The Producer

The role of the producer

The producer is responsible for project management issues (?), the creative director responsible for the look and feel of the product. The producer's responsibilities encompass overall responsibility for the realisation of the program idea. He/she puts together the development team and worries about budgets, costs, schedules and resources. Starting a project usually involves coming up with an idea, discussing it with all those involved. At this stage, it is the producer who is involved mainly with the client, building up a profile of the client and clarifying their wants and needs and what is achievable. (See also Client Considerations) The producer may also be responsible for bringing together and selling the idea to all those individuals and organisations who are necessary to get the project off the ground from the point of view of funding and authorisation.

The producer's responsibilities are often also those of project manager. If there is a separate project manager, then that person deals with more the fine detail and day-to-day running problems and administrative planning details that occur, assisting the producer and taking responsibility for the drafting of plans.

Personal Skills and Qualities of the Producer

A project producer needs to have powerful skills of presentation and persuasion, a good communicator, presentable, able to liaise easily with clients from all sectors.

The CD-I Production Handbook describes the CD-I producer (or project manager) as "a jack of all trades-someone whose knowledge has to encompass a variety of areas, from sound-recording to software engineering, and from animation to video techniques, with project management and public-relations skills thrown in for good measure." (Philips IMS, 1992, p.4.)

As for the team leader, depending on the scale of the organisation and team-member experience, that might be a director, producer, or interactive designer. (Philips IMS, 1992, p.21)

Preston describes the need for talented and adventurous people with backgrounds in film, TV or corporate video, and book publishing. (Preston, J., ed., 1991, pp.55-56)

Bibliography

Philips IMS (1992), The CD-I production Handbook, Wokingham England
Preston, J., ed. (1991), Compact Disc-Interactive: A Designer's Overview (Deventer, The Netherlands, 2nd edn.)