What is a creative producer?

When I was little, I loved playing pretend. My family lived on the edge of a forest preserve, and my young friends and I would race through its foot paths playing “SWAT” or pretending that we were on dangerous quests. Said quests usually required hiding, climbing trees and chain link fences, running across fallen logs straddling small streams, skipping rocks, finding crawdads, and kicking the caps off the giant mushrooms that dotted the forest floor.

I started my first business the summer I was 18. My family had moved into a town-home community in Colorado Springs that was bordered by busy roads and heavy traffic. I didn’t have a car, and the closest commercial establishment within walking distance was a Circle K. If I was going to earn any spending money, it was either Circle K or start my own gig. So, I made fliers, got clients in the town-home community, and cleaned houses for the summer.

I didn’t know it then, but I was laying the foundation for a future of creative producing in movies. Dream things up; make things happen.

There are all kinds of producers. Presently, I consider myself to be an entrepreneur whose business is independent movies.

It’s taken me about 12 years to figure this out, because I didn’t know if I was an actor, writer, director, producer, or something else entirely. I had co-founded a software development company in my late 20s, which was the most exciting, ambitious thing I could think to tackle. And, it was. And, then it wasn’t. Long story short, making a go of that company (and it still exists, as part of another software development company these days) made me realize it wasn’t truly my heart’s desire.

My heart’s desire was movies.

So, I tried on every artistic hat (except cinematography – I know my technical limits) over the years, while founding and running separate businesses on the side to subsidize my “education:” a gardening/landscape design consultancy, a non-profit screenwriting contest, and finally, an independent film production company with two partners.

I love all of it, especially directing. But, what I’ve learned I love most of all is the one thing that always came so easily to me — producing. Making it all happen. Seeing the big picture. Bringing all the pieces and personalities together toward a common goal: a movie that inspires, that entertains, and that hopefully, is timeless, too.

Presently, I’m “on sabbatical” from actively developing any projects. My current full-time production is parenting my year-old baby daughter. But, I teach classes and coach indie filmmakers and screenwriters. And, I can’t stop reading about, talking about, and thinking about producing, making movies, finding cool stories, raising money, what’s going on in the industry, etc. So, my outlet’s going to be this blog.

I hope you’ll join me in my obsession and check in and comment occasionally.

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