Producers

"A producer is the guy that tells the artist what to do and later makes all the changes, and then, when the cartoon's done, he takes all the credit!"

—Stimpy, The Ren & Stimpy Show

The producer is the "commander in chief" of a given project. What does that mean? Well...

Quite simply, the producer(s) is/are the person/people that makes the project "happen". "No producer" equals "no film". They are the financial and creative backbone of a given project — they secure funding (or fund the work themselves), hire key personnel, arrange for distributors, and manage the day-to-day operations of the production (such as writing up shooting schedules, booking off-set filming locations, and keeping the project as a whole within budget and on-schedule).

Basically, if the director is the heart of the project, and the writer is the brain, the producer is the blood vessels, ensuring things keep connected and moving.

There are many different varieties of "producer", and each has its own responsibility in the film industry. A consulting producer will usually be a specialist in a particular field of study, and will assist the writers with technical accuracy. An executive producer is usually a studio representative, providing the majority of the funding that keeps the project going (and reporting any cost overruns to the studio heads). An assistant producer is exactly that. An associate producer is a title used to cover a variety of duties, such as being liaison when two production companies are involved in a filming.^note.

Not to be confused with The Producers, which is a film, or the Record Producer.