62 Chapter 5 THE ROLE OF THE PRODUCER IN CORPORATE VIDEO personality conflicts and has the opportunity to apply his or her own creativity to the project. If you like the hands-on approach to filmmaking, working as producer-director may be more satis- fying than acting as the producer alone. Above the Line While the director works mainly during filming and postpro- duction--what is known as "below the line" in filmmaking jargon--the video producer's main functions take place prior to the filming--"above the line." These include meeting with the client, developing the budget, determining concepts for the video, hiring a scriptwriter, and assembling the crew. Either the director or the producer may select the talent or supervise the postproduction. The producer is responsible for obtaining permits for loca- tion shoots, permissions from those appearing on camera, insurance, and music clearances. The producer may deal with the legal department to craft contracts and accounting to arrange payments for personnel. Depending on the particular production, the producer also hires such ancillary personnel as a location scout, a set designer, a makeup specialist, one or more pro- duction assistants, and in some cases security personnel. Some productions have budgets for a production manager or coordina- tor, which we will discuss later. As part of the production planning process, the producer should inventory existing content and visual resources. Has PR written press releases, or are there annual reports that can help the scriptwriter? Are there photos on file that can be scanned, rather than sending a production crew to a remote site for B-roll? What about graphs and charts from slide shows? Is there existing videotape or DVDs in the archives that could be sources for clips? The corporate video producer sometimes comes up with the idea for a video and then needs to sell the idea to the appropri- ate department manager or company executive. Since the exec- utive is the one with the budget, it is appropriate to call this person the "executive producer." When that person sees his or her name in the credits, you can expect that you now have an ally in the company to help you fund the next video production. While selling the video idea to an executive is required when the producer is a freelancer or contractor, this can also be a task for the in-house video producer. As an employee of the com- pany, you probably see several areas where training or corporate communications could be improved with a well-produced