18 More Important Questions For Producers

This entry was originally published at Hope For Film

Two weeks ago , I offered up five of the most important questions I thought producers needed to answer to get a movie made and to have a pleasing life in this crazy pursuit.  But how do you stop there at five?  I promised 18 more, and well, how’s this for a list?

6. How do you earn a living and sustain a career doing what you love?

7. How do I determine if someone is truly worth collaborating with?

8. Why will someone choose to collaborate on a project?

9. Why will someone choose to collaborate with me?

10. What do I want from a partner?

11. How do I make people want to see my movie?

12. How do you encourage people and processes to achieve the best?

13. How do you engineer to take advantage of serendipity?

14. How do you not waste time? AKA how do you get everything you need to get done, done?

15. How do you encourage people and processes to move faster?

16. Why will someone invest in a film?

17. How do I estimate the value of any given film?

18. What is money well spent (and what isn’t)?

19. With so many factors shaping a film’s success or failure, and so much required to go into a film just to make it, and even more to make it well, what can be done so it does not ever feel not worth the effort?

20. How do I not shoot materials that won’t end up in the film?

21. How do I make sure we don’t need more material after we finish principal photography?

22. In doing work in this industry, how do I not grow jaded and make sure I maintain a sense of wonder, a joy of discovery, an appreciation of mystery, and love of simply doing?

23. What won’t I do or ask others to do?

If I ran a film school, I would want to make sure that graduates were at the very least confident of their answers to these questions. I deliberately don’t have questions like “how do I make a good movie?” on this list as I feel that question is both subjective & personal, it is also the kind of question that everyone asks naturally if they are in the film business.  Making movies can not be taken lightly.  We need to think hard before we act.  Helping each other to find the answers will only lead to better movies.  And after all, why not make better films?