UPDATE: Since this post, the class has come and gone. If you'd like to visit the web-site we built about producing for film and TV, please CLICK HERE.
PGA, in this context, is not the Professional Golfers Association but the Producers Guild of America. We'll get into that in a second... first a little breaking news...
Given that USC CNTV 589 is a class about producing, the Sunday Emmy Awards provided a great way to present a real-life challenge.
Those of you who saw them know that they opened with host Conan O'Brien in a video montage from top shows of the season. He started in a plane sipping champagne, crashed on the island where Hurley from "Lost" found him, went down the hatch, ended up in "The Office," did phone battle with Jack Bauer on "24," escaped into the clutches of a medical exam by "House," went into the closet with Tom Cruise on "South Park" and eventually ended up on the Emmy stage. It was a very funny bit...except...
Sunday morning, a commuter jet in Kentucky crashed killing 49 people. This made the entire plane crash opening, well, "tricky." Do you cut it from the show or just plow ahead? Emmy producer Ken Ehrlich decided to do the latter and the sequence aired. Viewers complained, especially those in Kentucky. One of our students came up with what I think was the most elegant solution. Simply edit out the interior plane crash sequence, no matter how funny it once was. Cut from Conan sipping champagne saying "What could possibly go wrong?" to him emerging from the ocean water on "Lost" island. It really was the perfect compromise.
I'm no stranger to the concept of bad news on Emmy Sunday. In 2001, after already postponing the Emmys once because of 9/11, we woke up on the re-scheduled Sunday, October 7, to realize the United States had just gone to war, and the bombing of Afghanistan had begun. We had to postpone a second time, not just for matters of taste, but because we simply were not sure that the nominees would show up. Who can afford to throw an expensive, self-congratulatory party if the guests of honor don't come?
Having said that, and back to the plane controversy, cutting that sequence could have been risky to the overall success of the show. Making too many changes, or big changes, at the last minute on a huge show, that's just asking for something to go wrong.
Anyway, our guest this week was a stand-out and, sticking to our theme, a man who has won four Emmys of his own, enjoyed a great career in the world of film, and just got himself elected President of the Producers Guild of America -- Marshall Herskovitz.
MARSHALL HERSKOVITZ BIO. He attended Brandeis University and then the American Film Institute, where he and Edward Zwick met in 1975 and formed their long and successful creative partnership. Following AFI, Herskovitz wrote and directed for several television series, including "Family" and "The White Shadow," until he teamed up with Zwick to create the explosive television movie "Special Bulletin" in 1983, for which Herskovitz won two Emmys -- for best dramatic film and best writing for a dramatic film -- a Writers Guild Award, and the Humanitas Award.
In 1985, Herskovitz and Zwick created The Bedford Falls Company, named for the town in "It’s a Wonderful Life." The company’s first project was the acclaimed television series "thirtysomething." For his work on the series, Herskovitz received two more Emmy Awards, two Directors Guild Awards, a Writers Guild Award, a Humanitas award, the Golden Globe Award, the People’s Choice Award, the Peabody Award, and several others.
In 1991, Herskovitz directed his first feature film, "Jack The Bear," then two years later produced "Legends of the Fall." The following year Herskovitz and Zwick teamed up to produce the groundbreaking series "My So-Called Life," followed by "relativity" in 1995. The next year Herskovitz spent six months in Rome, producing and directing the historical epic "Dangerous Beauty."
In 1999, Herskovitz and Zwick created and executive produced the award winning series "Once and Again" for ABC. During the show’s three year run, he and Zwick produced "Traffic," winner of two Golden Globe Awards and four Academy Awards, and "I am Sam."
In 2003, Herskovitz co-wrote and produced "The Last Samurai," directed by Zwick. He and Zwick are currently producing "Blood Diamond" in South Africa, which Herskovitz also co-wrote. An active environmentalist, he has served on the board of several organizations committed to preserving America’s precious natural resources.
Herskovitz described the same six companies that run Hollywood that Patric Verrone did in his talk last week. He called them the tinseltown equivalent of the "Five Families" and blamed them for imposing a "corporate culture" on the movie business. In his view, creativity and sanity don't always go together.
As the PGA president, however, one key aspect that recurred throughout Herskovitz’s talk was the definition of a producer. Despite the unifying concept that producers all have to look at the whole picture while a film is being made, the precise definition differs between television and film, and there are many specific types of producers within each realm as well.
The television hierarchy (in ascending order):
- staff writer
- story editor
- co-producer (often works with post-production)
- producer (could be a line producer or a writer)
- coordinating producer
- supervising producer
- co-executive producer
- executive producer
Television shows are run by writer-producers. A producer credit is essential for writers to move up in the hierarchy, which has led to an inflation-like phenomenon- a producing credit increasingly means less than it used to. Most people move up one title every year, regardless of performance. There is also the consulting producer, who is not eligible for the Emmy, and is usually a financier or studio executive.
