A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to the film studio or other financing entity, while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed. Many film producers also have competency in other fields (directors, screenwriters, actors) but that is not always the case.

The producer is often actively involved throughout all major phases of the filmmaking process, from inception and development to completion and delivery of a film project.^[1] However, an idea or concept for a film can originate with any individual, including a screenwriter, a director or a producer.

Role[link]

A producer begins by obtaining the rights to create or co-create a feature-length screenplay. The producer oversees the process, which includes coordinating, supervising and controlling major aspects of the project. This includes fundraising and hiring key roles such as the casting director or film director. They'll also influence the hiring of other personnel such as the UPM or line producer and accountant.^[2]

Comparison to other producer roles[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

An executive producer is usually a person representing a financial investor in a film project, such as a movie studio or a distributor, but who is not directly involved in the day-to-day production. It can also be someone with other special interests in the project, such as the author of the book that the film is based on, or one of the movie's key actors who has been instrumental in persuading the studio to do the movie. In such cases, the executive producer credit is mainly honorary.

Associate producers and co-producers are also separate from the role of producer. They also support the producer to some degree, although not to the extent of an executive producer.

A line producer is a hands-on role which controls the day-to-day financial and production concerns and is there to support the vision of the director during production.

References[link]

Notes

Further reading

Laura Ellen Ziskin^[1] (March 3, 1950 – June 12, 2011)^[2] was an American film producer. In 1990, Ziskin was the sole executive producer of the hit comedy Pretty Woman. Ziskin became the first woman to produce the Academy Awards telecast alone, producing the 74th Academy Awards in 2002 and the 79th Academy Awards in 2007.

Life and career[link]

Ziskin was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, California, the daughter of Elaine Edelman, and Jay Ziskin.^[3] Jay was a psychologist and lawyer who died of prostate cancer aged 77 on June 14, 1997.^[4] Her family was Jewish.^[5] After graduating from the University of Southern California USC School of Cinematic Arts in 1973,^[3] Ziskin started out writing for game shows, then became the personal assistant of Jon Peters. Ziskin quickly became a development executive, moving into feature films with Jon Peters' production company where she worked on the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born, starring Barbra Streisand. When she was about 27, Ziskin married writer Julian Barry, relocating to Connecticut to help him raise his three children from a previous marriage. The two later had a daughter, Julia Barry.^[3][6] In 1978, she was the associate producer of The Eyes of Laura Mars. Ziskin was married to Alvin Sargent from 2010 until her death.^[3]

Fogwood Films and as an independent producer[link]

Ziskin formed Fogwood Films with partner Sally Field in 1984, and produced Murphy's Romance.^[7] As an independent producer, Ziskin cast the relatively unknown actors Kevin Costner and Sean Young with veteran Gene Hackman and produced the hit thriller No Way Out for Orion Pictures.^[8] In 1988, Ziskin and partner Ian Sander produced two films featuring Dennis Quaid, the remake of D.O.A.^[9] and Taylor Hackford's Everybody's All-American.^[10]

Touchstone Pictures[link]

Ziskin's success came with the hit comedy Pretty Woman in 1990, starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, that Ziskin executive produced for Touchstone Pictures.^[11] The following year was difficult for Ziskin. On What About Bob?, Ziskin and star Bill Murray had spirited disagreements during production.^[12] Both that film and The Doctor^[13] were not as strong at the box office as Pretty Woman.^[14] A switch to Columbia resulted in Stephen Frears' Hero in 1992, a loose remake of 1941's Meet John Doe, for which Ziskin both produced and supplied the story.^[15] Ziskin directed her first short film in 1994, Oh, What a Day! 1914^[16] and produced the Nicole Kidman tour-de-force To Die For in 1995, under the banner of Laura Ziskin Productions.^[17]

Fox 2000[link]

By the time that last film was in release, Ziskin had been appointed president of Fox 2000, one of several off-shoots 20th Century Fox developed to speed up their production and distribution. Since the formation of Fox 2000, Ziskin rounded up an impressive number of directors and writers. Among those released were Edward Zwick's Gulf War drama Courage Under Fire and the romantic comedy One Fine Day and Pat O'Connor's Inventing the Abbotts and the big-budget disaster film Volcano. Ziskin and Tom Rothman helped develop the script for The English Patient before studio head Bill Mechanic returned the rights to director Anthony Minghella, who then got it produced and distributed through Miramax.^[18]

Ziskin executive produced As Good as It Gets in 1997. The film received seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and three acting nods, and its stars, Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, took home the leading role Oscars in the acting categories.

