Charlton Heston

 Who is a Hollywood producer?  What do they do?

from Hollywood: the oral history (2022) p. 209

I think producers can do

their job in three general

ways.  There is the producer

who is a logistician, who deals

with the logistics of film, and

whose expertise has to do with

scheduled and the mechanics of

making a picture.  This, never

doubt it, is vital!  Then there

are producers who are promoters.

Arthur Jacobs was one of those.

So was Sam Bronston.  There are

many such.  Sam Spiegel is such

a producer, really!

Then there are producers whose

primary instincts are for some

of the creative aspects of film-

making.  Perhaps script, perhaps

cutting.  I would say Hal Wallis

was an example of that, a man

who knows a great deal about

editing and who feels that his

prime creative contribution is 

in the editing stage.  There are

producers who, like David O.

Selznick, said the producer is the

conductor of the orchestra and the

director is merely the first 

violinist!