Producers Panel SBIFF 2014

Reviewed by Angela Yago. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Joey Farland for The Wolf of Wallstreet, Charles Raven for American Hustle, Dede Gardner for 12 years a slave, Ron Yerxa for Nebraska, Gaby Tana for Philomena, Dana Brunetti for Captain Phillips and Robbie Brenner for Dallas Buyers Club are the seven producers at the panel. And  all of these producers movies have been nominated for the Oscars this year for their outstanding movies. John Horn was the panels moderator and did a great job leading the discussion to interesting points.

Nebraska is the only one of these movies that isn’t based on a true story.
Just because a film is based on a true story doesn’t necessarily have to be exactly as the story, the movies should be watched at without being compared to the real story, and this is something they also talked about at the panel. They do it in their own way to fit their visions and how they want to show it to the audience.

I thought it was really inspirational and interesting to hear what the producers had to say, they had some very important and great discussions and the discussions were flowing on good, these producers really know what they are doing. Some of the topics were about the producer life, passion and how the industry works. A producers job is to plan everything and ensure that it works out and to make sure that the money lasts until the end. During the last years independent movies have become easier to do, and that is because of the cheaper equipment and the easier ways of raising money for your projects. The producers talked about the hard part of saying no, they have trained so hard and now they feel that they can say no and put it in a nice way if there’s ever any problems. They’ve learned this by working with some big profiles, like Martin Scorsese, because big profiles are respected in the industry.

Passion is important in the industry, it’s the most important thing to have when making a film, because if you have passion you’ll do great. You have to work for what you want and for the success. Put your everything into your project and don’t let go of it. Never do a film just for the sake of it, it won’t work out and you’ll end up disappointed.

I was very inspired by the producers and learned a lot from what they had to say, I’m interested on working in the film industry and this helped me a little to think about what I want to do if I ever go in for that film world. It’s always interesting to hear the different parts of working in the industry, and hearing them talk about what it’s like to be a producer was really inspiring. It’s a hard job, but I believe that if you work with something you love, you’ll never be bored.