Careers A–Z · Production
Line producer
The line producer owns the physical production: the budget, the schedule, the crew and the deals that make a script shootable for the money available.
You are the person who says what a film costs, and then delivers it for that.
The basics
Also known as, and where the grade sits.
| Line producer | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Line producer. Production manager and unit production manager are the grades below and often overlap. |
| Level | Senior. Heads physical production under the producer. |
| Reports to | The producer, and through them the financiers or the commissioner. |
| Comes after | Production manager, production coordinator, or 1st AD. |
| Leads to | Producer, executive producer, or line producing larger shows. |
The job
What does a line producer do?
You break the script down into money: schedule, crew, locations, kit, cast, post and contingency. You build the budget, defend it, and rebuild it every time the plan changes.
You crew up, negotiate deals and rates, manage cash flow and cost reports, handle insurance, compliance and union agreements, and keep the production legal and paid.
The unglamorous end: you deliver the word no more than anybody else on the production, you carry the cost overrun personally in reputation, and much of the job is spreadsheets and difficult telephone calls.
The requirement
What is a line producer good at?
Numbers, negotiation and the judgement to know which cut does least damage.
Budgeting
A number that holds, with contingency in the right places.
Negotiation
Rates, deals and suppliers, without burning the relationship.
Judgement
Knowing which saving costs the film and which does not.
Compliance
Insurance, employment, safety and the agreements behind them.
Nerve
Holding a budget while everybody argues with it.
Kit
Tools of the trade.
| What | The actual items |
|---|---|
| Budgeting software | Movie Magic Budgeting or Yamdu, and a chart of accounts the accountant recognises. |
| Scheduling | The shooting schedule and the one-liner, read as cost rather than as time. |
| Finance | Cost reports, cash flow, purchase order systems and the production accountant beside you. |
| Contracts | Crew deal memos, supplier agreements, location contracts, insurance and completion paperwork. |
| Compliance | Union and industry agreements, safety policy, and the tax and incentive paperwork for the territory. |
The unit
Who does a line producer work with?
| Who | What passes between you |
|---|---|
| Producer | Scope, ambition and what the money must achieve. |
| 1st AD | The schedule, and what each change costs. |
| Production accountant | Cost reports, cash flow and forecast. |
| Heads of department | Budgets, orders and the negotiation that follows. |
| Financiers and commissioners | Reporting, drawdowns and delivery. |
Routes in
How do I become a line producer?
A senior grade reached from the office, from the floor or from finance.
Finance and accounting
Production accountants move across with the numbers already understood.
Independent film
Smaller features are where most line producers first held the whole budget.
A degree is not required, and a business or accountancy qualification is more useful than a film one. Most line producers learned budgeting on jobs, not in a classroom.
You are hired on shows that came in on budget and producers who will say so.
Nearby
The grades either side of this one.
Physical production touches every department. These three most.
Production department guide
The paperwork, the office, the published rates and the free route through all three.
Never been on a set? Start here. Offered a first day? Read this first. Want to know where this grade leads? Where people have gone names people who trained here and the productions they went to.