Columbia Pictures[link]

After nearly five years on the job, Ziskin resigned from Fox 2000 in November 1999 and within a month had a production deal at Columbia Pictures. After being tapped to serve as the first solo female producer of an Academy Awards telecast in 2002, Ziskin returned to the big screen with the highly anticipated feature version of Spider-Man. The film was released on May 3, 2002 to good reviews from critics, went on to break box office records, and became the highest grossing film of 2002. The success of the film led to two sequels, Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3. In 2002, Ziskin was also awarded the Crystal Award by Women in Film for her efforts at expanding the role of women in the entertainment industry.^[19]

Breast cancer activism[link]

In February 2004, Ziskin was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, a disease doctors had repeatedly missed previously because of the diffuse type of cancer she had.^[20]

On May 28, 2008, Ziskin, along with Katie Couric, Sherry Lansing, the Entertainment Industry Foundation, the Noreen Fraser Foundation and Ellen Ziffren, announced the creation of Stand Up To Cancer. SU2C is an initiative intended to enable cutting-edge research targeting all types of cancer, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer, brain cancer, colon cancer, cervical cancer, etc.

Ziskin died of breast cancer at her home in Santa Monica, California on June 12, 2011, aged 61.^[2][21]

Selected filmography as producer and executive producer[link]

• The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
• Spider-Man 3 (2007)
• The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007) (TV)
• Stealth (2005)
• Spider-Man 2 (2004)
• Spider-Man (2002)
• The 74th Annual Academy Awards (2002) (TV)
• As Good as It Gets (1997)
• To Die For (1995)
• Hero (1992)
• The Doctor (1991)
• What About Bob? (1991)
• Pretty Woman (1990)
• Everybody's All-American (1988)
• The Rescue (1988)
• D.O.A. (1988)
• No Way Out (1987)
• Murphy's Romance (1985)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Laura Ziskin at the Internet Movie Database
• Laura Ziskin at AllRovi
• Laura Ziskin at the TCM Movie Database
• Laura Ziskin at Find a Grave
• Laura Ziskin profile via Stand Up To Cancer
• Lukeford.net Biography

The Right Honourable The Lord Puttnam Kt, CBE, FRSA
Puttnam at the Orange British Academy Film Awards in London's Royal Opera House, February 2007
Born	David Terence Puttnam (1941-02-25) 25 February 1941 (age 71) Southgate, London, England
Occupation	Film producer and Politician
Spouse	Patricia Mary Jones (1961-present)

David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, FRSA (born 25 February 1941) is a British film producer. He sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords, although he is not principally a politician.

Early life[link]

Puttnam was born in Southgate, London, England, the son of Marie Beatrix, a homemaker, and Leonard Arthur Puttnam, a photographer.^[1] Educated at Minchenden Grammar School in London Puttnam had an early career in advertising (see Collett Dickenson Pearce) and as agent acting for the photographer David Bailey and Brian Duffy

Film career[link]

He turned to film production in the late 1960s, working with Sanford Lieberson's production company Goodtimes Enterprises. His successes as a film producer include Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, The Duellists (Ridley Scott's feature film debut), Chariots of Fire (which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), Local Hero, Memphis Belle, Meeting Venus and The Killing Fields and The Mission with Roland Joffé (which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986) mostly in association with Goldcrest.

He was Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Columbia Pictures from 1986 to 1988. During his time at Columbia he was criticised for what some saw as a condescending attitude toward the Hollywood film industry, and for not sufficiently exploiting the studio's few box office hits. This strategic failure contributed to the sale of the studio to Sony.

