hello, this is bbc news. the headlines. fir? iii‘fi'sfi the agenda. a big task ahead to find any agreement. that gets under way boris johnson reacts to a warning against going down this evening, hosted by emmanuel in history as "mr no—deal" macron. by saying it will be the eu's now it's time for a look donald tusk who will be known at the weather with chris fawkes. as "mr no—deal brexit" if he doesn't listen to uk demands. continuing with the theme of very president trump and other world leaders are arriving in the french hot weather through much of the resort of biarritz for the g7 summit weekend for most parts of the uk. of the heads of most today, no exception. most of us of the richest economies. seeing sunny skies that we have a strip of cloud out of the north and prince andrew has said that "at no stage during the limited west, bringing a few occasional showers into the far north and west time" he spent with disgraced financierjeffrey epstein did of scotland. for most of us, it is he "see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that dry and very warm. temperatures subsequently led to his pushing on into the low 30s in the very hottest parts. overnight arrest and conviction". tonight after such a warm day, brazil's president has bowed temperatures will be slow to fall to international pressure and ordered the armed forces away and indeed around ten or 11 to tackle a record number o'clock, we are looking at of wildfires raging temperatures still around 18 or 20 in the amazon forest. degrees so it will be a warm night police chiefs call an emergency for sleeping. not to humid for many meeting to discuss officer safety — of us. as we look at the weather in the wake of the killing of pc into sunday, it is a repeat although andrew harper last week.

tens of thousands of there could be a few patches of low british airways passengers cloud affecting one or two coastal could be affected as pilots areas but otherwise it is dry and are to strike next month, are to strike next month sunny and even sunnier! water. in a dispute over pay. temperatures could go to 27 degrees in edinburgh, highs of 32 towards now on bbc news, london and the south—east. we could talking movies explores the role even get a 33 on bank holiday monday of the producer in both big hollywood productions gci’oss even get a 33 on bank holiday monday 00:01:20,287 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 across some eastern parts. and smaller independent films. hello and welcome to this special edition of talking movies, devoted to the producer, one of the top jobs in the film industry. what does the public think the producer actually does? do you know what a producer does? not at all, not at all. do you have any idea what a producer does? not really. like, they help set up the film

and make sure the lighting is ok? all the production stuff, i guess? movie producer... do you know what a producer does? produces a movie, right? assembles the crew to produce a movie. he is in control of everything. he calls the shots. you have to produce and create everything, technically. if i'm right. i believe i'm right. i know they handle the financials like the director handles the execution. they make it all happen. they get the money and hire the people and make sure everything happens under budget and on time. maybe. i think some guys get producer credits as favours. that's how the industry works. i'm not sure what he does. evidently, there is confusion when it comes to the producer. but on the biggest night of the year for hollywood, the oscars, the producer is always

there and grabbing the limelight by picking up the best picture prize. the cult of the producer began with the decline of the studio system in hollywood. as the studios began to lose their power and divested themselves of their theatre chains et cetera, as more actors started to become free agents and directors became free agents, producers took on more important because a producer now had to put the movie together. a producer could not rely on what the studio determined, they had to package it themselves. wwo's that? that's rhett butler. there are many different ways to evaluate the success of a producer. the first is, obviously, did the movie make money? the second is was the movie any good? and there are plenty of producers who keep working because even though their movies have not made money yet, they make good movies. another metric is did the producer manage to attract serious talent

in front of and behind the camera? did the producer actually run a good set? did people on the set have a good experience? so much that they would work with the producer again? there are many different ways tojudge producers. as far as hollywood is concerned, it usually comes down to did the movie make money. one of the most dynamic producers in hollywood today is will packer who has established himself as one of the most successful african—american producers in the world. tristan daly went to meet him. how did you get started in the movie business? i met a buddy in college and i actually helped him to make a small movie on our campus. that movie was called chocolate city. no—one in hollywood cared about the movie, it was a terrible little movie shot on super 16 millimetre film, it was grainy

with production value that was not great. but those who cared about it were the students at a university. we were actually able to sell tickets to our little movie starring us about college life as we knew it and that was how my film career got started. will packer and his then partner, rob hardy, made a few more independent films together before landing their first certified hit. ultimately, we did make a film which caught the attention of hollywood in a real way and that movie was called stomp the yard. we sold it as a dance movie, but at its core it was about kids at a historically black college pledging for sororities and fraternities and then we put the step in and we wrapped it up in a bow of a dance movie. that is what you need to do in hollywood. you need to figure out an angle they can use to market a film. that was successful for us. that movie opened number one. finding that angle has been the speciality of packer. since stomp the yard, he has achieved numerous openings, using his knack for marketing

