La Fours said:
This is really cool.
I'm hoping you can explain something that I have been wondering about with films and TV shows. In the Deadline article, it says "Amazon Studios has hopped on board with Macro Television Studios to partner with Ava DuVernay's Array Filmworks to develop a TV adaptation..."
What does that mean production wise to have Amazon, Macro Television Studios and Array Filmworks all partnered on the project? Who are the decision makers, which group is responsible for what parts of production? Is having Amazon key for more than a distribution platform? Forgive my ignorance on all of this. The past few years I started noticing during the credits of movies and TV shows that all these different studios are partnered to make things happen and I wondered what that meant. I am guessing it is different from project to project though.
Yeah, it differs on literally every movie/series and depends on the specific deal that was negotiated. But in nearly every scenario, the studio - Amazon, in this case - is the primary decision maker. They now own the show and call all the shots. But Macro, for instance, has ownership as well and will continue to do a lot of the heavy lifting on the producing front. Then Array, another company, and a couple people from my company (myself included) help oversee the production process in whatever ways are needed. Meaning we help hire additional writers, give notes on scripts, help cast the project, etc. Put simply, as producers, we all work hand-in-hand with the studio to facilitate every aspect of the filmmaking process. And over the development of the project, before Amazon came onboard, we all contributed to the project both financially and creatively in some capacity (in my company's case, we financed the initial option of the book and had input on early creative development). It's not really a case of Company X specifically does this and Company Y specifically does this. It's more about the credited producers/"reps" from each company working together as a team to do whatever needs to be done, some more involved that others.
Overall, it breaks down kind of like this. There are...
... production companies who develop projects but don't have the money to finance scripts.
... production companies who develop projects and have the money to finance scripts, but don't have the money to finance the production of the movie/series themselves.
... financiers who have the money and means to produce/make projects, but don't have the means to distribute them.
... studios who have the money to do all of the above, but, in certain instances, work with the above companies to "outsource" the earlier development of certain projects - or - acquire projects once they've reached a certain level of development.
And then there are myriad versions of each of the companies above. So, in other words, every deal depends on which types of companies are involved.