Producing.

I was somewhere between the fruit snack and pharmacy aisles of a San Fernando Valley Costco when I received a memorable bit of wisdom. We were shooting on location, it was around midnight, and I was arranging a spot on the cement floor to call my office for the night — tucked out of the way but close enough to keep an eye on the scene we were shooting.

With a long night of work ahead of us, the actors were acting, gaffers gaffing, director directing. I felt doubt sink in. Was I a producer producing? What does that even mean?

There is no one description for what producers do. It’s a little of everything and at that moment I wondered if it amounted to a whole lot of nothing.

That’s when Tracy rambled up the aisle, smiling as he passed through bulk bags of chewy/crunchy/spicy/sweet. He stopped in front of me and said, “Khristina! I’m so glad you’re here. Everything is just so much better when you are around.”

In the end, that’s the kind of producer I strive to be. I do what needs to be done for creativity to win. That could mean encouraging one more great draft out of a writer, or getting the timing just right with an editor. Maybe it means sourcing a great new collaborator, or making amends to someone who has been inconvenienced by the production. On that particular evening, it simply meant being there. Checking in, connecting, observing. Making the cast and crew feel supported and seen, so they could bring their best to the production.