8th day - Producing

Today we had a lecture on production with Rebecca Knapp, an award-winning producer with a very rational, analytical mind and a delicious sense of humour - I absolutely loved her delightful depictions of film crews and actors.

 The (a)cute producer Rebecca Knapp

The way she portrays her job is extremely funny, resembling the one of a mother trying to get all of her "special" and childish kids to get along with each other and to get them moving in order to get the job done.

She started by giving us a comprehensive description of every job involved in a film production and the respective hierarchy.

Then we analysed how to break down a script in order to make a schedule and a budget - no easy task at all. It's like trying to put together an ever-changing puzzle where everything is constrained by and depends on everything else. I find it amazing that there are people who find this job stimulating because I tried it before and I find it completely daunting, overwhelming and overall frustrating. I have a deep respect for producers partly because I think I could never be one - I would die from massive headaches in no time, there's simply too much information to compute and you have to be awesomely flexible and adaptive and prepared to alter everything you planned if needed.

I don't know how it is possible to do this, but I would say that's mainly because I'm limited by my male brain, and males are characterized by their one-task-only thought process - hell, I moved my laptop from the living room to the bedroom to write this entry just because my roomie was watching TV and for me it's impossible to concentrate if there's any background noise. Women on the other hand are famous for their multi-tasking abilities and that's why the majority of producers are female.

Thanks Becky for all the insights, they were very important to make me utterly admire you... and all those of your kind!

See you tomorrow.