Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Film Crew Jobs; An Analysis Of Duties

By Sally Delacruz


Production of films is an affair that makes use of very many members within the filming team. This means that many film crew jobs are grabbed in any movie producing company. The crew is always a very different group from the cast. The later is involved in the actual enactment of events in front of cameras, or contribute their voices in filming. They are also not synonymous to producers. The later are company shareholders or intellectual property.

Crews are made up several departments which perform varied jobs. The description of their jobs has been changing with passage of years. What was done by individuals belonging to certain departments ten years ago are not exactly the same things being done by holders of the same positions today.

In making motion images, three complementary phases are involved. These are the; before production, principal photo shooting and after production phases. Any position on the crew is linked to any of these three parts. Distinctions are also made between below the line crew; producers, directors and producers, and the above the line crew; the entire technical crew.

The director in a production is not always a member of any department in the production team. He/she oversees the flow and series of actions that make up the plot. He gives instructions and organizes actors. It is also his responsibility to choose a setting that is appropriate for every scene. He tells camera men where to put their cameras, and controls the amount of light needed.

Another important element in filming is production. Most people do not consider it a department on its own. They always consider it a series of responsibilities. This area is made up a producer, an executive producer, a manager of production, producing coordinators and their deputies, some assistant directors, accountants and location managers. All these people compose the front office.

The area of production is also composed of line producers and assistants in production. The responsibility of the line producer is liaison with budgetary officers and the studio producing their work. He is called a line producer because he lines up all required materials in producing a film. Production assistants, on their part, assist the producing team in carrying out all general responsibilities.

The crew is also made of accounting departments. Their main duties are; ensuring that all expenses are within the budget, and everyone gets his pay. Hollywood normally employs a centralized accounting department for their movies. Accounting assistants are employed to assist the senior accountants in managing the budget.

Another area in this team is referred to as locations. The leader of this group is a location manager. He/she has the duty of finding befitting settings for every scene. He/she then ensures that these settings are ready to accommodate actions. Junior staffs in this area are the location scout, assistant location manager and location deputy manager among many other members.

There is also somebody assigned continuity duties and supervising the script. He faithfully follows the pictures shot noting down any section that deviates from the intended. He ensures that there is continuity in the flow of the pictures as planned before the real production. Other team members such as the casting director and the director of photography are responsible for choosing actors and managing the lighting and camera departments respectively. There are so many departments in this industry.




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