Lessons

Lesson Info

Crew Roles

I want to talk about the crew a little bit, and I want to talk about the continent. The concept of order and chaos. Three idea is that film sets are chaotic, but they are extraordinarily orderly if they're done well. So it looks crazy. And a lot of times it only takes one person toe upset that balance. So but, honestly, that's pretty much every film set your Aviron. There's one person lighting fires and there's another person putting them out right, And that clearly happens all the time because you it's a big rolling machine off stuff that has to happen in order to make your day. To get everything you need to get on that day. It happens to be crazy. Now, most of the projects I have worked on up to the point where I'm going to show you something. Ah, where maybe the most people I've ever had on a set was 5 10 at the most for in advertising photography project. Then I was on one with that many people now is a commercial, and it waas unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it in my li...

fe, and that was that day I was sitting behind the monitor with the steak on the screen, and it was absolutely crazy. And it was the thing that it was completely intimidating and really nuts. But it was amazing to see how it worked. It was a May. I learned so much just by watching this thing happen. Not even that I was part of it, right, and I was a big part of it. But I've never seen anything like it, you know, grip trucks, rolling up, lighting trucks, rolling up cables everywhere people everywhere, extras. It was really crazy and intimidating, but it did make me realize that there is an order to the chaos and that no matter what size your set is, it's gonna feel chaotic. And it's just about learning to navigate and control the things you can control and letting go of the things that happened. You have nothing to do with because there are times when you have to delegate and let people do their job. And I think that's part of what this is is that there was whatever many people on that list 60 70 whatever that is. But I only had one job, so I need to focus on what I had to do. And every one of those people, if they did their job didn't worked. And I think that's the lesson in it, right? Is that you want to make sense of the chaos, and the way to do that is to focus on what you're doing. Okay, this is these are all the different people that you see on on a bigger film set. Now, when you're working in a smaller group, there's maybe your producer, your director, your DP and maybe assistant camera and a p a. Right. So I know obviously, there's in the bigger situations. You're going to get an information tech or a sound man. Always grip God for an electric. Okay, So as a photographer you've been let's say you've been a first assistant on a big job. How many of those jobs you think you've done? Quite a few, right? Yeah, You You've been the grip. You've been the gaffer. You've been the assistant camera. You've You know, you've done a lot of these jobs. You've been the p A. You've done a 1,000, things on on a photo set. So this is another one of those sort of, um, how many different that ways you want to go, right? If you've become a really good gaffer and you really like lighting your sets, well, it's not a bad path to take right, so you're at the top of your kind of food. Chain is an executive producer now. The executive producer is usually somebody that brings something to the project, whether it be money or something akin to money when it comes to production. Like, you know, actors sets whatever it might be. But the executive producers, a lot of times also responsible for a lot of the creation of the content in terms of the ideas. But that role can take on different flavors, depending on where you are like an editorial, that could mean something different than it doesn't film. But you've got to realize that those two words put together executive producer usually means somebody who is in charge of something so and in film. A lot of times executive producer is not somebody who is actively involved on set, but if they are an active VP or somebody who is acting as a producer as well as an executive producer, then you would find that person on set. That was my role in the In the Last project and this new project that I'm on, both doing both roles. Then, of course, your producer is This is the person who a lot of times when you see the first producer that comes up on a credit, that's usually the person who is the creative producer, the person who has been both involved in the organization, off a film or a project also involved in the production of the film in the project. So the producer and there are different levels of producers, associate producers, assistant producers. There's all different people, depending on how big the project gets, and that might be very specific. So, like we had an associate producer on a job where his only role was, uh, locations, Right. So ah, lot of times you'll come into a project doing a job like that. You get a production credit, and then maybe in the next time you get a different credit because you do a different job. But if you are the person who is really good accountant and really good at the numbers and all of that, then maybe you're more of a line producer and doing that kind of work. So it all depends on your skill set and how you slot into a production role. The director is pretty self explanatory. We've talked about what a director does, depending on the type of a project, the level in the amount of preproduction that's happening. Sometimes the directors, also the writer of a project, doesn't necessarily have to be. I've been on projects where I am being told what my creative is, and I have to execute it and then have been I've been on projects where I am executing the creative because it's my idea. So there are different ways to be a director in many different roles. But the idea is that there it is a creative role regardless of what you know that IHS. But then, in terms of an assistant director, there could be many of those as well. But your first assistant director is the person who is running your set there. The person who's setting your schedule, and there the person who's keeping you honest in terms off, you're gonna make your day, you're not gonna make your day and that her job or his job is to make sure you make your day no matter what, and that person will tell you things you don't want to hear. If you're the director, they will yell at you if you are anybody below and you will be kept on task by the assistant director. So, ah, lot of times when you hear lots of yelling and shouting on a set, it's because that person has said something. So that is the boss on on the set, you're director of photography or a cinematographer. A