Assistant Director: contrary to the title, this position does not entail offering artistic tips to the director, or serving as a director in training. The assistant director’s job is to make sure everything runs like clockwork (hopefully). He keeps track of all of the day to day problems so that the director can focus on the artistic aspects of the film. This includes but is not limited to, giving all units (i.e. makeup and wardrobe) adequate heads up so they can be alert when needed, notifying stars when they’re needed, making sure lunch is called at the right time, and commanding large groups of extras during crowd scenes so that the director can focus on the leads. Assisting the A.D. is the 2nd A.D. who basically handles all the mechanical tasks, like writing daily reports or running to get script supervisor notes, ect. for the assistant director.

Best Boy: one of this interesting credits that no one can ever quite discern the true purpose of, the best boy is actually the lead assistant electrician who answers directly to the Gaffer.

Cameraman (a.k.a Director of photography, Cinematographer): don’t be fooled by the name, the cameraman is not merely a person with a camera under direction of the director. Though he takes his artistic cues from the director, is extremely important and influential because he or she is the one who listens to the director’s view of the scene as it appears in their mind’s eye and correlating that into the actual image that is filmed. Put simply, the director has the general vision, the cinematographer transfers that into f-stops, focal lengths, and filters.

Cast: this title refers not only to the lead stars but also to the supporting and extra roles. More than any other role, these people are the movie and stand to lose the most if things go poorly.

Casting Director: this is the person in charge of choosing a great many of the people who will appear onscreen. In large pictures, the leads are chosen on the basis of their stardom and thus the casting process as a physical procedure of auditioning is, for all intents and purposes, nonexistent. However, the casting director must choose the proper actors and actresses for the multitude of other roles. As a rule, the casting director must be very familiar with the performer databases from the agencies and be able to draw up a compact list of quality performers who can fit a roles required, be it a major supporting part or pizza boy extras.

Composer: though it is not uncommon in many Hollywood films to assemble a soundtrack from popular artists (usually popular artists who are affiliated with labels owned by the studio or the studio’s parent corporation), it is much more common to create a unique musical score for the movie. The score can liven up dull scenes, heighten dramatic ones, and otherwise enhance the movie. The composer is thus an extremely important part in completing the final package. The composer creates music that fits the movie exactly using notes from the script and then later playing it with an orchestra (or band) to be dubbed onto the final reel of the film.

Construction Crew: sets don’t build themselves (at least not yet) and thus require the skills of experienced work crews, as unfortunately interns do not fare well in the arena. The construction crew by comparison to the other aspects of the production crew of a film is relatively normal, however, without them any production is halted. They are essential to creating the best working environment, and have the skills necessary to create the real looking fakeness that movies demand that other crews are not experienced in.

Director: the person responsible for taking the written word and transferring it into moving image. Though the producer is capable of overriding the director should the need arise, the director holds the reigns of the production and as the composer of the image that will appear on the screen holds a great deal of power in all decision making processes that affect the final image.

Editor: once the production ends there are only five or so people involved in the film. The producer, the director, and the editor and his assistants. The editor, like any of the other creative forces in the movie plays a vital role in its projection. The editor is extremely important because he or she has the skills unlike any other member of the production team to solve the last few problems. An editor can turn a slow scene into a fast one, make a dull one more interesting with different perspectives, and any number of other tricks. They are extremely important in ensuring that the hard work of production gets the polish it deserves.

Gaffer: to tell you the truth I have no idea where the title gaffer comes from, but it refers the position of head electrician. The gaffer confers directly with the cameraman to learn what the lighting should achieve and translates that into the actual laying electrical lines and setting up heads, just as the cameraman learned from the director what the mood of the scene should be and translated it into lighting.

Grip: perhaps only more mysterious than the gaffer is the grip. The grip, unlike the name suggests is a specialized carpenter. A grip is versed in the processes of laying dolly track, building a platform, other skills needed on a movie set that standard carpenters cannot perform due to lack of experience and speed. Speed is always important.

Location Manager: picked by the production manager due to his extensive pictorial files on a wide range of sites, the location manager is the person responsible for directing the production heads to these sites for review. After preliminarily looking at a few possible locations, the location manager, along with the production manager, the director, producer, and cinematographer scout these locations to determine their appropriateness to the film and production viability.

Make-up Artists: it is said that one of the best ways to make someone look dead on a theatre stage is to not put any make-up on them. It is very similar in film. The movie set is so lit up and colored that the human face simply looks washed out in comparison. As a result, make-up artists are required to turn the normal human skin tones into something worthy of the silver screen. They also can hide natural blemishes or enhance particular aspects of a performer’s face that either the scene requires or the performer requests. In addition, they are responsible for the special effects make-up, which results in the 4 hour marathon sessions that performers on sci-fi sets are always loathing.

