The Art and Business of Producing

About this course:

This course is designed for those who want to fully produce their movie through all of the six stages of a film's journey: buying/development, financing, pre-production, production, post-production, and release/marketing. While many of these stages are explored in depth in other courses, the focus of this course is to explore the effect each stage has on the others, and how the producer guides their interdependency. You learn to recognize and solve problems before they turn in a full-blown crisis and how to make good decisions that help drive your project forward. Topics include strategies for financing and how to relate them to your film, hiring and supporting your director after s/he is hired, identifying and considering your core audience when setting your budget, how your budget impacts casting expectations, working with talent agencies, going to film markets to find distribution, how foreign sales work, bonding and learning from reputable bonding companies, and straddling the relationship of art versus business. By the end of the course, you have an understanding of a number of big issues apt to confront you as a producer and the ability to empower yourself throughout the filmmaking process.