12 !!Chapter 1
an individual commercial or a commercial campaign. The following are
their job descriptions.
Advertising Producer
There are two categories of advertising producers. One is an administra-
tive producer, and the other is both administrative and creative. Producers
calculate budgets and help find and hire directors, composers, editors,
announcers, and actors in addition to other personnel and/or companies
necessary to accomplish an assignment. Important decisions need
approval by the writer, the art director, the group creative director (the
immediate supervisor of the writer and art director), and the agency cre-
ative director (the paramount creative job at an agency); agencies make
recommendations to their clients and seek their approval before proceed-
ing. While on location, the producers and the creative team supervise and
are responsible for the entire production. The following is my interview
with Lisa Kalb, advertising producer:
MZ: What does an advertising producer do?
Lisa: A producer works with the creative team, the copywriter, and
the art director in making their storyboard come to life, assisting
them both creatively and financially—they are 100 percent
responsible for the budget. The producer will help them find the
director, the editor, the music company, the right casting direc-
tor, and the right talent; does talent negotiating (negotiates
rights maybe with a business manager) and is the liaison to the
account team, the client, and the creative team; and really works
in consort with all of the players that I mentioned to make a com-
mercial happen. From the minute a storyboard is handed to
them to the moment it gets on the air, the producer is in charge
of every stage of development.
MZ: Do you usually supervise more than one job at a time?
Lisa: Not usually. Usually there is one big job and maybe five small
jobs. There are a lot of commercials that music is redone for,
reedited, or there are radio spots that need to be done, or there
is bidding out many other jobs for future work, so there are
always a number of other projects happening simultaneously,
but some producers are fortunate enough to have assistants,
some producers are unfortunate enough to have five big jobs
going at the same time, so it varies.
MZ: Whom does a producer report to?
Lisa: It could be the head of production for the agency, or it could
be the creative directors.
MZ: How much input does the average producer have on who gets
hired to work on a commercial?