What Does a Producer Even Do?

In the latest episode of One Moore Hollywood Podcast, Chris Moore, Katie Marpe, and Dennis De Nobile are back to talk all about what it means to be a producer and how the role has changed over the years. 

“The truth is the producer is the glue, the engine…the general contractor.”

–Chris Moore

Even within the industry, the role of a producer acts as an umbrella term–what it means to be a producer can vary with each project, looking quite different for movies than television. For this podcast episode, we'll focus on what it means to have the producer title on a major motion picture. 

What Can a Producer’s Role Encompass?

To put it as simply as possible, anyone named producer on a film did something to help get that film made, whether through financial means, industry connections, or creative guidance. 

“[As a producer], you can feel like a glorified babysitter, a creative problem-solving machine, the fun police saying no to very cool things that are way too costly, or the fire marshall putting out fires.” 

–Dennis De Nobile

As we’ve gone over, producer credit can mean many things. Often, it indicates some financial support or investment. This is where Moore differentiates the producer from the creative producer, because while there will always be multiple producers on a movie, there are usually only one or two producers actively involved in making decisions for the movie. Those decision-makers follow the film through to its finish and are who Moore dubs the creative producers.

The value of a creative producer lies in the combined ability to suss out talent and pull a project together from beginning to end. It takes true skill to identify a story that would make a great movie, know who would be the best talent to make that story come to life on screen, and bring that vision to life piece by piece.

How Is Producing Different Today?

With the introduction of streaming, the core business model of Hollywood has shifted, and with it, the role of the producer has changed. 

Moore’s work as a creative producer on ‘Good Will Hunting’ in 1997 looked much different than his work on ‘Manchester by the Sea’ in 2016. Back in 1997, studios and financiers had faith in getting their money back and were, therefore, much more willing to take risks on new films, whether that meant new talent or off-kilter stories. In the days before streaming, filmmaking was a more reliable investment with a greater chance of making money back if the movie became a hit. 

“‘Manchester by the Sea’ is what they call a small bullseye. You had to make that movie almost perfect for anyone to tell their friends to see it. For ‘Manchester by the Sea,’ we were so far outside the Hollywood machine that to get that movie made was a different game [than ‘Good Will Hunting’].” 

–Chris Moore

Nowadays, with the economic changes the industry has seen as a result of streaming, it's easy to lose money on movies, so studios aren't thrilled about putting cash or time into riskier stories. Instead, they want to invest in ready-made blockbusters. ‘Good Will Hunting’ was made when the Hollywood machine was interested in movies just like it–when Moore could bring a solid script with two unknown actors attached to a major studio like Miramax and convince them to sign off on making it into a movie.

By 2016, ‘Manchester by the Sea’ would never get that kind of major studio support, and Moore credits the producers and financiers who were willing to risk everything on it with its success. In an additional stroke of luck, Amazon Prime picked it up for distribution, hoping to be the first streamer to get an Oscar nomination (which ‘Manchester’ did for it six times over). 

“[Now in producing] you’re looking for the thing you couldn’t count on in a million years. But the business of Hollywood needs stuff you can count on.”

–Chris Moore

As Moore points out, the problem with this new model is that it's not reliable. Getting a movie like ‘Manchester by the Sea’ made is rare; it worked because it happened to be the right combination of time, place, and people. If nothing else but for the sake of good stories, Hollywood needs creative producers to champion quality projects, especially in today's collapsing business model.

Listen to the entire episode here: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or iHeartRadio.