We all know what the cinematographer or cameraperson does on a movie. And we know what the writer does. It’s certainly no mystery what the director does – he or she yells, “Action” and “Cut” all the time. However, not all of us know what the producer on a movie actually does.
Luckily, we were able to talk to Anna Skrypka, the busy Hollywood producer from Kharkiv, Ukraine, about what the job of producer involves. She explained it to us from her own personal experience as the producer of many shorts, feature films, commercials, music videos and web series. Since making movies is both a business and an art form, Anna lets us know that the producer must know how to deal with all the elements of the filmmaking process in order to get things done and to get the film completed, which, of course, is the goal. Well, at least one of the goals, she tells us.
Her years of experience in producing, has taught her that her job requires her to understand all the complexities of the process of making a movie. Some of those include, negotiating, problem solving, working with the writer, planning, making a budget and scheduling, motivating the people you’re working with, securing financing and then managing that money down to the penny. Ultimately, the producer is responsible for the film being completed on time and within budget, and Anna takes that very seriously. When she produced the feature film Waves, in the Philippines, she had to oversee all of the aspects of that project which included making sure the locations were secured, the actors and crew had food and living quarters, etc., etc. She had to manage all the department heads and if an exterior shot was delayed by weather then she had to immediately reschedule an interior scene to be shot in its place.
The highly praised digital series that she and two others created, (Charles Ancelle and Adrian Morales Ramos), has all the same ingredients as making a feature film does – only it has to be done over and over again because it’s an episodic series. You can watch that excellent show on Youtube and see how well produced it is (produced by Anna Skrypka). Her beautiful short film At Last, has been getting such outstanding reviews at film festivals that she is developing it into a full-length movie with her own production company ASCA. Another short that was produced by Anna was John Bondage, and that one is still being watched and raved about by fans and critics alike. Anna Skrypka is a new breed of producer in Hollywood. She’s young, energetic, brilliant and not afraid to jump in whenever she’s needed in order to get the film completed.
