I’ve been reading some very interesting books, one of which is Dov S-S Simens’ From Reel to Deal: Everything You Need to Create a Successful Independent Film

One of the aspects of filmmaking Dov speaks about is embracing the title, “producer.” According to the book, the title “producer” is used for the “individual who passionately and aggressively brings a project to completion.” It does not, as is common, speak of a producer as the individual who necessarily provides money or the budget for the film. That title is reserved for the executive producer. Dov says a producer is someone who “has several projects at various stages of development.” The development stage could be, concept only, or logline, or synopsis, or treatment, or first draft, or pre-production, or production or post-production or rough-cut.

I’ve been adamant about restricting myself to the title, writer/director because — well… quite frankly, producing is hard as hell. It’s stressful, it’s emotional it’s taxing and it pretty much a lonely endeavor unless you’re working with a team. Although I list myself as producer on all my films — I passionately and aggressively brought each project to completion — I rarely use the term on my websites or Myspace page.

But now I am starting to embrace the title. Even though I’ve passionately brought each of my projects to completion by funding them myself, I am still a producer. I may be a micro-budget/no budget producer but I’m still a producer. And that brings me to my next topic: my projects in development.

In my time as a filmmaker (a title you’ve never seen listed in the credits of a film — does it even truly exist?) I’ve learned to adopt a philosophy that “if you believe hard enough it will happen.” Many, if not all, of my projects have come about with a simple statement, “I am going to make [blank] film.” That’s it. I usually have no idea at the time how the film will happen, however in my experience it has always happened.

Thus, I am continuing that tradition now. I don’t know how, but I am going to make, The Wall and I am going to make, Broken Hearts Club II: Trouble in Paradise.

I don’t know where the money will come from, because frankly my dear, I don’t have any. I don’t know how long it will take to write BHC II because I haven’t begun writing the script yet. I don’t have a clue how I will passionately bring these projects to completion. However, I trust that God, the Universe and my friends and family will fully support me in each endeavor to make it so.

What’s exciting is the thought that at some point in the future, when these projects are complete, I get to look back and think, “Wow, it happened…again.“