The executive producer credit covers a wider range of work than any other title on a call sheet. On one indie it belongs to the person who wrote a check for 40% of the budget and never visited set. On a network drama it belongs to the showrunner who decides what every episode is about. Knowing which kind of EP you're working with changes who you call, what they approve, and what they expect to see in a cost report.
The feature film version
The Producers Guild's code of credits for features is specific about what should earn the credit. It applies to someone who made essential contributions in the early phases (ideation, development, and pre-production), including acting as an advocate or champion for the project and lending expertise, influence, and resources. The two concrete examples it gives are securing financing, where "the financing secured is an essential portion (no less than 25%)", and significant development or acquisition of the literary property.
The same guidelines exclude late-phase participants whose only function is financing without managerial or creative duties: financiers who come in after the project already has momentum, vendors, sales agents, and studio or network executives. Credits are contract terms, though, so the PGA guideline describes good practice and doesn't bind anyone.
Common executive producers on an independent feature:
- The equity investor or fund that put in a major share of the budget
- The manager or company that brought a lead actor or the underlying book
- A producer who developed the script for years before handing it to the producers who made it
- The lead actor, when their involvement got the film financed
What a working EP does on a feature
An engaged executive producer on an indie usually does three things. They help close money and talent in development, sometimes introducing the producers to a sales agent or a second equity source. They approve the big decisions: the director, the lead cast, the final budget, and any change to the locked budget above an agreed threshold. And they review the numbers during production.
That last part lands on the production office. If an EP's company is an equity investor, the investment agreement often gives them a weekly cost report, approval over use of contingency, and notice of any overage above a set amount. A line producer who knows those terms from day one will write variance notes that answer the EP's questions before they get asked. For example: "Locations projects $18,000 over because the warehouse owner raised the fee from $4,500 to $6,000 a day for 12 days; $6,000 minus $4,500 is $1,500 a day, times 12 days is $18,000. Offset by cutting one second unit day."
The television version
In scripted TV the executive producer title means something different. It's the top of the producer ladder. The PGA's scripted episodic code describes the executive producer as someone "whose only reporting responsibility is to the studio and/or companies financing and distributing the television series," and describes a showrunner with "overall creative authority and management responsibility for the entire scripted series." The showrunner holds an executive producer credit, and so do other people: often the series creator and the heads of the production companies involved.
Below them, the PGA code lays out a chain: the co-executive producer reports to the executive producer, the supervising producer to the co-EP or EP, then producer, then co-producer. The line producer on a series reports directly to the executive producer and owns the budget and logistics. Many of those credits go to writers on the staff, with the title reflecting seniority in the room more than a set of production duties. A coordinator on a series will send call sheets and script revisions to a list of EPs that may run to eight or ten names, and only one or two of them will be making daily decisions.
Working with EPs from the production office
For production coordinators, UPMs, and accountants, the practical questions are:
- Which EPs get the call sheet, production report, and cost report, and in what format.
- Which EPs have approval rights, and over what (cast, budget changes, locations, the cut).
- Who speaks for the EPs day to day. It's often a producer or a production executive at their company.
Getting the distribution list wrong in either direction causes trouble. Sending an equity EP the daily hot costs can start a conversation the line producer wasn't ready for. Leaving a studio EP off the production report is worse.
How people get the credit
There's no roster or qualification. People earn the EP credit by bringing something the project can't be made without: money, rights, access to talent, or years of development work. Producers who have made several films also often move to EP roles on projects they supervise through their company while a newer producer runs the production.
The pay varies as widely as the job. Some executive producers take a fee from the budget, some take none and rely on their investment return or backend, and in television EPs are paid under their writing, directing, or producing deals.
Related pages
The producer page covers the person running a feature. Co-producer and associate producer explain the credits below it, and the showrunner page covers the television EP who runs a series.