Daisy Hale, 9 January 2016

Creative producing is a term that has emerged over the past 20 years, but its definition

is very much up for discussion.

The session was called by, me, Daisy Hale, a student on the MA Creative Producing

at Mountview Academy of theatre. As a member of a cohort of people who often

discuss and debate what the term ‘creative producing’ means and where they fall

within the producing spectrum- I was interested to learn how other artists, producers

and creatives percieve the term ‘Creative Producer’ as opposed to simply ‘Producer’

and how their expectation of this persons role changes depending on how they define

themselves.

The discussion opened with the question of whether there really is a distinction

between creative producing and ‘other’ producing. Generally is was accepted that a

creative producer has a large amount of creative input into the overall artistic vision of

a project. Many held the view that a creative producer is born out of a much more

collaborative way of working. Although, this of course is subject to who, where, what.

Is it a producer and director working side by side, or a creative producer hired by a

venue? What differs then? A participant who worked for a producing venue offered the

idea that if they were to hire a creative producer, that producer was there to hold

together a vision for a venue. Your role is very much subject to the relationship you

hold with these people, and you get to choose the structure, or lack of.

The word vision was used a lot. Many people offered the idea that a creative producer

has a grand vision, or idea and it is through their creativity they are able to build the

perfect time to put this into a reality. This links very well to my favourite quote of the

session “The producer is the person without which nothing would happen” - a far more

eloquent way of putting the sign that sits in our Mountview office “Producers get shit

done”- HOW you do it, how you approach it and they way you prefer it to be, may put

you in what you feel is the seat of the creative producer. Creative people and

administrative people CAN be the same thing!!!

A creative producer very much has their own aesthetic to what they want to be and

what they want to see in their work or work they approach.

Really, there are no rules- and perhaps we shouldn't get bogged down in semantics.

As long as you get the shit done.

Tags:

hiring, producing, Creativity, structures, Venues, Collaboration, creative producing,

creativity, commercial producing, definition, venues, collaboration

Comments: 2

Chris Grady, 12 January 2016

Just listened to a tribute on Robert Stigwood (record, theatre and film producer) on Radio 4 Last Word: "He really was a

creative producer - of course the talent came from them , but it really came from them, through him, and back to them

again."

Chris Grady, 12 January 2016

Just listened to a tribute on Robert Stigwood (record, theatre and film producer) on Radio 4 Last Word: "He really was a

creative producer - of course the talent came from them , but it really came from them, through him, and back to them

again."