The film world has its own separate types of producers. The "Executive Producer" credit, for example, means the boss in TV and something different and less important in film. Herskovitz defined the different film producer titles and responsibilities as follows:
Producer:
- engenders or develops material
- gets the material to the studio
- gets the director
- participates in rewrites
- hires key crew, helps decide on locations
- is present on set, especially during moments of disaster
- deals with the studio, plans the marketing, and helps guide editing during post-production
- stays with the project from start to finish, which often takes years
Line Producer:
- in charge of the nuts and bolts of the production
- hires the crew
- handles locations
- is on set every day
- less prestige than a producer
Associate Producer (usually one of the following):
- originally had the rights to the project and didn’t do much else
- is in charge of post-production
- is a producer learning the ropes who helps the line producer
Executive Producer
- usually a studio executive or financier
- title often given out to make everybody happy
Herskovitz also discussed how the Producer’s Guild is working to better define who gets which producing credits and is eligible for awards like the Oscar or the Emmy. They publish The Producers’ Code of Credits, which defines every producing title in the TV and film business. They give out questionnaires to credited producers and interview third-party coworkers to determine if people did the work implied by their credit. Producers are now starting to come to the Guild to ask what they need to do to get their desired title. A producer needs to be involved consistently across the board on a show, as financing alone is not enough to get an Oscar or Emmy-winning credit. The Guild’s goal is to become the body that gives out producing credits of all types, starting with “produced by.”
Herskovitz argues that the corporate structure currently being imposed on the entertainment industry is killing it. For one thing, he explains that the industry is a terrible business model. No other corporate structure outsources its own product- they know how to manufacture what they are making and they don’t need someone to help guide them, as a producer does in film or television. (This leads to the issue that few truly understand what a producer’s job is, especially those who have not experienced it first-hand.) The corporate structure also hurts the creative side of the industry, as studios and financiers become more and more risk-adverse. This leads to huge creative limitations, as well as an onslaught of sequels and remakes. The film industry doesn’t want to fail, which is bad for producers because it makes it more difficult for them to get films made. Compared to the pharmaceutical industry, which Herskovitz pointed out has a similar success-to-failure ratio, the film industry does not put as much money into research and development, even though the industry wants to increase its success rate. The corporate structure has no room for producers, which means fewer and fewer companies/producers are making more and more films. Everybody else is forced to cut their salaries and partner with one of these few production companies.
Herskovitz clarifies that while all studios are production companies, not all production companies are studios. He also discussed Paramount’s firing of Tom Cruise, saying that currently, top actors are getting paid 20-30% of the gross of a film on top of their multimillion-dollar salary. This means the actors make more than the studios on a film, and the studios are struggling to make a profit. The studios are trying to readjust these deals with actors by refusing to give actors a piece of the gross, but numerous films are falling apart as a result.
Producing is a unique career, explains Herskovitz, since you are your own boss, but you don’t own your product. The studio finances and owns the project, but historically, for television, the network held all the power. (Herskovitz noted that despite this power, networks tend to cycle between undercontrol and overcontrol in the creative arena.) The television norm for a producer is that you are given an overall deal, where you a paid a guarantee by an affiliated production company. With that guarantee comes certain responsibilities- for example, you have to try to create a TV series, or produce a particular series. A producer with this deal is paid weekly and essentially “kept” by the studio. Any fees paid to the producer for writing a pilot or an episode are credited against the guarantee until the producer has exceeded this floor and ends up earning more than the guarantee.
Herskovitz concluded by talking about his experiences producing "thirtysomething." He and Ed Zwick were asked to write a TV series, but they wanted to fail at it because at that time, television was still believed to be subpar to film and they didn’t want to get stuck in it. However, they had to write something that they would enjoy working on if it succeeded. The result was the thirtysomething pilot, a show they were sure no network would pick up since it was essentially about them and their friends. To their surprise, it got picked up, and they thought their lives were over. However, these two friends and partners eventually made their peace with doing a TV show and all the compromises and limitations that went along with that, and the show ran for several seasons. Herskovitz thinks that some of why it was so successful is because with two producers, it was harder to compromise. When one would want to give up, the other would encourage him to keep fighting.
Throughout his presentation, Herskovitz emphasized the balancing act that is producing. Despite numerous disasters on every production, most of the time everything falls together at the last minute. He credits numerous invisible influences with this success, smiling and saying, “Most of the time, it just looks like a miracle.”
For a view of the one time when it really doesn't come together and no miracle is forthcoming, just pain and suffering, Herskovitz recommends the 2002 documentary, "Lost in La Mancha."
As for what Herskovitz is producing now, one of his projects is "1/4 Life" that he plans to launch on the Internet, not network TV. A producer is constantly adapting to the market forces. Change is inevitable, right?
{Thanks to student Elizabeth Johnson for taking the notes on Marshall Herskovitz's talk, and writing them up.}
A few shout-outs for jobs-well-done. Brad Crowe stepped up and did our first "pitch" and laid out the world of "Scream." It's never easy going first, but being first always gets your attention. Brad got mine, and the rest of the class as well.
And our first "round-table" was also a great start. Brian Yoshimi talked about all the sci-fi programming that's on TV these days. Michael Marshall explained why everything in Hollywood seems to be a sequel or a prequel or a graphic novel or a best-selling book. Steve Weber highlighted some successful producers who were giving back to the industry by mentoring up-and-coming talent. David Shilling raised the red flag about job safety, discussing how long crew hours are finally being addressed by the industry. Plenty to think about.
No class on September 4 because of Labor Day. Next class is September 11.
{To read all the USC CNTV 589 posts in one URL, please CLICK HERE.}
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