Example Career: Producers and Directors

Career Description

Plan and coordinate various aspects of radio, television, stage, or motion picture production, such as selecting script, coordinating writing, directing and editing, and arranging financing.

What Job Titles Producers and Directors Might Have

• News Producer
• Producer
• Promotions Producer
• Television News Producer

What Producers and Directors Do

• Write and edit news stories from information collected by reporters and other sources.
• Coordinate the activities of writers, directors, managers, and other personnel throughout the production process.
• Research production topics using the internet, video archives, and other informational sources.
• Review film, recordings, or rehearsals to ensure conformance to production and broadcast standards.
• Monitor postproduction processes to ensure accurate completion of details.
• Conduct meetings with staff to discuss production progress and to ensure production objectives are attained.
• Perform administrative duties, such as preparing operational reports, distributing rehearsal call sheets and script copies, and arranging for rehearsal quarters.
• Resolve personnel problems that arise during the production process by acting as liaisons between dissenting parties when necessary.
• Hire directors, principal cast members, and key production staff members.
• Arrange financing for productions.
• Determine production size, content, and budget, establishing details such as production schedules and management policies.
• Select plays, scripts, books, or ideas to be produced.
• Perform management activities, such as budgeting, scheduling, planning, and marketing.
• Compose and edit scripts or provide screenwriters with story outlines from which scripts can be written.
• Negotiate with parties, including independent producers and the distributors and broadcasters who will be handling completed productions.
• Negotiate contracts with artistic personnel, often in accordance with collective bargaining agreements.
• Determine and direct the content of radio programming.
• Obtain rights to scripts or to such items as existing video footage.
• Write and submit proposals to bid on contracts for projects.
• Produce shows for special occasions, such as holidays or testimonials.
• Plan and coordinate the production of musical recordings, selecting music and directing performers.
• Develop marketing plans for finished products, collaborating with sales associates to supervise product distribution.
• Maintain knowledge of minimum wages and working conditions established by unions or associations of actors and technicians.

What Producers and Directors Should Be Good At

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).

What Producers and Directors Should Be Interested In

• Enterprising - Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.
• Artistic - Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

What Producers and Directors Need to Learn

• Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Telecommunications - Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.