As mentioned in Chapter 2, producing involves bringing everything together for a successful production. The discipline of thorough preproduction planning in this process cannot be emphasized strongly enough. The success of every production is determined, to a very great extent, by the way that problems are solved—before they occur. The techniques needed for producing involve a great deal of organizational ability and attention to detail. Successful producers develop a feel for the type of material that has the potential for success. They also develop a good instinct for people that allows them to hire the appropriate cast and crew members who will bring the project to fruition. Producers are involved with a project from the idea stage to execution and beyond. Many of the disciplines and techniques of producing come through experience, but, as a starting point, a producer should have a good grasp of the material covered in this chapter, which includes the following:

• The different types of producers (executive, line, associate) and how their jobs differ (3.1)
• Why producers sometimes opt to be hyphenates and what their duties involve under those circumstances (3.1)
• How to construct and utilize a treatment and/or proposal (3.2)
• The different forms of scripts (film-style, two-column, rundown, outline, storyboard) and how and when to use each (3.2)
• How to build a budget and then adhere to it (3.3)
• The process of casting and selecting a crew (3.4)
• Methods for preparing schedules for different types of shoots (3.5)
• How to deal with legal issues such as copyright (3.6)
• The types of records producers need to keep on computers and as hard copies (3.7)
• The need to promote and evaluate programs (3.8)