What do you think?
Rate this book
The Producer's Business Handbook: The Roadmap for the Balanced Film Producer
Gain a comprehensive understanding of the business of entertainment and learn to successfully engage in all aspects of global production with the revised and updated 4th edition of The Producer's Business Handbook. Learn how to cultivate relationships with key industry players including domestic and foreign studios, agencies, attorneys, talent, completion guarantors, banks, and private investors.
This edition has been updated to include the latest opportunities presented by changing technology and their impact on the producer’s ability to brand, monetize, finance and globally release content. Also included is new information on audience, earning, distribution and funding opportunities created by the explosive growth of VR, AR, 360 and gaming, as well as the rapid conversion to OTT.
Additional features
Completely updated production financing worksheets – an essential tool for producers;
Expanded information for low-budget independent producers, internationally-based producers, producers using government funding, and film school students alike;
Coverage of China’s changing entertainment landscape, including their entertainment consumption, their commitment to produce content for the big global territories, and more;
New, full-color illustrations and graphics that provide a visual representation of complex topics.
This edition has been updated to include the latest opportunities presented by changing technology and their impact on the producer’s ability to brand, monetize, finance and globally release content. Also included is new information on audience, earning, distribution and funding opportunities created by the explosive growth of VR, AR, 360 and gaming, as well as the rapid conversion to OTT.
Additional features
Completely updated production financing worksheets – an essential tool for producers;
Expanded information for low-budget independent producers, internationally-based producers, producers using government funding, and film school students alike;
Coverage of China’s changing entertainment landscape, including their entertainment consumption, their commitment to produce content for the big global territories, and more;
New, full-color illustrations and graphics that provide a visual representation of complex topics.
420 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 31, 2000
35 people are currently reading
219 people want to read
About the author
John J. Lee Jr.
7 books6 followersJohn Lee and Darylann, his sweetheart of forty-two years, are the parents of six children
and twenty grandchildren. These relationships are the core of his life and largely inform his experiences related in ‘Fulfilling Relationships.’
John and his wife currently live in Mumbai, India, where they are deeply involved in humanitarian work focusing on educating eager, able, but less fortunate children, and enabling women to become financially independent.
John is Dean of Whistling Woods International, the largest film school in Asia. His twenty- seven year career was in the global financing and distribution of motion pictures, most of
which were studio releases.
and twenty grandchildren. These relationships are the core of his life and largely inform his experiences related in ‘Fulfilling Relationships.’
John and his wife currently live in Mumbai, India, where they are deeply involved in humanitarian work focusing on educating eager, able, but less fortunate children, and enabling women to become financially independent.
John is Dean of Whistling Woods International, the largest film school in Asia. His twenty- seven year career was in the global financing and distribution of motion pictures, most of
which were studio releases.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 6, 2015
Making movies is probably one of the hardest businesses to go into. If you think Rocket Science is hard, try your hand at making globally successful movies and see which one actually turns out to be easier. The process of taking a story and getting the whole world to see it is such a challenge that it is absolutely amazing that movies even get made in the first place, but they do! And I'm am all the more happy that with all the muck and risk involved that there are people who are able to do it with ease.
If you are considering or thinking about going into the movie making business as a producer, sit down and read this book very carefully before trying your hand at filmaking. It will open your eyes to all the skills and education you will need to have in order to navigate a very tricky landfill. In the entertainment industry it is a running joke that when you start out you start at the bottom, with all the other Ph.D, master, and law degree holding employees. Why? Well, Hollywood is filled with so many degree carrying people that it makes no difference where you got your degree, because the guy delivering the mail to everyone in the office probably has a law degree, and master's in business.
The only way people make it in the business on their own is if they write, produce, and direct their own movie and get it into theaters on their own. Only then will other filmmakers take notice and want to work with you. If you are like most filmmakers, they will go to film school, waste their time for four years, come out with student films that never went anywhere and wonder what to do next. If you want to produce, read and study this book because it will tell you ever step of the process to getting a film produced.
I would actually recommend reading this book first before deciding if film school is where you need to go or if joining a producer's program might be better. It also doesn't hurt to read the book, The Mailroom, in order to understand where everyone who is anyone in Hollywood got their start. The industry is teaming with the same ambitious talent so unless you can walk in with ten movies that got major distribution coverage, then you will be like everyone else.
This is not a book to be taken lightly or tossed aside with little strength, it is one to study and memorize every night until you can reiterate exactly what each chapter talks about. Then when you are ready to test your knowledge, take a team of student film makers and go make a movie. Ideally, you will want to do this in the summer to see if you can make it all happen. The other thing to consider is keep in mind all the submission deadlines for major film festivals because that is your main goal; use what you learned to get into the major festivals and land a production deal with some studios.
You know you learned everything from this book when the first few studios approached you at the festival with a deal in hand. If you didn't get into any festivals, it means you didn't understand this book. My advice, go back and study it again, along with The Complete Film Production Handbook. If you can do this before you get into college or graduate from college and can apply all of it, you will realize how much fun and hard it is to make movies.
