Do Most Film Directors Actually Want A Partner In A Producer?

Or do they want something closer to a General?

Or do they just want a little scratch perhaps?

When it comes to Film Producing, I think of myself as the Director’s partner. Unfortunately, I think such partnership is most often a fantasy. I have been betrayed by my dream of a balanced relationship with my filmmaking collaborators so many times, I question if it is actually the optimum scenario or if I am trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. In fact, now, seasoned with age and experience -- and willing to discuss it all openly – I doubt there are many directors who approach filmmaking on an equal basis with their producer.

Now in directors’ defense, perhaps they don’t even know what an equal partnership is, so why would I expect them to accept it, let alone desire it? I can’t say that many directors have been ever able to honestly articulate what they want from a producer when we start working together. For many, when they are seeking a collaborator, they slip into seduction mode and craft their come-on around the goal of securing someone of the highest status possible – versus getting someone who is best suited to helping them achieve the best movie.

Such advanced planning and prioritization benefits producers too. Do most producers know what they are looking for in a director? Are they even willing to say what qualities they want in a director when they start collaborating? Or do they bite their tongue because they are too eager to snag the project from the get-go?

Like so much in this world, I don’t think we are being honest with ourselves. We don’t do the necessary work in advance that is required to get the best results.

What sort of list would directors generate if they wrote out what they want from a producer? How would that list differ from what a producer wants from a director? Could either side be honest? Would they be? And besides, don’t relationships evolve overtime and perhaps some of our wishes are the sort of things we grow into over time and can’t be mandated from the start? Do we carry with us preconceptions of the roles that perhaps distort the actual relationship and limit us from the goals we hold dear?

If you ask the average filmworker what a director wants from a producer, you’d likely hear the sort of rote answer as “someone who will help them get their movie made”; they likely wouldn’t even add “well” at the end. Talk about a tell! Many would probably even not get as far as “made”, in that they’d be happy if you got the film set up or some money or maybe even just an actor. And that’s very short sighted I’d say. There’s another cosmos in another coffee cup.

If you parse that original statement carefully, you’d also probably start to highlight the “their” that precedes “movie” too. For me, my involvement often hinges on both words: the “well” and “their”—along with “well” being the priority. That said the driving force is “make”. We have to want to get it done and that emphasis can change things tremendously. Getting it made is so hard, we stop thinking those other three words matter , but they are truly all.

What happens though if you flip the question? What do you think the average filmworker thinks a producer wants from a director? The question is by no means so obvious as the original one of what the director wants from a producer — and we see how that one is more complicated than meets the eye. It is worth examining why so few have a clue as to what a producer wants from a director. We will, but what’s the answer to the question? I think the truth is even most producers haven’t asked themselves this question often enough. Or perhaps they forget their own answer. The producer’s life these days is so precarious we often have to abandon our goals just to survive and that situation starts to alter the work we all do.

The answer of what a producer wants from a director on a particular movie is