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HowTo

[ Overview | CVS | Producers ]

How to be an IMP Producer

1. What's The Job Of A Producer?

Well, unfortunately a producer does not have this one job. He has, in contrast, many of them. His job includes:

Planning the movie
Supervising the progress of the project

If you like coordinating, managing, etc. than this is the job you will love.

2. Different Stages Of Producing A Movie

2.1. Before Anything Starts At All

The producer is the one who initiates a project. So you found a nice script which you think is worth animating, or you even got your own special idea of an upcoming IMP-blockbuster? Fine! Your work as an producer can begin!

2.2. Building A Team

2.2.1. Considerations

Most people don't have the knowledge or the time to make a movie without help from others. Therefore you'll need a team. But before you go out and start searching for qualified people, do a bit of planning: You should awake to what type of people and how many of them you really need. The number of people working on your project will have a great impact on your work. Here are some arguments for and against small and big teams:

Team	Advantages	Disadvantages
A big team	The work itself can be done faster, as everybody has less to do You will never run out of ideas	Communication and coordination (which is your job) is very difficult. The more people, the more different ideas, styles, etc. Creating a movie which has one style is a difficult task and requires a lot of experience.
A small team	Communication and coordination is pretty easy You don't have many styles which interfere	The work itself may take longer

After all, the advantage of faster work of a big team is destroyed by the mass of work which is required to supervise and coordinate such a team. Small teams are a lot more efficient. Try to have as little people in your team as possible. Mind that not everybody can spend equal amounts of time on the project.
Also Remember that it is difficult to estimate how much work the different aspects of movie making will make. It is often a good idea to ask someone who is experienced in a certain area to evaluate this for you (e.g. ask a modeller how much time and people it will require to model the scenes for the movie).

2.2.2. Writers

A writer is supposed to help you write down plot-ideas. He will work on the dialogues and make sure that the plot keeps the right mood (thrilling, sad, etc.) during the movie.
If you already got a story which you want to use you may have no need for a writer in your project. But if you just got some idea about the plot, it's a good idea to have some specialist to turn it into a great story.

2.2.3. Modeller

In almost all cases you will need at least one person to do the modelling. And in almost all cases, one person is not enough. Modelling takes its time. After all, it's what the audience will see.
For a normal project, you may choose to have from 2 to 5 modellers. But, as always, this depends heavily on the movie you want to make.

2.2.4. Musicians

Music is not a must-have for a movie. But on the other hand, it can really improve the effect the movie has on the audience. A well-made soundtrack can bring out the action and mood of a movie in a way equal to the pictures. The soundtrack can mean the difference between a nice and a great movie. So if you got the time, try to include a nice soundtrack.
You will usually need only one person to handle the soundtrack. If you are lucky he will also handle the sound effects for the movie (if it needs some). Otherwise you better have a second person to help you with those.

2.2.5. Actors

You got some characters involved in the movie? Why not make them speak? Of course you can display some text lines, which show the dialogues, but why not have real voices? That's what actors are for in an animated movie.
How many actors you will need depends heavily on your project. How many characters do speak in the movie at all? What kind of movie is it (A talented actor may do the voices for several cartoon characters, but how about real life voices? Do you need male voices, female ones and some children?).

2.2.6. Where To Get Qualified People?

There are several places where you can search for potential team members. The first place you will visit are the IMP forums (which can be found at http://www.imp.org/forums/). There all the people involved with IMP will read your messages.
Another great source for modellers willing to join your project are the official POV-Ray newsgroups. You'll find them at news:news.povray.org. If you don't have a news-client installed you may also visit the web-interface at http://news.povray.org. The best group to ask in would be povray.animations.
Other possible sources for people: Friends, other online graphic forums, ...

2.3. System Preparations

Before your team can start working, you may want to do the following things:

Ask Tom to create a CVS-account for your project
Ask Tom to create a section in the IMP-forums for your project

Of course you can use every other CVS-server or forum, but not many people have access to their own servers :)

2.4. Creating A Schedule

If you have never produced a movie before, it may sound unnessecary to create a schedule. It is, in contrast, vital to your project to have a detailed schedule. The schedule should for example include:

Timelines - when will which work be finished? The modellers can't begin their work if they don't have some information from the writer about the story and the environment, characters, etc. The same applies to actors, musicians - simply all people in the team.
It is important to take into account how many time each member can spend on the project.
Responsibilities - who is responsible for what? If you got 4 modellers, who of them will be the one you will discuss details with?. Do you want everybody to discuss details with you or are the modellers allowed to speak with the writer on their own?
Style - are you going for a cartoon or do you want a photo-realistic soap opera? This decision will influence the whole movie.
Privacy - is it okay if the public knows what the movie will look like or do you want to keep the thing low to create a surprise? What about previews etc.? Mind that once the movie is rendered on the IMP-farm, everybody (not only the farmers) can see what you have done.

It is important that every member of the team keeps to these rules. You may decide how strict you want to compose the schedule. It is always a good idea to do the creation of the schedule with the whole team. Only this way you can make sure that it is realistic and can be done that way.

2.5. The Main Process

If you managed to get that far - congratulations. At this point you can start to relax - not much, but a little bit. Everybody has his instructions, and if you and the team did a good job when creating the schedule the work flow will go pretty well.
Your job in this stage is to supervise the work of the others. You are the one who has an overview over the whole thing. The modeller doesn't know what the actor does (and he doesn't need to know). But you have to know. Keep yourself up to date. Check if the schedule can be accomplished as it is or if you have to modifiy it. Try to manage conflicts between different ideas and styles which you have not foreseen. Search for more team members if the project needs them. You may also want to kick off some test-renderings from time to time (including the parts already finished).
Your reward: Seeing how the movie becomes reality. Bit by bit.

2.6. The Final Step

When everything needed for animation is ready, you can go and start the final render. Relax and watch how the farm produces frame after frame of your movie.
When all frames are rendered, there's only one more thing to do: Encode them and all the sound effects and music to the final movie.

3. Tips & Tricks

Here are some tips & tricks to help you.

Start Small
If you have never produced a movie before, it's a good idea to start small. Why not do a 1 minute short movie, perhaps even without sound and music? You will learn a lot about producing. After having already done one movie, do a bigger one. But step by step. Do a movie with music and sound. Why not another short one?. And if you have successfully completed some shorts, you can dare and start a real one. All inclusive.

Learn From Others
Follow the discussions about other productions in the forums of IMP. How did they manage it? What could be done better, where did they did a great job? You don't have to make the same errors other alreay made.

Take Your Time
Don't hurry. Making animations is time consuming. Don't think it can be done in a few days. Your team works in his spare time. Nobody gets paid for this. It's voluntary. Good things take their time.

This page was last updated Monday, November 10, 2003; at 3:43:13 AM EST
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