Politics[link]

He was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1983, knighted in 1995, and created a life peer in 1997, as Baron Puttnam, of Queensgate, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. In 1998 Puttnam was named in a list of the biggest private financial donors to the Labour Party (UK).^[2] In 2002 he chaired the joint scrutiny committee on the Communications Bill, which recommended an amendment to prevent ownership of British terrestrial TV stations by companies with a significant share of the newspaper market. This was widely interpreted as being aimed at stopping Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation from buying channel Five. When the government opposed the amendment, Puttnam brokered a compromise — the introduction of a "public interest" test to be applied by the new regulator Ofcom, but without explicit restrictions.

From 2004-2005 Puttnam chaired the Hansard Society Commission on the Communication of Parliamentary Democracy, the final report of which urged all political parties to commit to a renewal of parliamentary life in an attempt to reinvigorate representative democracy.^[3][4] In 2007, he chaired the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Draft Climate Change Bill. Puttnam is currently a trustee of the think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research.

Association with education[link]

He was for 10 years chairman of the National Film and Television School and taught people such as Nick Park. He founded Skillset, which trains young people to become members of the film and television industries. In 2002 he was elected UK president of Unicef.

Lord Puttnam was the first chancellor of the University of Sunderland from 1997 until 13 July 2007. He was appointed an Honorary Doctor of Education during the School of Education and Lifelong Learning's Academic Awards Ceremonies in his final week as Chancellor and was granted the Freedom of the City of Sunderland upon his retirement. In 1998 he founded the National Teaching Awards and became its first chairman. He was the founding chairman of the General Teaching Council 2000-2002. He was appointed as chancellor of the Open University in 2006.^[5] He was also the Chairman of NESTA (The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) from 1998 until 2003. He is also chairman of Futurelab and on the board of directors of learning technologies company Promethean.

Awards[link]

In 1982 he received the BAFTA Michael Balcon Award for his outstanding contribution to the British Film Industry. In February 2006, he was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship. He made the occasion notable by delivering a particularly moving homage to his late father who had died before he received his Oscar for Chariots of Fire.. He also congratulated contemporary filmmakers (specifically George Clooney) for making films with integrity: the lack of such films being produced had been the reason for his retirement from the film industry in the late 1990s.^[6]

In May 2006 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. On 12 July 2007, he was given the freedom of the City of Sunderland.^[7] In 2008, David received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from Nottingham Trent University in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to the cultural landscape of the UK, in both economic and creative terms, and for his notable support for the Nottingham City-based GameCity Festival.

He suffers from ME, severely debilitating him on occasions.

In 2009 in partnership with Sir Michael Barber, Lord Puttnam released We Are the People an education documentary featuring high-profile figures discussing their own experiences of education.^[8]

Other Interests[link]

Puttnam co-authored (with Neal Watson) Of Movies and Money, published in Jan 2000 by Vintage Books.

When he became the chairman of Profero, a London based digital marketing agency In April 2007, he explained the move saying: "My experience over the past forty-odd (some very odd) years has encompassed marketing, entertainment and social issues, a fascinating mix that is integral to the daily lives of consumers and citizens. A business that can combine and magnify these dynamics can only create incredible value for their clients and, as a by-product, themselves. To me Profero is in just such a position, and it’s now my job to help them realise their potential."^[9]

He is patron of SCHOOLS NorthEast, an organisation set up in 2007 to promote education and forge relationships between schools in the North East of England.

Puttnam, who had produced Ian Charleson's star-making film Chariots of Fire, contributed a chapter to the 1990 book, For Ian Charleson: A Tribute.^[10]

He has also preached at Durham Cathedral at the feast of the Cathedral's commemoration of its founders and benefactors.^[11]

Philanthropy[link]

Puttnam is patron of the British branch of Child In Need India (CINI UK).^[12]

Further reading[link]

• Yule, Andrew (1989). Fast Fade: David Puttnam, Columbia Pictures, and the Battle For Hollywood. Delacorte Press. ISBN 0-440-50177-6. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• University of Sunderland
• The Open University
• We are the people movie
• Futurelab's Board of Trustees
• David Puttnam at the Internet Movie Database
• "Opening windows". BBC News. 19 February 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/sunday_am/4729128.stm.  - transcript of Sunday AM interview with Huw Edwards
• Speech on 'Educating for the Digital Society' at the IIEA - 19 January 2010
• The short film More About Movies and Money (1998) is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]