Executive producer

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Executive producer is a major role in the entertainment industry but one that is ambiguous and often difficult to define clearly. Executive producers vary in involvement, responsibility and power. Some executive producers have hands-on control over every aspect of production, some supervise the producers of a project, some manage the financial aspect of the project, while others are involved in name only.

Music

In the music industry the executive producer of a music album is usually in control of the overall decision making in how the album turns out and how the budget is allocated for the project. Executive producer may also decide how many songs are placed in the final cut, which songs are used out of the tracks produced in the process of making the album, and the order in which the songs are placed. In this instance, the executive producer is usually someone who has had input in producing some of the tracks on the album. A particular executive producer's name attached to an album is sometimes used as a selling point to distributors.

In some instances an executive producer may just be someone who "discovered" a particular act, or someone who represents an act, either as an agent or a lawyer. Other times it may just be someone who financed the production of the album.

Movies

An executive producer of a motion picture is typically a producer who is sometimes involved in any creative or technical aspects of production. They generally handle business issues, and may be a financier of the film. Some executive producers act as representatives of the studio (which distributes and/or makes) or production company (which makes) a film, occasionally being credited as executive in charge of production.

Many times someone will receive Executive Producer credit because of their prior involvement with a property that has since been optioned into a film, even if they had no direct input into the production of the film itself. Some instances of this include authors of optioned literary works; people who had previously owned or currently own a property's movie rights; or, someone who had produced, or been involved in the production of, a previous version of the film.

Television

In the production of a television show there may be many executive producers listed. Sometimes it may be a situation not dissimilar to the one described above for motion pictures: someone with previous involvement with a particular work, a project's financier, or someone in control of the business aspect of production. Sometimes, this title is conferred upon a celebrity or notable creator who has lent their name to a project to boost its prestige or credibility, as a recognition of newly-acquired industry status, or as a perk to the show's main star or creative force. In these cases, the reality is that such a person has no input into the production.

However, under the unusual rules for establishing writing credits on television series (where writers are often credited as "producers"), the principal writer is almost always credited as an executive producer rather than the more descriptive title of "head writer."

In television an executive producer might have more power than any other credited crew member — this is the case with the show runner. Generally, a show runner (still credited as an executive producer) is the creator of a series, or an influential staff writer on the show. His or her role is to guide the overall creative progress of the show's story over the course of a season — basically, the de facto creative director of the show — and all creative decisions (from casting to script approval) go through them. Usually, while there may be many credited "producers" and "executive producers" (with varying responsibilities) on a television series, there are just one or two in the position of show runner.

Within this somewhat convoluted system, it's not unusual for TV shows to have three sets of "executive producers": the traditional EPs (production executives, financiers, etc.), the head writer(s), and the show runner(s).

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