Linda Burns

Linda Burns, owner of Plexus Pictures in Atlanta, Ga., produces, line produces and production manages national commercials, corporate industrials, webisodes, still photo shoots, music videos, television shows, pilots as well as promos.

Burns is in development of a “coming of age girls action film kind of like an Indiana Jones, but for girls on the high seas.”

1. Can you briefly define your job to me?

“A producer’s job is to oversee the creative elements of the shoot. A producer on a commercial’s first responsibility is to get the creative that generally comes from the agency or your client (your client being someone like Georgia Pacific or Coca-Cola.) Those kind of big companies hire an agency and that advertising company create the creative ideas and they generally come to a production company or a series of production companies with a couple of different ideas and they ask that production company to bid the job. One of the first things I do, is I’ll get the different ideas and sit with my director and see what idea he gravitates toward. I’ll talk to the agency and either do a bid on all three ideas or the one that the director is most interested in, that the agency agrees would be a good choice for their client. I have to put the bid together, so I need to know what crew is needed, what kind of locations are needed. I kind of have to have a rough idea of what I believe are all the resources that we’re going to need to purchase or rent to make the creative happen. I put together all the numbers, detailed numbers.

My job also is (to) ensure my director’s vision will come through for that money.

I’m also in charge of putting the casting together or hiring a casting person (director).

I hire all the above the line people, so the key creative positions (such as) the director of photography, an art director or production designer, set up casting sessions…usually hire a productions manager or I’ll hire a locations person unless it’s going to be on stage.

My job is to make sure the creative vision oversight is there and that we can deliver what we need for the client. I’m there to address client needs and my above the line people needs and make sure everybody is taking care of while making sure that the production manager and all the other departments can work within their budget.

On a feature film, there are several types of producers. Sometimes they’re called executive producers, sometimes they’re called associate producers, co-producer and sometimes they’re given a flat-out called producer credit.

Executive producers are generally the people who bring the money or do the fundraising.

The producer is generally the one that finds the idea and puts the whole team together and works with the executive producer to supply the materials so that he can get the funds.

A co-producer is someone who is generally not there the whole time. They may come in and help in various ways or maybe the key producer kinds of overseas everything

It’s hard on bigger projects or bigger movies for one producer to oversee everything because they’re so labor intensive, so there are co-producers.

Associate producers can also be someone who brings additional money or even bring a star.

There are producers that kind of are the main person from development to delivery, and there are producers who only show up for the shoot because that’s their expertise. I do all of those things, which kind of makes me, in some sense, a rarity.

I generally read a lot of scripts and it’s taught me to be able to find talent very quickly.”

2. How did you get started in the business?

“Completely accidentally. I had no interest in making movies. I wanted to be a lawyer, electrical engineer or a computer scientist. I was a completely different track. In college (at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor), some friends of mine made a short film and I loved it. I loved the process and I thought it was fun, so I started volunteering at a community access station. People would ask me to help them with projects and I did. I started thinking ‘this is fun and I like this,’ so I started taking television and radio classes. I designed my own degree in abnormal psychology, deviant behavior, the psychology of advertising, and television and radio production. I was fascinated about how you can manipulate minds through advertising. I graduated with no intention of going in that field. I had no idea what I wanted to do. I packed a backpack full of seven days worth and clothes and I packed a tent, and moved to Hawaii without a job, without a place to stay. (I) just got off the plane and figured I would figure it out.”

Burns said she lived in a van for two years. She shot some video when the weather was bad. She also shot video of first birthday parties to trade for dog food because she also trained dogs for a while. From there, she moved to Key West, Fla., because she said she wasn’t ready to move back to “real society” yet. Burns lived there for two years doing radio, something she thought was fun and never thought about as a career.

Soon, she wanted to move again and she went to Atlanta. Burns said she went to a tiny radio station in Atlanta to try and cut a demo tape when she met her lifelong friend who had a radio show and was the station manager. Two weeks later, she ran into him again and this time he was with a man, who would eventually became another lifelong friend, who did work in the film industry. Burns said he asked if she ever thought about doing film. He asked for a business card and told her he would give her a call if anything came up. Two weeks later, Burns said, he called her to help him shoot a film in downtown Atlanta.

“He was reproducing kind of a Green Hornet type of (film), but with a black lead (actor) and Latino sidekicks. We shot 24 hours the day before Thanksgiving. A 12-hour shoot turned into 24 hours. Somehow I managed to find everything he sent me out to find with virtually no money and it was the first time that anything I had ever done really clicked.”

From that moment, Burns realized she was good at filmmaking. At the time she was waiting tables, but because she did such a good job on that shoot, her experience led to other jobs where she was eventually able to quick her waitress gig.

“I was suddenly working in the film business full time and having a blast."

3. How do you tell someone over you (your boss) that you can't accomplish an assigned task?

“Recently, I took a job without seeing the budget first. Partially it’s because I hadn’t worked in a long time. I produced a free no-budget art film and before the last day of the shoot this woman called me and I needed the money. I took the job. I didn’t have time, because I was on set, to ask all the appropriate questions, (which is what Burns said she normally does). There was no one available (to help her), so I took the job. Two days later, I saw the budget and there were major errors. They didn’t have craft service (budgeted). There was no one in the budget to shop for that or manage it. They had the sound equipment in for two days, but the sound people in for one day. Within five minutes, I found about $7,000 to $8,000 worth of expenses that would be spent that weren’t in the budget. I knew somehow I was going to have to make it happen. In the end, I was probably about $15, 000 over budget, which was 25 percent of her original budget. No overages were asked for from the client or agency.”

In the end, the client came up with some of the money and the person who hired Burns had to pay the rest out of pocket. The result was that the client was happy with the commercial.

“Neither of us slept for two weeks. It wasn’t pleasant. I pride myself on the fact that I’m very good with working with difficult clients, so I have found ways…I’m very good with numbers, and I know what sacrifices I can make financially that won’t hurt what ends up on screen. So, experience has made it so that I can make the smart decisions to save us money when we don’t have it. "

4. Do you have any advice for a media student starting out?

“Get out there and learn how to tell a story. Watch really good films and watch really (bad) films. Volunteer for projects. Create, create, create, create.”