What is the reality behind the life of a producer?
First things first what is the basic definition of a Producer.
Producers are storytellers. They use their experience and skills to tell stories. Producers do all the pre-production in the office and usually manage a team of assistant producers and researchers. The producer leads the search for the material they need, such as factual information, locations, props, archive material and people. During filming, producers work closely with the directors and oversee the final filming, either in a studio or on location.
On a documentary, if there are no presenters, producers may interview people themselves (cutting out their questions in the edit). A producer is responsible for making sure that any contributor is clear about their involvement in a programme.
Some producers go into an edit to edit their material, while others specialise and become edit producers, working solely in an edit suite. Other producers may specialise in certain areas, working as an archive, edit, or a casting, celebrity, games or question (quiz) producer. Producers are almost always freelance, unless working for a very long-term production.
Definition taken from Screenskills.com
Spotlight– What do you do?
I’m a programming manager for the Documentary and Film pod of the Little Dot Studios network. We basically make our own documentary digital brands, and use licensed and sometimes original films to run the channels across YouTube and social media. I look after a team of 9 and the flagship channel I look after is called Real Stories.
The other part of my job is Unscripted Development, so coming up with ideas for potential documentaries, series, podcasts, formats etc and pitching them
What’s next?
I’ve also been commissioned by Channel 4 to create, write and executive produce a short film which I’ve hired another person Jide to produce. For the Channel 4 project, I got named Ones to Watch alongside Jessica and my pitch was selected by Channel 4
How did you start?
So I made my own YouTube show when I was around 20, it was called “Who Asked You?” and I got my friends to pair up and give “Black views on the news (and various topics)”. It was a tiny project that I mostly did because I wanted to explore Black political satire and I wanted to have fun with my friends. A year after I graduated I did some running jobs and worked at Sainsbury’s until I got a job as an operations assistant (junior editor) at Little Dot Studios and used “Who Asked You?” as the main point in my editing portfolio
~Jake Wiafe
Advice in 1 sentance
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