While an Editor’s key working relationship is with their Director, the Producer-Editor relationship can be complicated, and working with different producers can present a whole set of unique challenges on a project.
Ultimately, the Producers are the people who hired you, or at least approved your hiring, but they are rarely in the cutting room, and the nature of the edit process can easily lead to situations where you and they are fighting from different corners.
You will also meet Producers who have a wide range of skills and experience, especially if working in features or shorts. Some have worked their way up through the ranks while others have parachuted themselves into a role they’re not quite prepared for. In an environment where a lot of money has been spent, and a lot of big egos are on the line, a bad Producer can make an already difficult job almost impossible.
Different Types of Producers
While many roles (including editing), tend to attract particular personality types, Producers , especially in feature films, come from all sorts of backgrounds, with a range of experience and skills.
The roles and responsibilities of the Producer are often as unclear to people as those of the Editor, not least because Producing can be such as varied job, depending both on the individual and the nature of the project.
Some Producers in Features come from a Production background and have worked their way up through the production department, often making their final leap by transitioning from Line Producer. Others have a Production Company background, having cut their teeth in development, while some have a minimal background in film and enter Producing as a first step into the industry.
Some Producers you could call “Creative Producers”. They have taste and a creative sensibility, they understand the problems you and the Director are struggling with, and they understand both how to watch a work-in-progress cut and how to give feedback.
Others understand that the “creative” side of filmmaking is not their forte, and put their energy into raising money, hiring the right people, building relationships with financiers, organising logistics, or some combination of the above. They will be open to watching cuts and giving notes, but will be hands-off when it comes to the creative direction of the edit.
Difficult Producers
The most challenging type of Producer to work with are those Producers who have weaknesses, but are unaware of these weaknesses, or simply unwilling to acknowledge them. Some Producers will have blagged their way into what is a position of power and influence on a production, but will stand back and let the professionals do their jobs while they watch and learn. Others will seem oblivious to their lack of experience and knowledge, but will carry on regardless, making life difficult for everyone, and at worst actively damaging the film through their refusal to put into place what is need to fix problems and finish the film.
This last type need to be treated carefully. One of your primary considerations as an Editor is that of protecting the film. It’s easy to lose sight of what the film is and has the potential to be, and unfortunately, you won’t always be working with a team that has the same ultimate aim.
It’s not uncommon to battle with Producers over the creative direction of the project, with some Producers regarding themselves as the primary creative force, attempting to overrule and strong-arm the Director into making changes to fit their own intentions.
Some Producers consider the budget, rather than the film itself, to be the bottom line, and will be reluctant to spend further money on a small pickup shoot to fix problems with the film (and will often instead spend that money on several weeks of editing trying to fix the same problem, or perhaps trying to fix other things which you and the Director may not even deem to be a problem).
Receiving Notes
One of the challenges of your relationship with the Producers is that you often don’t spend much time interacting with them, and much of that communication will take place over email. Depending on how the Director prefers to work, you can end up spending all day every day with them, and you will (hopefully) develop a strong relationship, a relationship where you are able to be open and honest in a way that requires a large amount of trust. Your relationship with the Producer is unlikely to be as strong, and this relationship can really be tested when it comes to Producers viewing the cut and giving notes.
The exact dynamic of power will vary from project to project, and from type of production (features are often quite director-focused, whereas in scripted TV the Producers call the shots), but regardless of who is ultimately in charge and who has final cut, the minimum a Producer (or an Exec for that matter), will expect is to be listened to.
Dismissing notes out of hand will only lead you into trouble, so ensure that you as the Editor take time to consider and properly respond to any notes. While Directors will often want to dash off an email of responses and return to cutting, you don’t want to be in a situation where the ire of the Producers is raised when they feel that their comments are simply being brushed off.
Producer’s Notes
Sooner or later, you will come across what I refer to as “Producer’s Notes”. These are comments after a viewing which seem bizarre or overly fixated on what you and the Director consider to be a non-issue.
Common “Producer’s Notes” include “we can’t use this shot because….” followed by some trivial fear that something in the background makes a shot unusable. Usually, the audience will never clock whatever this is, or it can be fixed with some VFX cleanup.
At some point in an editing career, I guarantee that you will be asked to put a shot or a scene back into the cut because “we spent a lot of money on that”. You’ll also probably be told about moments that a Producer has an irrational dislike of. Maybe they don’t like a particular actor and want their role reduced, or perhaps there’s a shot they hate and they can’t watch the film without complaining about it.
A lot of “Producer’s Notes” are easy to dismiss, and of course a Producer who’s good in the edit will provide insightful and helpful objectivity on the cut, but care needs to be taken that even if you casually dismiss a set of “Producer’s Notes” when the email comes in, you and the Director at least ensure that there isn’t some useful, insightful truth hidden somewhere in the notes.
Nor do you want the Producer to know that you think they’re an idiot, even if you do.
The Third Wheel
Our emotions and personalities are always going to shape how we work and how we interact with other people at work. As professionals, we should be able to anticipate those moments where it’s inappropriate to let our emotions rule our heads.
It has been known for some producers to struggle with the dynamics of an edit, where after months of being central to a film’s progress, and having forged a bond with the Director, a Producer suddenly realises that, for the moment at least, they are no longer needed.
The Director and Editor are hard at work crafting the film, and will only emerge with a cut several weeks down the line. Meanwhile, the Composer, Colourist, Sound Designers and so on are ready to start when they are required, and suddenly the Producer has no role in the process.
Obviously, those who are experienced and knowledgable will understand what’s happening and why, but some react unproductively to this moment, attempting to re-insert themselves into the process unnecessarily, or feeling they have to prove their creative chops to everybody.
Sometimes the Director and the Editor need to ensure that the editing process is respected, and the Director is forced to gently remind the Producer that time and space are required to fully explore the material.
Final Cut
Film-making is obviously a creative endeavour, and everyone involved brings a different set of experiences, skills, ideas, tastes, and sensibilities to their work. One of the challenges of directing, and one of the challenges of the edit process is that the Director needs to make choices. It’s the choices which in many ways are at the core of the Director and Editors work. Do we use this or that shot? This or that take? How do we play this moment? Where do we put this scene?
Films can either be made by consensus, or with a singular authorial vision. If they are made with a singular vision, then inevitably there will be those who disagree with the choices, and if the Producer or Producers disagree with those choices, then conflict within the team can arise. Conflict is a part of any creative process, Editors and Directors will often disagree frequently on choices, but ultimately, the Editor is sub-ordinate to the Director.
When it comes to the final decision about the form in which the film will exist once it’s finished, which party has final cut dictates who has the final say.
When that’s unclear, problems arise, and when one party refuses to accept the state of affairs, problems also arise. Unfortunately, this conflict often comes towards the end of the editing process when time is running out for “let’s try it a different way”, and when energy and patience levels are low after months of editing. The editor is usually stuck in the middle of this, and we are required to use all our powers of diplomacy to navigate the situation.
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