The role of the Director

The role of the Director is the primary one in any production, even though the Producer might disagree with me. In fact the producer hires and sometimes fires the director, but it is the director's vision which drives the project though filming and editing to its final result. Sometimes directors are replaced during a project, usually due to difficulties between them and the producers, and almost always about budget. Sometimes the director's vision is changed completely during post production by the editors at the producer's insistence, again, usually because the producers think the film will do better financially 'their way'. We often see a 'directors cut' available on a DVD now, and sometimes they can be release years after the original. Ridgly Scott only released his preferred cut of his iconic film 'Blade Runner', many years after it's original release. The producers had insisted on a narrative voice over as they were concerned the audience might not be able to follow the plot. Mr Scotts version had no voice over and was considerably darker and longer. I loved the original with its homage to American Film Noir, but I also enjoyed the director's cut where the audience is left to discover the future world in its own time and without a guide.









When directing episodes for a television show, a director's responsibilities are somewhat diminished, as the visual look and feel of the series is already established, usually by the person billed as the show's creator or executive producer. Those directors who choose or are chosen to work in TV traditionally have had to accept that they will not be as lauded, or as well-paid, as their big-screen counterparts.^[2]

I have yet to really experience directing film, although there was some element of directing with the process of the radio programme. I am really looking forward to next semester when I can get to grips with a camera and a script and really understand the mechanics as well as the art of it.

The role of the Producer

A Producer comes up with the ideas first and foremost. Ideas for programmes, films, or items, or people, pieces of music and subjects for discussion. Then they create the conditions for film, television or radio production.

The Producer initiates, coordinates. supervises and controls matters such as fundraising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors. The producer is involved throughout all phases of the filmmaking process from the development of the project to its completion.

Some examples of successful producers are:

David Puttnam is one of the most successful British Film Producers. Hailed as the saviour of British Films in the early eighties, he began his career in advertising. He has produced such films as Bugsy Malone, Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, The Killing Fields and Local Heros. Discovering directors Ridgly Scott and Alan Parker, also from the world of advertising.

Jerry Bruckheimer is another very prominent film and television producer in the genres of action, drama and science fiction. His best known series are CSI: Crime Scene Investigations and The Amazing Race. His best known films include Top Gun, The Rock, Armageddon, Enemy of the State, Black Hawk Down, Pirates of the Caribbean, King Arthur, Con Air, Gone in Sixty Seconds and National Treasure. Jerry Bruckheimer also started his career in advertising coincidentally.

My experiences this semester so far with production have mainly come from producing a radio programme with Adam, Tom and Aleicia as part of our Sound module with Gill Sargent. Although the project itself was very much a 'group' one, and we all took on multiple roles, I felt I naturally took on the role of executive producer, steering the project and making executive decisions regarding time tables and scheduling, editing and music, and allocating tasks. I don't feel this was in opposition to anyone else in the group and thoroughly enjoyed the role. I was also the main presenter throughout, which I felt worked well, particularly with the flow and the continuity of the piece. I also wrote much of the script, a role that naturally falls to the producer in radio broadcasting.