and enlisting the help of his collaborators and film stars. some may argue the placement in his movies helped boost the careers of now well—known faces like idris elba, kevin hart and tiffany haddish in the 2017 hit girls trip. historically, this symbiotic relationship between actor and producer has been quite common in the film industry. so hollywood is changing and stars are not as much of a safe bet to fill seats at the theatre. do you feel this is happening? how do you respond to this phenomenon? i have never been somebody who has been beholden purely to the hollywood star system. i have given some starring leading roles to actors and actresses who have not gotten them before but who deserve them, who i knew there was an audience who wanted to see them and i knew they had the skill set to do it. but other people were not giving them that opportunity and that meant it was a chance for me to do it. so the star system does not affect me in the same way. i have always been somebody

who makes concept—driven content. do you see it as a positive development? it is part of what i call the great democratisation of media. i think it is a good thing because it means that consumers have the power in a way that they never had before. it means that filmmakers like myself need to adjust and recognise that and make our content and tell our narratives accordingly. critics do not always appreciate your films and movie—goers use sites like rotten tomatoes to decide what to see at the theatre. does that affect your box office numbers? definitely. every filmmaker today is affected by the critical aggregators like rotten tomatoes, because people do look. does it have a strong effect on the box office of my films and those of people like me? probably not. it is usually the people on the fence that make the decision based on well, let me see what the rotten tomatoes score is first. i try to make films that have an urgency to them.

i want to see it, i want to see it opening, when does it come out?! put the date down, i am going to see that movie! girls trip was a comedy, a high rotten tomatoes score, certified fresh, that was great. did that help the box office? it did not hurt it but the audience who wanted to see it, they were going. they did not need rotten tomatoes to validate them wanting to see what they saw on that screen. packer is confident that the largely white and male critics whose reviews populate these aggregator sites do not represent his core audience. although the film industry on the surface seems to be championing underrepresented artists, many filmmakers still voice frustration about an industry that does not make room for new stories and perspectives. packer has been making profitable films that feature black people prominently in times when the industry was less inclusive. there is a dearth of actors who look like me and what that means is that these are stories and perspectives that are not being told. i think that hollywood traditionally has not valued having that voice in the room.

now if you are not telling a story that feels like the world, that starts to feel dated. audiences want stuff that feels current and very much like the global society we are all connected in which we live. for 30 years, rebecca o'brien has worked with filmmaker ken loach as a producer to make socially conscious thought—provoking movies which, together with writer paul laverty, have brought them the palme d'or, the top prize at the cannes film festival, twice. what is it like to work as an independent producer? well, emma jones went to meet rebecca o'brien. hello. come on in. this is sixteen films. this is the office where everything happens. soho, london, is not the obvious place for revolution. but this is where rebecca o'brien

and her director have been fighting what they believe is a good fight for three decades. ken loach was already celebrated when they met. i was a huge fan. i saw cathy come home go out on the telly when it went out. i saw, in the mid—60s, i went to see kes when i was about 13. people sometimes ask me if i produced kes and i sort of give them short shrift. london—born rebecca o'brien always had a desire for the different, even as she worked her way up the film industry. she was location manager on 1985's ground—breaking same—sex love story my beautiful laundrette. don't get too involved with that crook. we have the men who did the shooting. ourjob is done. a shared interest in ireland eventually led her to produce loach‘s 1990 film hidden agenda and they have been together ever since. a dozen of their films have competed at cannes, including two palme d'or winners — the wind that shakes the barley and 2016's i, daniel blake.

most recently they made sorry we missed you, a classic ken loach tale about the injustice of insecure zero hours contracts in britain. i am there from the inception, right through, all the way to the archive. i'm looking after the film and i am the first second opinion all the way through at each stage of production. and it is a family, really. together, loach, o'brien and their long—term writer paul laverty have told stories that few filmmakers in britain would dream of, and shooting in corners of the country that are often overlooked. i, daniel blake was a film of blazing fury at britain's benefit system and was shot in newcastle as was much of sorry we missed you, in many ways, its companion piece. the political side of the films is very important to me. i, daniel blake, the one thing we asked for and we got,

was we asked for it to be made available for community screenings. so that people could get in touch with the distributor, e1, and say we want to do a little screening as a fundraiser for our localfood bank or in the church hall. there were probably about 700 of those screenings. getting a completely different audience to go and see the film that way was very special and it meant that the film was owned by its audience and i think to me that is really important. why did you choose independent film? have you never been tempted to take the studio dollar? funnily enough, i did do that. when ken was making carla's song, i did another film for working title, the first mr bean film. that is probably as close as you can get to a studio film.

