Defining the role of Co-Producer

This week I had some thinking to do and some discussing to do with my producing partner between the two projects, Echoes of Silence and Trick of the Dark. This year is quite unique in the sense that we have never before seen the structure of the crews that have emerged for Final Major Project. Usually there is a director, then a producer, and those roles were mutually exclusive. Seemingly, our year group as a collective have upset the status quo in the past year or so, with some of us being attached to the projects of other year groups either lower or higher as 'co-producers'. This job title caught on, and in the pitch process of the current FMP module we took this even further. Instead of sticking to the previously noted system of 'one director, one producer' we instead changed this so that each director also took on the role of the sole producer. However, at the same time we found ourselves attached to other projects as 'co-producer'. From the off we had to establish the responsibilities that each role would have and that would ultimately decide the dynamic of the role. 

So, I myself am directing and producing Echoes of Silence. I am co-producer of Trick of the Dark. The director of Trick of the Dark is co-producer on Echoes of Silence also. As both projects have recently been green lit and are set to go ahead with pre-production and filming within the coming months, we had to iron out any confusion. This was for numerous reasons, the first being that any confusion regarding contacting actors, locations would negatively impact the creative process of filmmaking. Those kinds of hiccups cause major set backs, as we have found out in the past. The second reason being that establishing our roles would greater contribute to our academic learning and allowed us to reach our learning outcomes which we set ourselves at the start of the module. So we each sat down as both directors and producers of our own projects, and co-producers of each others, and established the duties of the role. 

We agreed amongst ourselves, and through discussion with the other co-producers within our group, that the main producers (also directors) must work toward shoot organisation. This includes finding the locations and the actors, and confirming dates for shoots. The co-producer will then produce the shoot on set. The role of the co-producer here being to keep the shoot on track, understanding the context of the shoot, overseeing the needs of the cast and crew in terms of comfortability/health and safety, and also filling in all of the production logs and necessary 'on set' paperwork e.g. acting release forms.