This course elaborates on the skills required by the producer and his team. Right from developing content to networking, financing, production, distribution and marketing-broadly describe the role of a Producer. The Producers job is by far the most challenging in Films and Television. It does not end with merely making or releasing the project, it continues into recovery and sale of rights if any. This course gives you a birds-eye- view of what happens in the Producer's world.

The entertainment industry has always been one of the largest contributors to the Indian economy, yet was largely unorganised. However with the entry of the corporate sector things have been streamlined in more recent times. However, there is a specific kind of 'corporate' and 'non-corporate' culture in the Indian Film Industry. A Producer needs to have a deep and insightful knowledge of the unique structure of the industry in which s/he works. Knowledge of legal contracts, financial conventions and also the ability to adapt to international practices, is a must. At Digital Academy-The Film School, we endeavour to provide this knowledge not only from our experienced faculty but also from practicing professional producers in the industry, who are called-in for workshops and guest lectures.

No business can be complete without a business plan stating the set of goals to be achieved and how to achieve them. A business plan takes into account, the cost of the project and how the money invested can be earned back. What are the profit margins and what are the risk-areas. A good business plan is absolutely crucial to the project approval and the eventual realization of a project. At Digital Academy-The Film School, we teach students how to make accurate business plans and how to make presentations.

We empower our producers with the knowledge of film aesthetics as well, because unless a producer has good aesthetic judgement, s/he might make great blunders in business. Every production usually has a story to sell and so it begins with a script. We take the students into an elaborate scriptwriting class where they learn how a story is written. From the classic and conventional to the more contemporary, we cover topics like finding the premise, lacing it with characters, creating conflict, resolution and climax.

Once you have understood the principles of screenwriting you will move on to deciphering film scripts. A successful Producer is the one who can take an idea and execute it on the celluloid effectively. But recognising the winning idea is the first step. That comes from an analysis of successful films and understanding why they succeed. Without such analytical skills, a Producer may not be able to see an opportunity or may even reject a great idea.

Nothing in Cinema can be achieved in isolation. Every great movie that has ever been made has been the result of teamwork. It remains the prerogative of the Producer to interact with the crew, and hire the best people for each department. Creating the right organizational structure of a film unit, assigning clear areas of responsibilities, and setting up realistic timelines for all technical workflows, is the job of the Producer. At Digital Academy-The Film School, we give excellent inputs into this crucial managerial aspect of a Producer's job. We try to align our inputs with the best business management principles being taught in business schools.

Pre-production is a crucial part of any project and depending on how well you handle pre-production, will the production and post-production be efficient or inefficient. Right from Scheduling, budgeting, location searching, casting, to permissions required at various stages from various departments, the making of the film, the producer's involvement is desirable and inevitable. Meeting obstacles and overcoming them comes with the profile. Everything that goes into creating realistic budgets and schedules comes under the role and responsibility of the Producer. We at Digital Academy-The Film School, give excellent work flow charts and templates to enable our students to handle all aspects of pre-production.

It is the producer's job to allocate every cost accruing to a film, into different heads of expenditure and quantify the amount available under each head. This process is called Budgeting. It is an extremely important process to arrive at the final cost of the film. A well-budgeted film project anticipates all the areas where costs are likely to be incurred and provides adequate money for such costs. This includes a certain amount kept aside for unforeseen expenses and exigencies. A good producer learns how to make accurate, detailed and reasonable budgets so that at the time of plan execution there is no cash flow problem or a problem arising out of unanticipated expenditure.

Financing is the next stage of the producer's job. Money needs to be raised, some times from multiple sources. Without a well worked out budget and a proper business plan where in a reasonable picture of return on investment is created, money is difficult to raise.

Both Budgeting and Finance are the most crucial resource in the making of a film, and that is why the producer's job is so important.

At Digital Academy, we ensure that proper templates are provided to the students for them to be able to perform the task of budgeting and Financing excellently. We teach them how to make macro as well as micro budgets and also how to give smart and convincing presentations to be able to get the requisite finance from various sources including banks and financial institutions at reasonable terms.

Film production is like a gigantic event that needs to be excellently managed. All kinds of Men and material are brought together for the purposes of a single production. Most of the relationships that are created are contractual in nature. Hence the producer must have a good knowledge of how legal contracts are drawn and how such contracts are executed and honoured. Contracts may be with artistes, technicians, different agencies or for exploitation of various rights. Contracts apart, there are many other legal issues viz- copyrights, permissions, sale of territories, censor laws, and laws related to the security of the country, about which a producer must be well aware of. In fact, safe guarding all the rights accruing to a film, ensuring that all parties honour their end of the contract, and also ensuring that the film project is not mired in unnecessary litigation is a major part of the producer's job.

At Digital Academy we ensure that our students are made adequately aware about legal agreements and other legal obligations.

In the production stage, the Producer comes into the executive part of his job. This is the stage where all plans are put into action and all the resources of men and materials need to function in an optimal manner to ensure the realization of a project. Ensuring smooth cash flows, inter-departmental co-ordination, precise communication and efficient use of time and money, is what the Producer does during Production.

It is common knowledge that the film shooting stage is full of unpredictable variables, and plans do tend to go awry. It is the Producer's job to innovate on the spot and create alternate plans in such eventualities. It is a high pressure, tense and quite a nerve wracking time for the Producer. But it is also a time where a good Producer by his diligence, can make the difference between a good film and a bad one.

This refers to the work done after the actual shoot is completed. However the responsibility only gets heavier to ensure that the film becomes a saleable product. A Producer needs to hire edit suites, audio work stations, Dolby mixing studios and also ensure that all the work proceeds are along a fixed time-line. At Digital Academy-The Film School, we ensure that our students are absolutely well versed with all the complicated post-production routines and are able to optimize resources by multi-tasking intelligently.

In any business, success depends on not only having a good product but also in being able to market it well. In today's multimedia world, a film can be exploited, sold or marketed in various media platforms. Be it outright sale, territory wise distribution, theatrical releases in various territories - both national and international, satellite television rights, home viewing options on DVD or VCD, video on demand via internet or cable TV or Pay per view rights on the internet or mobile phones, the avenues for marketing a film have not only multiplied in the last few years, they have changed the revenue models for film cost recovery and hence actually changed the content of films themselves. Marketing is an extremely dynamic and creative part of a producer's job profile. Being able to maximise the revenue a film can generate, being able to have all the synergetic partnerships and tie-ups in place, and being able to use the latest media technology to bring the film to the maximum number of eyeballs is the producer's goal.

At Digital Academy we teach our students how to exploit the film to generate maximum possible revenues and to market and promote films in today's dynamic and complex environment. It is our aim to provide our students with enough innovative ideas and case studies, so that they are in a position to handle projects of any size and complexity.