Week 6 - Crew Roles

Hi,

This week in the lecture we learnt about various crew roles in the movie and whether they fall above or below the line.

Above the line crew roles are as follows:

• executive producer
• producer
• associate producer
• director
• writer
• production designer

Below the line crew roles are:

• camera operator
• camera assistant
• sound monitor
• sound mixer
• boom operator
• line producer
• script supervisor
• assistant director
• art director

The director of cinematography (aka cinematographer) falls under both of these categories.

For our film we're making this semester, Josh has recommended that we choose a producer, a director and a production designer just to make the pre-production and production run a lot smoother. He also recommended that the camera assistant also double as the sound monitor and keep a shot log.

I never really realised how many different roles there were in film making, and how much of a team effort it is. You only ever really hear about the actors and the directors, but each of the above crew roles are essential for the making of a movie. 

In the lecture we watched some of The Mechanic starring Jason Statham (Marry me please?). We didn't get to watch all of it but I did notice a little flickering of foil or something (I can't remember its actual name) at the top of the shot. Apparently throughout the movie this happens often, as well as the boom mike being visible. I'm definitely going to download rent it and try and pick up on these mistakes.

In the tutorial we learnt how to use the cameras that we'll be using for our films. We were given a filming activity to do, but we spent too much time trying to decide what to film that we didn't actually film anything. This has just confirmed with me that we need to make sure our shot list is really organised so we don't waste any time on the days of filming

The end.