lot of times those terms are used interchangeably. But then, of course, there are people who are behind cameras who are not necessarily the director of photography. So you could be a camera up on set, but you're taking direction from the director of photography. So there the director will instructed the DP as to what he wants, and then that person will execute that through the camera team, depending on how many cameras there are and all of that. But on a one camera shoot, there's usually the DP, maybe an op. Maybe the DP is opting the camera. It all depends on the size of the project, and then the first a c Who's pulling focus? A second A. C and so on. We've already covered a sees. Okay, then there are the digital information tech. I'm jumping around a little because I want to give them in order. Ah, that's the person who is like your, um, you're Did you tech on a photo set? Except they're dealing with your file management. You know, with Digital, we're not shooting film anymore. At least most filmmakers are not shooting film anymore, So the D. I t. Is definitely collecting the information and monitoring it and labeling it and making sure it's all in order to deliver to the editor so that the editor can produce dailies and then give them over over to back in some kind of form. Your audio collection is we call a sound e on set. There's your grip now. There's also like key grip Dolly. Grip all these the best boy grip all these different roles that people play. It all depends on what how big the project is. Clearly if you have all those people, but also basically, that's the person who's setting up your flags setting up your stands making sure everything is rigged properly. That is your grip and that, like in a photo world, would be your first assistant. But here is a separate job. Same thing with your gaffer. Yeah, we called the grip and gaffers. We call that the G, any department, the grips and the electric. So on set the gaffer, the head gaffer is the person who is in charge of all the electrics on set, so lighting could be very dangerous. And the tradition and film making is that nobody touch touches anything that's plugged into something without the approval of the gaffer, and that is for safety. But it's also because on some level, the gaffer is also an artist, and he's crafting the light according to the way the director and the director of photography want that light. So nobody's supposed to move anything or touch anything without that person's approval. And I would say that no matter how big or small your set ISS these protocols and we're going talk a little bit about protocols later. But these protocols are things that you should adhere to and learn about, no matter how small your set is. So when I first started doing this work. DP and friend who you'll see a picture of later. Um, he probably intimidated me more than anybody I ever experienced learning in this process because and he was my friend. So he did it on purpose. He made me feel uncomfortable because he wanted to point out what I did not know so that I would learn and learn it the right way. And he's done similar kind of routines on a number of the guys on my crew photo crew because it was the baptism by fire that he got, which is photo assistant just walks over, starts moving a light because he's not used to being on a film set and gets his head handed to him by the gaffer. And, you know, my friend just stood back and let it happen instead of warning him because that's the only way you learn. Learn by doing it wrong so that somebody will help you and do it right. And honestly, that's why it's important, cause it wasn't a union job. It wasn't a big job. It wasn't even a paid job. It was a speck commercial. We were shooting for our reels We were doing it on spec, and we treated it just like it was a union set and people did things wrong. They got yelled at because it was it was training ground. And so much of what we've done in the early parts of my career, with my photo crew and transitioning into video was operating like it really mattered, even though we were just doing the work for ourselves. And I would encourage any of you who are doing that right now in that process, too. Understand the protocols and execute them on your sets because then when you move up the ladder, you already know the language. You already know the protocols, you're not going to step out of line. And you can impress people that way, especially if they know you haven't done that much. So it's really, really good, too. Educate yourself as to what that is, and a lot of times that is going in, becoming a P A and standing there and watching what they do. Um, you have your pH, which I just mentioned, and those could be. Any job like I said earlier, is that you go with a particular department a lot of times when you're a film student, you will go and you will do a different department every time you go on a different set, so you do the things you really are interested in. But then you learn the jobs of the other people that maybe you don't know, because if you are, you do become a first a. D. You need to understand everyone's job and put people in the places they need to bay. So it's really, really good t p a. And be part of the crew and do it in different capacities. Depending on where you want to be, your editor is pretty self explanatory. There may be assistant editors. It depends on the size of the project. The editor will work directly with the director, the director of photography, the colorist and all of the all of the different elements that are coming in. And then we also have some things on here that are not mentioned like a script supervisor, which is a really big role, because that basically is about ensuring continuity. When you're in the editing process and even if you are on a smaller project, it would be good if somebody was interested in being a script e to get them to learn it, these books about it, this videos about it and then bring that person on and then teach them the ropes because that's another job that is invaluable on a film set. And if you're interested in doing it, it's good to start small and build yourself up to it. That's it. That's it's an absolute great way to do it. Um, and then the ah, I had one more that wasn't on this list, and I just forgot it. You hate when that happens anyway. Um, like I said, these are all the different jobs on a crew is obviously a little bit more, but it's important to understand that this is a big, collaborative process. There's a lot of things you can do to learn, and there's a lot of things that will spark interest that you may not, even though you had if you get there and you decide, I want to try this, but follow protocols, keep things organized and orderly, and you will find where you fit for sure.