If you do study all the books mentioned in this review, my only request to you, please make only great, not good, but great movies for the world to enjoy. Thanks
If you are considering or thinking about going into the movie making business as a producer, sit down and read this book very carefully before trying your hand at filmaking. It will open your eyes to all the skills and education you will need to have in order to navigate a very tricky landfill. In the entertainment industry it is a running joke that when you start out you start at the bottom, with all the other Ph.D, master, and law degree holding employees. Why? Well, Hollywood is filled with so many degree carrying people that it makes no difference where you got your degree, because the guy delivering the mail to everyone in the office probably has a law degree, and master's in business.
The only way people make it in the business on their own is if they write, produce, and direct their own movie and get it into theaters on their own. Only then will other filmmakers take notice and want to work with you. If you are like most filmmakers, they will go to film school, waste their time for four years, come out with student films that never went anywhere and wonder what to do next. If you want to produce, read and study this book because it will tell you ever step of the process to getting a film produced.
I would actually recommend reading this book first before deciding if film school is where you need to go or if joining a producer's program might be better. It also doesn't hurt to read the book, The Mailroom, in order to understand where everyone who is anyone in Hollywood got their start. The industry is teaming with the same ambitious talent so unless you can walk in with ten movies that got major distribution coverage, then you will be like everyone else.
This is not a book to be taken lightly or tossed aside with little strength, it is one to study and memorize every night until you can reiterate exactly what each chapter talks about. Then when you are ready to test your knowledge, take a team of student film makers and go make a movie. Ideally, you will want to do this in the summer to see if you can make it all happen. The other thing to consider is keep in mind all the submission deadlines for major film festivals because that is your main goal; use what you learned to get into the major festivals and land a production deal with some studios.
You know you learned everything from this book when the first few studios approached you at the festival with a deal in hand. If you didn't get into any festivals, it means you didn't understand this book. My advice, go back and study it again, along with The Complete Film Production Handbook. If you can do this before you get into college or graduate from college and can apply all of it, you will realize how much fun and hard it is to make movies.
If you do study all the books mentioned in this review, my only request to you, please make only great, not good, but great movies for the world to enjoy. Thanks
May 16, 2023
The best all around explanation of how the film business works. Especially welcome are the spreadsheets that allow one to estimate film revenues and expenses.
Well done.
Well done.
January 14, 2024
For someone looking to open a production company, this book serves a great deal of information from the business perspective. The information caters majorly to American market so I had to skip parts and jump to only things that are more relevant.
September 7, 2012
If you are in any way, shape or form connected to the film industry, especially independent film, you need this book. It is an absolutely fabulous companion to "Film Productino Management" and "The Complete Film Production Handbook", both by Focal Press. This book is on top of what is happening in the new media realms as well as the business side of the concerns of the realms of creative, development, audience, distribution - both domestic and international, greenlighting and staying on budget and on schedule. It's rare to find a book that does not blow impossible pipe dreams into would-be filmmakers' minds but rather gives the reality of what it is to be in the business. This book is about the business side and should absolutely be required reading for any film studies student. The hardest part of filmmaking is the funding. "The Producer's Business Book" gives in depth information to help make it happen and to keep your production in the black, rather than running into the red.
The book links to the website for important forms to the producer to keep you focused, on track and organized. It is not just boring facts and figures but gives real, practical advice in down to earth language. It makes on bones about why these things are so important and helps independent producers knowing how to navigate through an area that can be treacherous and quite frankly, very cutthroat. There is a lot of good advice here that no filmmaker can afford to be without.
The book links to the website for important forms to the producer to keep you focused, on track and organized. It is not just boring facts and figures but gives real, practical advice in down to earth language. It makes on bones about why these things are so important and helps independent producers knowing how to navigate through an area that can be treacherous and quite frankly, very cutthroat. There is a lot of good advice here that no filmmaker can afford to be without.
March 21, 2015
Very useful book for those who want to learn about the business side of film production. It takes you through every element of work a production company will face from development to distribution detailing the steps necessary for working with banks and legal entities. The notes I have taken from this book will guide me in the future. That being said it does not provide a way into the industry, merely the mean to converting into a successful business minded producer.
March 11, 2008
I really like this book on film producing, b/c it addresses the whole business side; and, not just for producing one film. It details company structure(s), films as products in the marketplace, distributors, studios, foreign markets. I've read a lot of film books, and this is the first one in a long time that shined light on new subjects for me.
July 24, 2011
Read APR 2007
Good resource for someone wanting to understand the movie industry, especially from a producer and developer stand point.
Applies to e-learning in the sense that they focus so much on a good story, whereas e-learning focuses more on delivery and design. Often leaving the story weak and uninteresting.
Good resource for someone wanting to understand the movie industry, especially from a producer and developer stand point.
Applies to e-learning in the sense that they focus so much on a good story, whereas e-learning focuses more on delivery and design. Often leaving the story weak and uninteresting.
September 23, 2015
Now I have more questions about this business than when I started.
August 8, 2018
Great book For Great Business Sense.
August 7, 2020
A wonderfully detailed breakdown of the approach to being a balanced producer of feature films. A must-read for every independent producer out there.
February 5, 2016
Excellent!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews