Film crew


A film crew is a group of people, hired by a production company, for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture. The crew is distinguished from the cast as the cast are understood to be the actors who appear in front of the camera or provide voices for characters in the film. The crew is also separate from the producers as the producers are the ones who own a portion of either the film company or the film's intellectual property rights. A film crew is divided into different departments, each of which specializes in a specific aspect of the production. Film crew positions have evolved over the years, spurred by technological change, but many traditional jobs date from the early 20th century and are common across jurisdictions and film-making cultures.
Motion picture projects have three discrete stages: development, production and distribution. Within the production stage there are also three clearly defined sequential phases — pre-production, principal photography and post-production — and many film crew positions are associated with only one or two of the phases. Distinctions are also made between above-the-line personnel who begin their involvement during the project's development stage, and the below-the-line "technical" crew involved only with the production stage.

Director

A film director is a person who directs the making of a film. The director most often has the highest authority on a film set. Generally, a film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design, and the creative aspects of film-making. Under European Union law, the director is viewed as the author of the film.
The film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized, or noticed. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions and stay within the boundaries of the film's budget. There are many pathways to becoming a film director. Some film directors started as screenwriters, cinematographers, film editors or actors. Other film directors have attended a film school. Directors use different approaches. Some outline a general plotline and let the actors improvise dialogue, while others control every aspect, and demand that the actors and crew follow instructions precisely. Some directors also write their own screenplays or collaborate on screenplays with long-standing writing partners. Some directors edit or appear in their films, or compose the music score for their films.

Production

Production is generally not considered a department as such, but rather as a series of functional groups. These include the film's producers and executive producers and production office staff such as the production manager, the production coordinator, and their assistants; the various assistant directors; the accounting staff and sometimes the locations manager and their assistants.
Producer
Executive producer

Production office

Line producer
Production assistant

Production managements

Production manager
Assistant production manager
Unit manager
Production coordinator
; First assistant director
; Second assistant director
; Other assistant directors

Accounting

;Production accountant

Locations

; Location manager
; Assistant location manager
; Location scout
; Location assistant
; Location production assistant

Additional production credits

Since the turn of the 21st century, several additional professionals are now routinely listed in the production credits on most major motion pictures.
;Unit publicist
;Legal counsel
; System administrator

Continuity

; Script supervisor

Casting

; Casting director
; Cast PA

Camera and lighting

; Director of photography

Camera

; Camera operator
; First assistant camera
; Second assistant camera
; Film loader
; Camera production assistant
; Digital imaging technician
; Steadicam operator
; Motion control technician/Operator

Lighting

; Gaffer
; Best boy
; Lighting technician / Electrics

Grip

are trained lighting and rigging technicians. Their main responsibility is to work closely with the electrical department to put in the non-electrical components of lighting set-ups required for a shot, such as flags, overheads, and bounces. On the sound stage, they move and adjust major set pieces when something needs to be moved to get a camera into position. In the US and Canada they may belong to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.
; Key grip
; Best boy/Best Babe
; Dolly grip
; Grips

Production sound

; Production sound mixer
; Boom operator
; Second assistant sound

Art department

The art department in a major feature film can often number hundreds of people. Usually it is considered to include several sub-departments: the art department proper, with its art director, set designers and draftsmen; set decoration, under the set decorator; props, under the props master/mistress; construction, headed by the construction coordinator; scenic, headed by the key scenic artist; and special effects.
; Production designer

Art (sets and graphic art)

Within the overall art department is a sub-department, also called the art department—which can be confusing. This consists of the people who design the sets and create the graphic art.
; Art director
; Standby art director
; Assistant art director
; Set designer
; Illustrator
; Graphic artist

Sets

; Set decorator
; Buyer
; Leadman
; Set dresser
; Greensman

Construction

; Construction coordinator
; Head carpenter
; Propmaker

Scenic

; Key scenic
; Head of Plaster

Property

; Propmaster
; Weapons master

Costume department

; Costume designer
; Costume supervisor
; Key costumer
; Costume standby
; Breakdown artist
; Costume buyer
; Cutter

Hair and make-up

Some actors or actresses have personal makeup artists or hair stylists.
; Key make-up artist
; Special make-up effects Artist
; Make-up supervisor
; Make-up artist
; Key hair
; Hair stylist

Special effects

This department oversees the mechanical effects—also called practical or physical effects—that create optical illusions during live-action shooting. It is not to be confused with the Visual effects department, which adds photographic effects during filming to be altered later during video editing in the post-production process.
; Special effects supervisor
; Special effects assistant

Stunts

; Stunt coordinator

Post-production

; Film editor
; Post-production supervisor

Editorial

; Negative cutter
; Colorist
; Telecine colorist

Visual effects

commonly refers to post-production alterations of the film's images. The on set VFX crew works to prepare shots and plates for future visual effects. This may include adding tracking markers, taking and asking for reference plates and helping the Director understand the limitations and ease of certain shots that will effect the future post production. A VFX crew can also work alongside the Special effects department for any on-set optical effects that need physical representation during filming
; Visual effects producer
; Visual effects creative director
; Visual effects supervisor
; Visual effects editor
; Compositor
; Rotoscope artists/ paint artists
; Matte painter

Sound and music

; Sound designer
; Dialogue editor
; Sound editor
; Re-recording mixer
; Music supervisor
; Composer
; Foley artist
; Conductor/ orchestrator
; Score recorder/ mixer
; Music preparation
; Music editor
;

Previs

is the visual planning and design of feature films. They are brought in at an early stage to visualize in complex 3d animatics how scenes in the film might look like. They work with the Director, producers, VFX supervisor and production designer on conceptualising ideas. Once in a fully designed sequence, these animatics are used by stunts, filming units and production to plan and shoot the scenes - helping with planning, resourcing and costing these shots.

Animation

film crews have many of the same roles and departments as live-action films, but nearly all on-set departments were traditionally replaced with a single animation department made up of various types of animators. In traditional animation, the nature of the medium meant that everything was literally flattened into the drawn lines and solid colors that became the characters, making nearly all live-action positions irrelevant. Because animation has traditionally been so labor-intensive and thus expensive, animation films normally have a separate story department in which storyboard artists painstakingly develop scenes to make sure they make sense before they are actually animated.
However, since the turn of the 21st century, modern 3D computer graphics and computer animation have made possible a level of rich detail never seen before. Many animated films now have specialized artists and animators who act as the virtual equivalent of lighting technicians, grips, costume designers, props masters, set decorators, set dressers, and cinematographers. They make artistic decisions strongly similar to those of their live-action counterparts, but implement them in a virtual space that exists only in software rather than on a physical set. There have been major breakthroughs in the simulation of hair since 2005, meaning that hairstylists have been called in since then to consult on a few animation projects.