and myjob was to keep it the british film it was. and basically go and work with that team in la. which was bonkers. but that was my studio experience. i have been there, done that. bought the t—shirt and very happy to be back here making independent films. the nature of working independently in film is too often the nature of working independently in film is to often walk a hard path alone. yet rebecca o'brien is lucky — she is part of running a successful family business. while women may be encountering resistance in the film industry when it comes to directing, opportunities are opening up for producing. kitty cox has been speaking to two independent producers who are very excited by changes taking place in the film industry pertaining to women. producer shruti ganguly is celebrating the premiere of her latest film already gone, executive—produced by actor keanu reeves.

just seven years out of film school, she has worked with a—list actors, won the nora ephron award at tribeca and launched her production company honto88, bringing fresh perspectives to storytelling. why did you decide to become a producer? was it something you always wanted to do or did you kind of fall into it? i'm a producer and a director and that's not a very typical combination where, for years, people have thought you could either be a producer or director. you can't be both. and strangely, i found more of that resistance being a woman. in fact, someone even told me, you can't produce and direct or, you know what, just go marry your boyfriend and then you can do whatever you want. and i rememberjust kind of facing that type of resistance and there are stories that i really want to make, that i want to write and direct and then, at the same time, there are stories that my friends really want to make and i know how to get them made

because i also do have a producer brain, i'm not scared by the numbers, the dealmaking, looking at the big picture of how to make a project happen and bring it from idea or script to screen. ganguly is carving her own unique path but she has a theory on why some women gravitate to producing instead of otherfilmmaking rules. instead of otherfilmmaking roles. i think that women have a great knack for multitasking. it's like grace under pressure, grace under fire and i think that is something that women are very good at managing and balancing. it's when things are going a little awry, how can you really guide that process and lead with kindness and in a certain way, that just ultimately gets the movie made and done and managing those situations. creating a supportive environment for women in film and presenting diverse stories on screen is something that producer christine vachon has championed during her 30 years in the industry. when she started as a production

assistant in new york in the ‘80s, she had little support or mentorship from women but now through her from women but now, through her production company killer films, she regularly works with female directors and has backed critically acclaimed films like boys don't cry and still alice. way before it became the buzz word. killer was working with more female directors than other companies, for example. the other thing i'm very proud of as well is we talk a lot about female directors because it's important. but it's also important that women are shooting films, that women are designing films, that women are producing films. vachon thinks a lack of support for mothers, particularly in the role of director, which requires gruelling hours, steers more women into producing but she's careful not to pigeonhole producing as female. i think producing maybe allows women a little more flexibility because you can juggle a couple of different projects so that

you can spend some of the time you want with your family and still get yourjob done. i mean, i know there is also things around women and producing, the ability to multitask, the ability to nurture, all those things, but i don't love to lean into things that we say are typically female as, you know, as why we are good at one thing or another, you know what i mean? because it's just too broad a spectrum. what does someone, particularly a woman, need to do in order to be successful in producing? i think really what's important as a producer is you have to have a certain fearlessness. there is a lot of risk involved and you kind of, you have to have a bit of an iron stomach about it and of course, you have to have a really good eye and good taste and the ability to really say no and walk away from something

if it's not good enough. the movie industry is changing rapidly these days, providing challenging times for young producers who want to make sure that their films reach audiences. despite the obstacles, they are forging ahead, as noah cattell reports. producing is the art of getting things done and these determined young producers are finding their way in an increasingly volatile industry. roan bibby is a young producer with a single feature under his belt, the browsing effect. the film, a comedy drama about dating in the era of tinder, did not receive a theatrical release, but it's now streaming on amazon prime, which could mean a larger audience. i watched him work on the set of his latest film, the surrogate, and saw a producer who places a high value on setting the tone for the day, making sure everyone is relaxed and ready to work. all right, that's a cut. it's all morale, especially

on lower—budget projects. again, no—one is doing this for high day rates or for their immediate career, so i think being gracious and calm and making a fun environment for the crew is pretty paramount to executing the day and getting good stuff. i think i kind of grew up with an innate sense of why leadership is important and some basic skills but, yeah, after that, just practice, i think, is a necessity because i think if you're in that role, you need to be a leader and need to mobilise people and motivate them and keep morale up. he studied film production in college but he says he learned how to produce by doing, and he's more than comfortable operating in the shadows. in fact, he says that's how it should be done. part of producing is, sometimes it does help to kind of keep the curtain up a little bit and to keep an air of mystery. you don't necessarily want to show all your cards all the time.

