Producing Tomorrow's Producers: Trusting in Your Guts with Chad Ozturk

Chad started his career in Paris as a runner on music videos and TVCs for companies such as Soixan7e Quin5e, Irene, El Nino, Iconoclast and Players Paris, working with directors like Romain Gavras, Megaforce and François Rousselet.

He worked his way up to producer before moving back home to Turkey, where he line produces foreign productions shooting in his homeland and also he produces TVCs for the local market.

Since his return, Chad has produced projects for brands like Apple, Netflix, Piaget Jewelry, Eurosport, Peugeot, Nestlé, Unilever, Fiat, Renault, TUI, Asus and alikes. He has also ensured a smooth local production in Turkey for Norway’s hit TV series Mammon and TV8 Malaysia’s TV show Hip-Hopin’ Asia. He also line produced one of South Korea’s biggest TV series “Reborn Rich” for JTBC Studios.Chad is the founding partner and EP of the PSN Turkey shop & Panda Films.

LBB> What advice would you give to any aspiring producers or content creators hoping to make the jump into production?

Chad> The most important thing is to be there and fight for it. In an industry where many people want to work and dig in, you need to be there and knock the doors and find a way to make the start. Any position, any internship, any training program. Get it and show your quality and skills, if you are good, they won’t miss you and once you are in, work hard.

LBB> What skills or emerging areas would you advise aspiring producers to learn about and educate themselves about?

Chad> Number one priority now is Virtual Production, even me, at 41 years old now and with 17 years of experience in film production, I’m learning new factettes of the production. This is a totally new world for me so think like this, you will be at the same level as an experienced producer when you will start to learn virtual production. 

Number two would be the AI obviously because right now we craft many treatments, notes, references, image search, moods, etc. using the AI technology. We even record voice overs for some films when we need to adapt the film to another market, this serves as a guide for the country who will make the adaptation. It became a useful tool which is used almost everyday.

LBB> What was the biggest lesson you learned when you were starting out in production - and why has that stayed with you?

Chad> One of the biggest lessons or advice was to be kind to the people because you will be working with them for a long time. Right now, I work as an EP with the same people that I met when I was a runner. It feels like you are working with a band of friends and having a good time while working. Another good lesson is if you have a bad feeling about something during the production, trust in your guts and do something about it, a back-up plan or an alternative location or an equipment on hold. Better to spend a few more money than to not shoot anything at all. If you have a bad feeling, it will mostly happen, this is called the producer’s instinct. I can’t tell you how many times this happened to me but thanks to some back-up plans I had, I could avoid disasters.

LBB> When it comes to broadening access to production and improving diversity and inclusion what are your team doing to address this?

Chad> We are very open to work with people from different nationalities and ethnicities. Same goes for lifestyles. We have many people working together, each having their own style and way of living. It is all these differences that makes a group strong. Also, we started to hire disabled people on some projects of ours. It is on a freelance basis but this allows access to the industry for some people. 

As a good African proverb says : If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. 

LBB> And why is it an important issue for the production community to address?

Chad> For one and simple reason that we are all human beings connected with invisible lines to each other. 

There are young people getting into production who maybe don’t see the line between professional production and the creator economy, and that may well also be the shape of things to come. What are your thoughts about that? Is there a tension between more formalised production and the ‘creator economy’ or do the two feed into each other?

The creation doesn’t have boundaries, so it doesn’t really matter where it comes from. As long as there is good content and it is raising the bar for the upcoming jobs, I have no problems at all with this.

LBB> If you compare your role to the role of the heads of TV/heads of production/ Exec Producers when you first joined the industry, what do you think are the most striking or interesting changes (and what surprising things have stayed the same?)

Chad> The major thing that changed is the production budgets, they shrunk so nowadays we need to find some new creative and magical ways to produce. Then of course smartphones entered into our lives and it was never the same again. I remember when I locked the office and left, nobody could reach me anymore via mails and of course it was impossible to reach the EPs once the office was closed. What stayed the same? Well, I guess this will be the will of the people in the industry for travelling and discovering new places to shoot. Everybody is still very excited when they will go to shoot in new territories that they have never been to shot before.

LBB> When it comes to educating producers how does your agency like to approach this? (I know we’re always hearing about how much easier it is to educate or train oneself on tech etc, but what areas do you think producers can benefit from more directed or structured training?)

Chad> In our company, we like to create our own producers because we have a distinct style of producing. We like hands-on production approach and all of the partners of the company are actively producing all the jobs we do. Therefore, we like when things are done our way. So, recently, we got a student from the university and we are training her as a junior producer, she is in the film school but she always says that she learns way more being on the projects with us than being at the school. Combining film school and active training at the companies is the best way to learn I think.

LBB> It seems that there’s an emphasis on speed and volume when it comes to content - but to where is the space for up and coming producers to learn about (and learn to appreciate) craft?

Chad> You can be speedy and still be crafted but then you need money. Or you can be super craft and cheap but then you need time and so on. The best way is to watch a lot of content and follow all the companies, agencies, production houses and magazines in the industry and have an eye for the craft and quality and to train the eye, you need art, culture and lots of reading and travelling.

LBB> On the other side of the equation, what’s the key to retaining expertise and helping people who have been working in production for decades to develop new skills?

Chad> I guess regular workshops and meetings and panels, talks during the award shows and events.

Keep people curious and excited about the years to come.

LBB> Clearly there is so much change, but what are the personality traits and skills that will always be in demand from producers?

Chad> Calmness, patience, problem solving skills, an instinct to sort things out, good relationship skills, multitasking, languages, a good knowledge of human psychology and a big smile with positive vibes.