Financial roles in the TV and Film Industries

Financial jobs require a person to generate revenue for an industry or business, for example a film producer is responsible for securing the budget of a film. This means that in a financial job, a person must be good with figures, reliable and have good business sense and accounting skills. They have to be able to account for the budget at all times and ensure money can be channelled where it is needed. Examples of financial jobs in the TV and Film industries are Producers, Financial Controllers and Production Accountants.

In my BTEC media classes, we have already looked at:

Creative roles

Managerial roles

Editorial roles

Technical roles 

A Producer has the final responsibility for all aspects of a film production, hence why they are awarded the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards. The producer has the largest and likely longest running job on a film production, often working from inception of the project (sometimes even before a writer) right to the marketing and selling of the film. They have to maintain the creative vision for the film throughout must also must be fiscally responsible ensuring that the budget is spent wisely and always accounted for.

The Producer is responsible for the production company and the executive producers and they are all supervising the production to ensure it sticks to the budget so that the financial backers are kept happy. Their job will likely involve aspects of the development, pre-production, production and post-production and therefore they must be self-motivated, reliable and have a very clear creative vision and be able to motivate others.

Producers do not require any specific qualifications but as they are in charge of accounting and creative personnel, they need excellent understanding of film production and in particular business and financial issues. This will most likely come from a great deal of experience working in the film industry, particularly as part of the Production Team.

As usual, much of this information comes from the Skillset website and particularly the section on Producers. If any producers out there read this and want to correct me, add to this or just give me a quote to use, I would be eternally grateful!