The Producer's Business Handbook: The Roadmap for the Balanced Film Producer (American Film Market Presents)

This book is just as it's titled... A Handbook. This is not the type of book you read from cover to cover for the sake of gaining general knowledge about producing films. This book is specific for those trying to produce films at a high level. It's the type of book you read in sections, over and over again to strengthen certain weaknesses in your knowledge base. In the past, I never needed to know what a Completion Bond was because I put up the money for them films and if it doesn't get completed, I lose my money. Simple enough...But when working on projects too big for me to personally finance, there are a lot more i's that need to be dotted and T's that need to be crossed. This book helps in that area. This book is a highly reviewed book on Amazon but it's obviously industry specific. Having said that, I found this book very useful as a resource that I can reference along my journey.

I picked up this book, along with a few others on a similar topic, while exploring the possibility of starting a production company. (I already have a career in the film industry as a for-hire creative.) Of all the books I picked up, this is the one I would recommend to others. It covers the very practical and nitty-gritty realities of the business side of development and production. The advice contained in here feels like it's coming from a professional to a fellow professional. In other words, this isn't for aspiring film professionals; it's for people who are already somewhat familiar with how things work (and therefore don't need the historical overviews that fill out so many other books on this topic). Other reviews have commented that the prose style makes it a little hard to read -- I do agree with this. There are some odd syntactical quirks of the writing style that make the sentences convoluted. Kind of reminded me of reading contract legalese. But at least the writing is always precise, even if it's occasionally a little convoluted. Even with that minor complaint, I still give this book five stars because the content is so valuable.

This is a poorly written and edited book. It’s very hard to wade through a book that insists upon using long run-on sentences with lots of lists and asides, particularly when neither the authors, the editors, nor the publisher has any conception of how to use a comma!Further irritation comes when all of these parties think that “etc.” and “et al” are the same thing. They are not and they are not interchangeable.In addition, a lot of other sentences are clunky and poorly written. This just causes frustration, as I have to parse the sentence to try to tease out the authors’ meaning. When someone writes a book, it’s thier job to get across the meaning. They failed.This team suffers from a lack of care and poor attention to detail.

This comprehensive text is a Masterclass!!!!

I am completely new to this field of producing. As someone whom is trying to work on the AR/VR content area, this book is providing great context on what related endeavors look like. I think many have a very vague idea how movie production might look like, but this book clearly shows Mr Lee and Ms Gillen have more than a vague idea. I am only half way through and now have real knowledge which I see leading to real action. Even if you didn't have a particular reason to use this book, I would recommend reading simply as it provides a great breadth and depth of the producing arena.

Great book

John Lee and Anne Marie GIllen's book, The Producer's Business Handbook, picks up where other books on film production leave off. Instead of focusing on script breakdowns, budgets and scheduling, The Producer's Business Handbook covers such issues as (i) the film industry and how it operates; (ii) domestic and foreign distribution; (iv) film financing (including production incentives, completion guarantees, etc.); (v) the various members, roles and responsibilities of the filmmaker's production team; and (vi) how filmmakers can and should operate their businesses more like a production company. For those involved in the production of highly-commercial low budget films, I also recommend  Guerrilla Film Marketing: The Ultimate Guide to the Branding, Marketing and Promotion of Independent Films & Filmmakers ... another very helpful resource with dozens of helpful step-by-step instructions on how to incorporate branding, marketing and promotion into each stage of a films production process, create marketing, promotional and distribution campaigns and highly-effective posters, key art, teaser and trailers, IMDb listings, electronic press kits (EPKs) and many other marketing and promotional materials. Both books are highly recommended. AAA+

While there are many great lessons to be had, the industry has shifted massively since this book was released.Unfortunately, this book is full of outdated information, strategies, and advice. Using these tactics in the industry as it stands in 2022 will lead you straight to failure.

Muy bien.