i don't know if there's anything people need to know. i also don't want to make my competition any harder. producing a film at any level is hard work but young independent producers face some unique challenges. the digital revolution has changed producing for good. digital video has made some aspects of film production simpler and less expensive, but it's also lead to an exponential but it's also led to an exponential increase in the number of films made, which makes it harder for single project to stand out. thank you so much for being here. my name is marttise hill, i am one of the producers and directors. this is the biggest challenge faced byjulius pryor and marttise hill, a young new york—based producing team with two films under their belt, cronies and how to tell you're a d—bag, which have both found success on the circuit. success on the festival circuit. i attended a table read on their next feature where they talked about the challenges they faced that filmmakers

of previous generations may not have encountered. the industry has changed so much over the last decade or so, since you guys have been making movies. what issues do you think you face that are relatively new to producers? something that we deal with as the new generation of filmmakers is figuring out how our projects can cut through the noise. because everybody has got a camera, everybody has got an iphone and is watching youtube and figuring out how can i make my short film look amazing with my iphone and $100? and figuring out how can we take the projects that we are self—generating and collaborating on and making them original and unique that can make their way through the gamut of other films and stories and people trying to make films today. even though these producers have their eyes on the challenges ahead, one thing that keeps them motivated is the satisfaction that comes from working with fresh voices. any collaborative endeavour,

it's a marriage of sorts, it's a journey and as great as any script can be, you want to make sure the people you are going to work with are great as well. so i think the people certainly are supplementing access to a project. we may be interested in a filmmaker off ofjust interactions we've had with them, not knowing full well what they've written or what they're working on, but that'll be window. hey, what are you working on and how can we maybe enhance it? while the last decade has seen a radical transformation in the landscape of film production, no—one knows if the biggest changes are already behind us, or if in this digital age, the medium will continue to rapidly develop. what's clear is whatever problems arise, filmmakers will continue to rely on their producers to turn those challenges into opportunities. well, that brings our special producers edition of talking movies to a close. hope you've enjoyed the show.

please remember you can always reach us online at bbc.com/talkingmovies and you can find us on facebook. from me, tom brook, and the rest of the talking movies production crew here in new york, it's goodbye as we leave you some images of producers from the show. music.

hottest weather we have seen for the whole of the month of august will stay for the bank holiday weekend. today plenty of sunshine with temperatures soaring. hitting the 30 degrees mark at london heathrow. you can see the extent of the sunshine. it has been brightening up in antrim and county down in northern ireland. but this has been bringing doubt whether at times with rain into westernmost counties of northern ireland and doubt whether extending into the scottish highlands and islands. here, things look different. grey complexion on the weather. looking at the evening and

overnight, the weather front still thick enough to bring showers across parts of northern and western scotla nd parts of northern and western scotland and the islands could see the odd spit across the western counties of northern ireland. these are the temperatures at 11pm... probably cloud to start the day across western areas of the uk. low cloud across the coastline in south—west england and wales. otherwise, mostly dry with sunshine and in the sunshine, it will be hotter again. temperatures up to 27 in edinburgh. up to 32 degrees around london and south—east england. some very hot weather on the way. on bank holiday monday, bank holiday in northern ireland, england and wales, largely dry with warm sunshine. but there is a threat of showers across the south—west

quarter and in scotland, where it is not a bank holiday, the weather front making inroads to threaten rain across the western isles but staying dry in eastern areas. the hottest temperatures on bank holiday monday, 32 in eastern england. changes next week. in the middle pa rt changes next week. in the middle part of the week, the atlantic will flex its muscles and we will see rain or showers from these weather systems and they will break a drop in temperature. 17 degrees in belfast on wednesday. and in southern england, the best of the temperatures. goodbye.

this is bbc news, i'm lewis vaughan jones. the headlines at 3pm. the prime minister hits back at a warning from donald tusk ahead of the g7 summit that he risks forever being known as "mr no—deal" over brexit i still hope that prime minster johnson would not like to go down in history as mr no—deal.

borisjohnson said in reply it would be the eu's donald tusk who will be known as "mr no—deal brexit" if he doesn't listen to uk demands. president trump and other world leaders have also arrived for the summit, which looks set to focus on trade. prince andrew has said he did not "see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction" of disgraced financierjeffrey