Someone recently asked me to suggest some books on producing. The question stumped me because I have not picked up a book on producing since I got my undergraduate degree in Film Production. Most of us just learn as we go along. But, I wanted to come up with some good answers for the person asking. So, I posed the questions to my colleagues at Women in Film and Video. These are the responses I got:
Maureen Ryan’s book, Producer to Producer, is a very comprehensive book – step by step guide to low-budget independent film producing. Maureen is the Co-Producer of the Academy Award winning doc – Man on Wire. She teaches the art of film and documentary production at Columbia University’s Film School in NYC.
// Maureen Ryan’s book is great. We have a couple at office.
I’m a big fan of Produce Your Own Damn Movie by Lloyd Kaufman.
I do not think there are any books on producing. Most end up doing it usually by accident. The good ones have worked in other skills of the craft. The bad ones seem to drop out of the sky and begin to make unreasonable demands. In all seriousness the best producer has working knowledge of all the skills necessary to make an excellent production. Looks for text books in these disciplines: marketing, writing, management, finance, logistics, photography, lighting, audio, video, editing, distribution, etc.
Docs and TV 