The Producer's Sourcebook, 3rd edition

Producing is 80% to 90% of the process of creating successful film or television content. It is a topic, however, that is almost ignored by beginning content creators and by film schools.

Producing is defined here to mean the business and management work necessary to: develop an idea; create a proposal; find funding; manage pre-production; oversee production; manage post-production; obtain distribution; and distribute “profits”. This work is distinct from the actual Production work with scripts, cameras, light, microphones and editing systems. This Production part of the process is no more than 20% of the effort to create a film or video, yet it dominates the classrooms and the literature of filmmaking.

The Producer’s Sourcebook, 3rd edition, is written by Professor Randall Blair to fill the need for practical resources on producing film and video projects. It is also designed as a self-help book for students. It will also be useful for new or experienced producers who work in an industry for which critical, timely information is found not only in traditional textbooks, but also in the daily trade press and other media.

The Producer’s Sourcebook, 3rd edition, will prepare new producers to enter the fiction and nonfiction film and the television markets with an understanding of how the markets work and who controls them. Content concentrations include: examination of what decision-makers in each market need and how they talk; how producers with varying levels of experience raise money for fiction films; and, how a producer takes an idea for a nonfiction project and develops the critical elements of a proposal. In addition the book includes a survey of key production management topics such as script breakdown, scheduling, budgeting, insurance, deliverables, music licensing, hiring a crew, and working with unions and guilds.

The Producer’s Sourcebook will provide a solid foundation of information on how the film and video industry works, along with links to websites and other sources of information where the reader can find supplemental material. This will be done through a companion The Producer’s Sourcebook website. The website will also allow for periodic updating of information in the book and other revisions.