Where it starts... a writer writes. A producer... produces...

So to start off on any film project, there is an idea. Obviously you need no title to come up with an idea, so anyone can be the catalysis to start a film project rolling.   It's the next step that defines them.  If you take the idea and start scribbling down the concept and start developing the characters, obviously we have a screenwriter on our hands.  Screenwriters have to be the least respected jobs in film and they carry the creative burden.  I usually respond to a person saying that they are a screen writer with "I'm so sorry"... well it depends on how much ass I am kissing at the moment... Which brings us to producers.

If you take that little idea for film and start furiously talking about it with anyone that will listen, chances are you are a producer.  Now there is plenty out on the web warning the budding screenwriters about choosing their producers carefully so I won't go into detail here, only to give the advice to watch out for a producer that promises the moon as opposed to a producer that shoots for it. 

This little bit is about the producers to be. So lets say you have a great idea but you chicken peck your emails and prefer sending texts.  Finding a writer is the next step and the good news is that there is an endless supply of writers.  The bad news is it may be hard to tell how good they are. I would recommend go to Imsdb.com and read as many in the genre you are interested in.  There are tons of outlets to find screenwriters on the internet but most ideas will be best served through human interaction. Choose a local, and that way you don't end up with battlefield earth when you started with a romantic comedy concept. That and what a producer really needs is to be able to sell the imagery with her words.

Get in writing what you and the writer are working on, so when you start suing each other you can point back to that sign napkin as proof you were right. Just kidding, getting an entertainment lawyer is the way to go and we will have to talk about it another time.