Reddit reviews The Pocket Lawyer for Filmmakers: A Legal Toolkit for Independent Producers

Contact an attorney sooner and find out what it will cost. Then build that cost into your commission. Paying for good legal advice is the cost of doing business. You can also pick up, as a good reference guide to help you describe your needs to the attorney, and understand what all the legal terms mean, The Pocket Lawyer for Filmmakers It’s a great accessibly written legal guide specifically for filmmakers of all types.

Producers tend to come from development. But the real difference between a producer and a non produce is that one produces, and the other doesn't.

I am lucky to have worked for the same producer my entire professional career, but he comes from a kibbutz and teaches old school producing. I did creative producing, in addition to financing and what not. Five years into the work and my MBA film production classes were simple.

If you can scrape up a bit of time, money, and support, then produce something watchable, you'll start to gather proof of ability. Then more people will start to trust you with their property (and their money).

Once you get good at this, you find a script or book, and option the property for no money in exchange for something (unless they are your friend). I'm assuming you aren't rich, otherwise you could just option a property from a literary agent somewhere. Anyway, you take whatever script and just fucking make it.

Once you get good at this, then you can start to work with studios regularly in distribution and financing arrangements. Once you get really good, then you'll get first look deals and beyond. This is where the big money is for producers (unless you own a distribution company).

I guess if you're rich, then you could go back to school. UCLA has extension certs in production, if that's what you're into (I guess I am assuming you live in LA, but it's reasonable). The classes are probably nifty, but that's not what you benefit from in the long run. The people you meet there are going to be you're biggest help.

It'll be terrible at first, but you'll get better. If you are in LA, there are always people looking to shoot their pilots and sketches. It doesn't matter where you get started so much as that you take the initiative. A producer is an entrepreneur, and so he or she should feel that there is a need for what their creating.

Some books:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Producers-Business-Handbook-Balanced/dp/0240814630

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0240813189/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1452666658&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX118_SY170_QL70&keywords=Lawyer+film

If you can afford a Macbook Pro and the Final Cut Pro Software this is a great book that'll get you through the basics easily. I switched from Avid to FCP using it and it was pretty painless. Stay away from FCP X though. It's gonna be a while before they get that one where it needs to be.

As far as the creative aspect of editing the only real way to learn any filmmaking craft is to do it. But there are some great books that did a better job than any of my professors did. This is the best book on editing I've come across. I just got it recently but it would have been really nice to have it back when I started. And this is my favorite directing book. It's written by a film professor but it does a beautiful job of breaking down the creative process. And The Film Director's Intuition is a great place to start with how to work with actors.

For lighting I'd recommend Matters of Light & Depth by Ross Lowell and Film Lighting by Kris Malkiewicz.

Also indispensable is The Pocket Lawyer For Filmmakers.

Those are all great books chock full of practical advice. And if you're interested in screenwriting Story by Robert McKee is pretty amazing. People shit all over that guy but nobody teaches story structure better than him.