PRODUCERS AND THE PRODUCTION OFFICE

Job Overview

The producer manages the total project, balancing the client's needs and the director's vision. Responsible for devising a financial plan and ensuring that the production is completed on time and within the specified budget, the producer is involved in casting, hiring the crew, overseeing postproduction and all other mechanics of the project.

Special Skills

A commercial producer must be organized, possess the ability to devise a realistic budget, and bring the production in within cost, have an overall understanding of the filmmaking process, and have contacts within the industry. “The more educated you are and the more knowledge you have, the more you bring to the profession,” says producer Jane Raimondi. “There are many people that have a wide variety of majors and backgrounds: English, math, engineering, or history. All of those things lend themselves to the film industry. You don't have to have a film education, but an education, in itself, is really valuable.”

Advice for Someone Seeking This Job

“Everybody shares the commonality of being a production assistant,” says Raimondi. “Most people I talk to who are assistant directors or producers, directors, gaffers, key grips, people in really good positions, started out as PAs. There is nothing wrong with that. Take a starting position, get your foot in the door, and then you can prove yourself and move up. You will move up if you prove yourself. The good are separated from the bad pretty easily … The main thing is just love it with such a passion that you're willing to do anything to get started; dive in and go for it. Call on people. Be persistent. We get résumés every day of the week and you can kind of tell the people that just have a little something; some spark above the others. It's really a nice persistence that they have. A passion.”

Professional Profile: Jane Raimondi, Producer and Co-Owner, Raimondi Films

Jane Raimondi was 33 years old when she discovered her love for filmmaking and got into the business. She had earned a bachelor's degree in sociology and worked a variety of jobs—on Capitol Hill, as a social worker, and for a magazine—but none of them sparked her passion. On the verge of divorce, Raimondi's therapist asked her: “What would you like to do if you could do anything at all?”

“Nobody had ever asked me that question. I said, ‘What I want to do is not really possible … I've always thought I would love to work in film. I love movies. I find it interesting. But you can't really earn a living at that, particularly living in Washington, D.C.’”

Two days after the conversation, Raimondi was riding the bus to work and looked up to see an advertising card for Corcoran College of Art & Design, offering classes in art, painting, photography, and filmmaking. “It was a revelation. I got to work and called them immediately. They were starting a beginning filmmaking course. It was every night from six to nine, five days a week. At the end of my day, I'd go take this course and I was in heaven. I couldn't wait for 6:00 to come.”

One of a very small group of students, Raimondi learned the basics of filmmaking by working on Super-8 student films. When the course ended, she signed up for an intermediate class, the only other filmmaking course the college offered. “I was in love.”

Separating from her husband, Raimondi moved into a small studio apartment, quit her job, and began looking for work in the film industry. She telephoned every motion picture production company in the telephone book and offered to work for free to gain experience. “I had squirreled away enough money to live on for six months, which at that time was $5,000.I was not going to be living extravagantly!”

She began to pick up production assistant work. “I was 33 and I was schlepping coffee for 22-year-old directors. I didn't care. I would have done anything.” Over a short period of time Raimondi worked up to jobs that paid, filling a wide range of positions, from props and wardrobe, to assistant cameraman. “Washington [D.C.] is not compartmentalized like it is in L.A.… which was great, because you got a much better overall view of the industry. People are amazed that I can step in and run a Nagra, for instance, or load a 16mm magazine in a very short amount of time.

“There is not a big filmmaking community in Washington [D.C.]. A lot of the work is documentaries, but I was amazed at how many companies were out there and how many people were actually making a living in the film business.”

She continued to build a résumé working on various documentaries and commercials. While attending a seminar hosted by Eastman Kodak in 1980, she met director Paul Raimondi, who later became her husband and partner in Raimondi Films.

Initially, the pair produced industrial films and documentaries, traveling all over the world to shoot, but later changed their emphasis to commercials. “Doing documentaries got too physically exhausting to continue. You're in a foreign country with sixteen cases of equipment, no bellman, no skycap, just two of you [hauling] stuff around.”

To expand their client base, they began sending Paul's director's reel to Los Angeles production companies, eventually signing with one for representation on the West Coast. After two years, the pair had built up enough contacts to open an office of Raimondi Films in Los Angeles, closing down their Washington, D.C., operations a year later.

One project Jane Raimondi is particularly proud of producing are “The Los Angeles Times” trailers that run on 2,200 movie screens throughout Southern California. “About ten years ago, Paul came up with the idea of filming people in the film industry for the ads. They are little minute pieces on the less well-known parts of the industry. We didn't want to do directors, producers, writers, or actors, people that everyone knows.” Having completed about 25 so far, the ads have become a staple with moviegoers.

In the mid-1990s the Raimondis formed an alliance with two other filmmakers, enabling Jane to produce the independent film Crosscut, which aired on Cinemax, HBO, and Showtime.