ENDA Episode 30→ The time when the Endless Apprentice learned the importance of Production (Part 2)

Being a producer helped me to develop social and administrative abilities that I did not know at that time that I had, but it also made me develop bad habits for when I become an artist.

The most important is that it puts a cap on my vision and risk-taking disposition. My focus was that the projects were doable in a reasonable time, so if I think something will take longer or will be more difficult, I will straightly reject it or find ways to simplify it.

This is not bad if you want to be a producer, that’s a necessary skill. But for someone who wants to be more in the VFX industry, this was an auto-sabotage because you will not be able to grow if you always play safe. A lesson that as I told in other posts, had a high cost in my career path.

But, why? If I did so well when I started, shouldn’t I keep at it instead of changing my area of specialty? Well, the story is more complicated.

When I began my fourth year of college and started taking production courses (especially one of Publicty’s Production) I realized that I was not fit to be a producer.

Being a producer, especially when you are a beginner, means you are responsible for the entire project and the crew, which can be translated in:

➡️ If something goes wrong, no matter what or in which area, you are the first person to be blamed or to be pointed at by the public. If something goes right, the area in charge is congratulated, but you are not. You only are recognized when something is wrong.

➡️ The equipment you rent or the locations you acquire are mostly under your name or you are the visible face. This also applies if you search for sponsors. This means that if there is any damage to the equipment, delays with a location, or problems with a contract, you are the one who takes the hit.

➡️ You always deal with people: clients, actors, companies, representatives, committees, organizations, etc. You have to be very good at negotiating and selling.

➡️Money is your responsibility: the scariest of all, you handle how the budget must be used, there can't exist a missing cent or a wrong number in the accounts. Many of the problems in production are mainly due to money issues, so you have to be extremely reliable and never lose trust.

Those and many other aspects are the ones that made me reconsider my choice to be a producer. Not to mention that the last project in the course “Publicity’s Production” put the final nail to my decision.

Nonetheless, my teammates had other ideas…. but that would be for the next episode.