How ‘Gladiator 2’s’ Lucy Fisher and the PGA Are Pushing to Nail Down What a Producer Does

It takes a village to make a movie, but when it comes to producers, at best they’re stereotyped as the money people — at worst, their efforts are nullified by honorary titles handed out like Halloween candy among anyone in need of recognition. It can be difficult to discern what producers do because unlike regulated union and guild positions where responsibilities are clearly delineated, they don’t have an over-arching protective governing body. Complicating the matter is the proliferation of titles that are typically misunderstood: How many people really know the difference between what an executive, co- and line producer does?

And it’s a job that women have been doing for a long time in the indie world. This awards season, awards contenders like “Nightbitch,” “Babygirl,” “Anora,” “The Brutalist” and others all have women in some type of producer capacity.

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The PGA is trying to change that muddled perception of what a producer does on behalf of their 8,200-plus members. The professional organization grants membership rights to a range of 31 distinct job titles under the producing umbrella. (Some crew members eligible for membership might even come as a surprise, like the coordinators in production, post and visual effects.) 

As part of their push, the organization’s website hosts a newly updated code of credits section with an extensive interactive list of titles and duties broken down by format. It’s easy to navigate the various pages and understand the numerous job title nuances in the film and television worlds, as well as in digital short form, immersive, special venue, video game and transmedia. The comprehensive list of roles is geared towards cultivating an understanding of the PGA members’ work on set beyond pervasive stereotypes.

Susan Sprung, CEO of the PGA, says that the image a lot of people have of producers comes straight from “The Producers” in any of its film or theater iterations.

“It’s not an honorary title,” says Sprung. “It’s not a gold star that you get because someone decides to give you something that makes you feel important. There’s real work behind it … and there is real legal and fiscal responsibility. If the ‘Rust’ case showed people anything, it is that you want to be sure, before you take that credit, that you really are taking on what it means to produce something.”

Stephanie Allain and Donald De Line are both producers who currently serve together as presidents of the PGA. “I think what might surprise people,” says Allain, “is how broad our reach is on a movie. Not just the development, but the nurturing of talent, hiring the director and all of that; literally working with the writer on pages, going and talking to the costume designer. We are involved in almost every aspect.”

While other crew on set may chime in with problem-solving solutions, that doesn’t make them a producer, either. “Can you imagine [saying], ‘I helped with that shot, I should also have a DP credit’ or ‘I called that actor, shouldn’t I be in the casting director credit?’” posits Allain.

Stereotypes are problematic across the board, and the moneybags image hurts the producers as well. “Producers have been hit hard in these last years with being devalued, undervalued [and] our compensation diluted,” says De Line, adding that without a collective bargaining agreement “producers are flying out there without a net and for basic things like healthcare, we have no guarantees.” 

The PGA’s members don’t receive any of these perks from the organization, and producers who shepherd a concept into fruition may work for years without any pay. 

Lucy Fisher, co-chair of Red Wagon Entertainment and producer on “Gladiator II,” describes the job on a film as having “the ability to rub two sticks together and make something out of nothing.” 

Stories of projects taking years to make it to screen aren’t the exception, but the norm. The quickest turn from concept to shooting that Fisher can recall from the course of her lengthy career still took two years: it was on the film “Jarhead.” 

It’s important to differentiate Fisher’s role within the film world, since a movie producer functions differently than one on a video game, for instance, where a company might hire a producer with a specific concept already in mind. It’s part of what makes nailing down the role so difficult.

Not every producer develops a project, or deals in finance, or focuses on the exact same components of a production. 

Michelle Byrd, associate national executive director of the PGA, says the organization needs to “protect and amplify the role of producers and help them protect their credit.” Education and knowledge are key.  

The guild will be launching a campaign sometime this fall with these ultimate goals in mind. The plan is to interview producers with a variety of titles all about their job duties. The resulting videos will be posted on social media with the #ProducingIsAJob hashtag. Members recently received a letter from the guild’s presidents urging them to begin filming their own self-interviews, too, and linking them with the same tag. 

“Real producers,” says De Line, “are an incredibly intelligent, diversified group who do very specific things identifying, nurturing and creating [projects] … sometimes for years without earning a cent of pay, and without them these projects would never reach the screen.”

Producers can always request use of the PGA mark alongside their names in the credits to denote the significance of their work beyond the job title alone. The insignia can be licensed to anyone who qualifies through application regardless of their guild membership status.

Fisher describes the intricate balance of the job as attending to the details while not losing sight of the big picture. If someone is wrapped up in a particular element of the film, she has to categorize its overall importance and not get bogged down in the minutiae. There are always “a million unforeseen circumstances and they’ll always come at you like a hurricane, no matter what you think you might have [planned for the day],” she notes. 

A producer in Fisher’s role is on before anyone else and remains working on behalf of their films even while the rest of the cast and crew move on to the next projects. If production is a family, the producer is the parent who doesn’t kick their child out of the house at 18, but remains steadfast with their support and direction.

That said, it’s not every producer who is on from beginning to end like Fisher. Each role has its own skillset within the specialty. If there’s a single through  line connecting the PGA’s members with those of other unions and guilds, it’s that there’s always more to the story, even for the people behind it.