other episodes                                                              with Moffat as the executive producer.

 

​

As a producer, he is someone who likes to do right by the shows he is working on, and make bold and daring decisions. Back in 2015, there was a high call for a female doctor from critics and viewers. However, Moffat believed at the time that it was 'too early' to be casting a women in the role as he had become 'obsessed with Peter in the Tardis' (the current doctor).

 

The type of producer that Steven Moffat is, is more about creative control and freedom, rather than the organisitional roles like production schedules and call sheets. You can find that on big budget productions there will be production managers and assistants that take on these more 'admin' roles and the producers focus more on the creative side, something Moffat definitely does in his shows.

 

Call Sheets

As a producer, it is my job to create call sheets, these will let the cast and crew know whats going on with filming and when. Looking online i found that there is a lot of detail that goes into creating call sheets. I found that a lot of high profile productions will include a lot of information on theirs and create different ones for certain members of cast and crew. The following is an example call sheet that i found online as well as the call sheet we used, that i created for one of our filming days. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

I wanted to create a call sheet for our cast, i think it is a lot less hassle to put the location, contact details and names of everyone in one sheet for them to have so that they know what is going on. I have chosen to do more of a basic call sheet as i think where this is a smaller production we do not have to include as much detail. The most important details to include are contact details and addressed.

​

Written by Conor Deamer. 

​