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Film and Television Producers

Experience, Skills, and Personality Traits

At least several years of experience helping to create films and television shows and overseeing production tasks is required to become a producer.

Producers come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Some start out as magazine editors, business school graduates, actors, or secretaries, messengers, and production assistants for a film studio. Many have never formally studied film.

Most producers, however, get their position through several years of experience in the industry, perseverance, and a keen sense for what projects will be artistically and commercially successful.

The successful producer is an organized individual who can deal quickly and effectively with problems that may cause a change in production plans. Producers need to have a good sense of what stories, news, or other items will interest viewers. They also need salesmanship qualities since they may have to "sell" a station or studio on a project idea or convince an actor to take a role. Producers work with teams of professionals and must be able to bring people together to work on the single goal of completing a project.

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