How to Be a 'Real' Producer: Know Your Audience and 'Fight for Your Life'

Nina Yang Bongiovi TheGrill Producers Roundtable

Anyone can get their hands on intellectual property and negotiate deals, but to be a “real” producer in today’s industry you have to do more than just be a broker, the professionals at TheGrill’s producers roundtable said.

“There are producers who put together deals, but they’re pure brokers. They get the producer title because they own the IP, but they’re not going to do the development for it or they’re not going to do physical production,” Nina Yang Bongiovi, the producer of films like “Sorry to Bother You,” “Dope” and “Fruitvale Station,” said Wednesday at TheGrill. “Today, to be a real producer, you have to have a skill set to be able to rise, to be able to package these deals, and talent knows that.”

Bongiovi led the producers roundtable, presented by Delta Airlines, that included industry veterans like producer Ashok Amritraj, Gersh’s Jay Cohen, CreativeFuture CEO Ruth Vitale and Propagate Content co-CEO Howard Owens, among others chiming in as part of the open discussion.

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For Bongiovi, one key to being a successful producer is to focus on a fundamental question: “Who is the audience for your project?”

She explained that there’s a difference between “Asian Americans” and “Asians,” and just because a project is developed as “Asian American” does not mean that Asian Americans will actually come out and support it — or that it will play with Asian audiences overseas.

And she expressed frustration that she continues to have to face old stereotypes, as when she heard that the indie “Sorry to Bother You” might have limited international appeal despite the fact that star Tessa Thompson had Marvel films like “Thor: Ragnarok” on her résumé. “Every film we’ve done, we’ve invested in the idea, prove the model, prove the IP, prove the value, and then you fight for your life,” Bongiovi said.

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Part of the struggle is that the goal posts have moved dramatically in identifying and mobilizing an audience. There is a whole middle ground of movies — what Vitale called “George Clooney movies,” like “Michael Clayton” and “Good Night and Good Luck” — that have basically disappeared from the marketplace.

Cohen also lamented the loss of “‘tweeners,” his term for films that drift between quadrants and don’t have one clear niche.

“You’ve gotta have at least one quadrant that you can hit really hard,” Amritraj said. “You need to tick every box today to get your movie made.”

Knowing your audience, and how to pitch clearly their intentions, can be key to getting a project off the ground. “The people we’re most successful with are the ones who know exactly what they are. And if you can’t tell me what you are, how am I supposed to know what you are,” Cohen said. “When I’m going out to sell a product, whether it’s a TV show, a documentary or a podcast, if I don’t know what your passion is, I can’t sell it.”

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Cohen suggested that producers consider finding a way to make actual IP first, then brand it from there. He recalled meeting with artists who had great ideas about YA stories and suggested that they first focus on developing the material as a comic book. Once that IP is out there and actually published, he said, he could work on selling a filmed version.

Bongiovi stressed that at the end of the day, it falls on the producer to make sure the script, the artist and messaging are all as strong as they can be.

“For us as producers, the No. 1 thing is, get your script right. Once you get your script right, if your filmmaker is strong enough, it could be a first-time filmmaker, that person will be able to attract talent,” Bongiovi said. “Where do they come from if you guys don’t have an opportunity to launch their career?”

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12. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (2009)

It’s incumbent on prequels to have enough vitality to keep us from noticing that we’re heading to a pre-determined destination, but this listlessly written ordeal -- loaded with terrible effects and horrible misuse of future franchise savior Deadpool -- ranks as the hottest mess of the mutant adventures.
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11. "X-Men: Apocalypse" (2016)

There are many sins we can forgive in a superhero epic, but dullness is not among them. Director Bryan Singer, usually adept at creating these movies, shockingly drops the ball here, with a who-cares world-domination plot from the titular villain (played by an unrecognizable Oscar Isaac) and more characters than he apparently knows how to handle.
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10. "X-Men: The Last Stand" (2006)

Brett Ratner has reimagined himself as a successful producer of blockbusters and documentaries of late, and if that means he won’t be directing any more movies like this one, more power to him. Ratner threw out all the characterization from the previous two films and crafted a thud-and-blunder action epic that emphasized cacophony and spectacle over story. It wasn’t enough to kill the franchise, but this one definitely counts as a stain on its reputation.
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9. "Dark Phoenix" (2019)

What would appear to be the series' final entry takes the X-Men saga out with a whimper rather than a bang. Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) absorbs an alien force-blob that juices up her powers beyond her control, but the film is far more interested in CG mayhem than in characters or plotting. The whole movie is stolen by the hair and makeup on Jessica Chastain, who has been made to look eerily like music legend Edgar Winter.
8. "The Wolverine" (2013)

Something of a mixed bag -- we get two powerful and captivating female leads for Hugh Jackman to play against, before the film gets mired in corporate intrigue and Japanese sightseeing -- but it’s a huge improvement over the previous Wolverine solo vehicle. Jackman promises one more of these, and then he’s done, so let’s hope the upward trajectory continues.
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7. "X-Men" (2000)

Here’s where it all began, and a case can be made that the success of this 2000 film, alongside 2002’s “Spider-Man” and 2005’s “Batman Begins,” laid the groundwork for the modern superhero ubiquity. The film cagily presents friends-turned-enemies Magneto and Professor X as the Malcolm X and MLK of mutant liberation, giving this Bryan Singer-directed tale more heft than just dudes in spandex whomping each other.
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6. Deadpool 2 (2018)

Ryan Reynolds retains his commitment to the bit in a sequel that neither betrays the first film's promise, nor does it kick things up a notch. As a joke told a second time, however, it's a pretty fun sequel, thanks to the extension of some beloved bits and the addition of zesty new cast members like Zazie Beetz and Rob Delaney.
5. "Logan" (2017)

It's 2029, and an aging Wolverine and 90-something Professor X are hiding out from the world at large -- until they're called to help a new mutant find her way to safety. On the heels of "Deadpool," this R-rated entry allows for bloodier violence and saltier language, and if the storytelling doesn't find new levels of maturity, "The Wolverine" director James Mangold makes the most of his new freedoms, resulting in a rousingly fun character-capper (or is it?).
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4. "X-Men: First Class" (2011)

British action director Matthew Vaughn (“Layer Cake”) gave the series a much-needed jolt of adrenaline with this prequel, taking us back to the beginning of the story and showing how a young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) joined forces before tragically parting ways and pursuing differing philosophies.

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3. "X-Men: Days of Future Past" (2013)

After a lengthy absence, director Bryan Singer returned to the mutants, juggling multiple timelines and characters in a saga wherein Wolverine must return to the groovy Paris of the early 1970s to change history and stop the deadly Sentinels from being created to capture and destroy all mutants. This one’s almost as overcrowded as “Apocalypse,” but at least the characters still get some breathing room.
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2. "Deadpool" (2016)

The overinflated superhero genre has been overdue for a popping, and this breezy action comedy provided the much-needed pin. Making up for the misuse of the character in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” a returning Ryan Reynolds turned the comics’ legendary “Merc with a Mouth” into a human Daffy Duck, bouncing back from every explosion and injury while simultaneously shattering the fourth wall and mocking the franchise in the most R-rated way possible. These movies had it coming.
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1." X2" (2003)

Still arguably one of the best superhero films ever made, this entry enjoys all the second-time-around benefits of any franchise where the first movie had to lay all the groundwork and tell all the origin stories. Smart and politically provocative, featuring strong performances by actors who have been given real characters to play, and loaded with plenty of satisfying action, “X2” remains the gold standard -- and Singer's best entry -- for this series.
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