What all does an Executive Producer do?

[Member-38928]

What all does an Executive Producer do?

The reason I ask is because I recently got and watched 'Back to the Future' and I noticed it said "Steven Spielberg Presents" he was the executive producer of this movie nothing more. Saying that is kind of like saying BTTF is his movie, like he directed or wrote it or something. Anyhow , looking at Steven Spielberg's work he has been the Executive Producer in a ton of movies. LINK

While we are on the subject id like the definition of all the producers in a movie, sometimes there are a ton of producers in a movie.

Producer's must be a way more significant part of a movie than I thought.


thanks

[LynxFX]

Short version, they bring the money.

To get a good idea of what a producer does, watch Wag the Dog with Dustin Hoffman and DeNiro.

On projects with a lot of producers listed, many are just there for the title. They didn't actually do any 'producing' activities but they get the title and usually extra pay according to their contract.

[Batman1980]

Originally Posted by LynxFX

Short version, they bring the money.

An executive producer of a motion picture is typically a producer who is sometimes involved with a property that has since been optioned into a film, but has no direct input into the creative process of the film itself. For example, authors of optioned literary works sometimes get an executive producer credit on films made from their work. Usually, executive producers are CEOs of film studios or distributors.

In the production of a television show there may be many executive producers listed. Sometimes it may be a situation not unlike the one described above for motion pictures: someone with previous involvement with a particular work, a project's financier, or someone in control of the business aspect of production. Sometimes, this title is conferred upon a celebrity or notable creator who has lent their name to a project to boost its prestige or credibility, as a recognition of newly-acquired industry status, or as a perk to the show's main star or creative force.

However, under the unusual rules for establishing writing credits on television series (where writers are often credited as "producers"), the principal writer is almost always credited as an executive producer rather than the more descriptive title of "head writer".

In television an executive producer might have more power than any other credited crew member — this is the case with the show runner. Generally a show runner (still credited as an executive producer) is the creator of a series and/or an influential staff writer on the show. Their role is to guide the overall creative progress of the show's story over the course of a season — basically, the de facto creative director of the show — and all creative decisions (from casting to script approval) go through them. Usually, while there may be many credited "producers" and "executive producers" (with varying responsibilities) on a television series, there are just one or two in the position of show runner.

For these reasons, it is not unusual for TV shows to have three sets of "Executive Producers:" Traditional EPs (Production Executives, Financiers, etc.), Head Writer(s), and Show runner(s).

Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_producer

[sfmarine]

Originally Posted by LynxFX

Short version, they bring the money.

Yup! It gets the attention of the movie-goer. You see a name like Spielberg and you've got to see it. A good example of this is District 9.



Peter Jackson is on the poster. Well it has to be good, right?

[Musashi]

A producer bosses around the artists [and staff], and when the [work] is done, he takes all the credit.
-Ren and Stimpy, slightly modified.

All joking aside: When I did college theater, the Producer had to recruit all the tech staff and run the production meetings.

[nefilim]

execute ( with firing squad )

[OG Pooh]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

Yup! It gets the attention of the movie-goer. You see a name like Spielberg and you've got to see it. A good example of this is District 9.



Peter Jackson is on the poster. Well it has to be good, right?

Um... No.

Personally, I like District 9 much more than anything Peter Jackson has actually done.