Model Maker: one of the most important elements of a movie is continuity. If the audience is not aware of what is going on in the film, it is often difficult to maintain interest. One aspect of continuity that needs to be maintained is spatial orientation. In a house its easy for the audience to discern the orientations between scenes.. Its got an upstairs and a downstairs and this room logically leads to that room, ect. In more complex settings though, such as a giant space station or a setting similarly outside of the audience’s realm of experience, it is often necessary for the production crew to have a good idea of orientations themselves. With models rendered by the model maker it becomes easier to arrange the picture so that exits and entrances and so on seem to happen in a coherent fashion.

Post-Production Sound Mixer: post-production sound is quite a complicated job entailing the task of condensing as much as 100 different tracks into the 2-4 that will printed with the film for use in the theater. The post-production sound team must fix problems with dialogue (hopefully there are few), add in sound effects to complete scenes (such as adding in the sound of thunder to a scene that was not present during filming so that actors could be heard clearly), as well as create Foley, or sound effects. One such example of this is the laser gun blasts from Star Wars, which were in actuality, a Foley editor tapping on a taut wire with a microphone very close. This team must then balance all of these sounds in addition to adding in the score making sure that all important elements can be heard and registered by the audience but that no single element is too dominant.

Production Manager: one of the first members of the production staff to arrive on the movie, this position does much of the organizational work. The first task is to break the written script down sequence by sequence from which later plans. At that point the production manager forms the plans for the shooting schedule and draws up the preliminary budget along with the producer among other tasks. In addition to planning the many other facets of the production before it starts, the production manager is also responsible during production for making sure all arrangements are made for the film a few days in advance of the day they will be needed so that production can advance uninterrupted. During production this title is unending work.

Production Sound Mixer: the sound mixer is a title that can refer to a number of different individuals in the creation process of any given film, however, in the production phase it refers to the individual responsible for recording the dialogue. This position usually entails plugging oneself into a pair of headphones and making sure that every single syllable of the lines is heard clearly and articulately. This is one of the three positions with enough authority to call for another take to ensure that dialogue quality is perfect, just as the cameraman looks for perfect lighting quality and the director looks for perfect scene quality.

Prop Master: just as the name suggests, the Prop Master is the person responsible for researching and creating any physical object in the film that the characters interact with or manipulate. Similar in some respects to the set decorator in that he or she populates the film with its inanimate aspects, the prop master is even more specialized. Most of the props in a movie that the characters interact with must react with them, either get smashed or thrown, or land, ect. It is the prop masters duty to create props that do these things as well as do the research to create props that are appropriate to the film, such as creating a hand mirror that an Victorian lady would use.

Publicity/Still Photographer: there are a number of sources both commercial and private that want insider looks at a set for a variety of purposes, the commercial most likely wanting to sell to the private and the private most likely just wanting to see a little bit of behind-the-scenes action. That said, there is a defined need for someone who can not only capture compelling images of a film but also to not reveal anything that an audience might have to pay money to see. The publicity agent handles hyping the film in its pre-advertising stages, while the still photographer takes all the many pictures from which the few glimpses that end up in movie magazines will be drawn from.

Script Supervisor: this title is one of the most detail-laden positions on a production team. The script supervisors job is, briefly summed up, to record every detail of every piece of filmed footage for reference later. The script supervisor records every detail in the scene, camera angles, shooting duration, character descriptions, actual spoken lines (as opposed to those that appear in the script) and a multitude of other things. An incredible amount of work to be sure.

Set Designer: the set designer is the architect of imaginary worlds. And that’s not cheesy prose either. The set designer is the one responsible for designing the set (thus the name) with all the artistic and architectural tasks that entails. After heavy conferencing with the director, the set designer first draws up then finalizes (depending on agreement or disagreement with the director) the plans for the set. They are then sent to the carpenter and crew whose job it is to build it.

Set Decorator: just as the set designer designs the sets, the set decorator decorates the set. This position can have a tremendous impact on the overall look of the film. Think about if for a second. A standard room when empty holds a thousand possibilities. A set designer alone cannot create a particular mood for a room simply by designing a room an 20’ by 10’ room with a window. It is the set decorator that makes to room the dark, smoky office of a gangster or the drab abode of an dying matriarch. The set decorator is the one responsible for fleshing out the director’s view of the film’s imaginary world.

Set Operations: the set takes up a lot of time (keep in mind we are creating reality here), enough time to necessitate not only a set designer and decorator, but an entire crew of personnel to keep it up. These personnel are known as set operations. They range in position from painter to greensman to crane operator (that would be a camera crane, not wrecking crane, although I guess you need somebody to operate that too). They’re the ones that work behind the scenes to make sure that the scene itself works smoothly.

Sketch Artist: often times director’s will want to get a feel for a movie by seeing if visually. This is done to plan the effectiveness of shots, or help to refine the moods of scenes or any number of other reasons. Quite often, to get a good view of this the director requires a skilled artistic hand to draw it. Enter the sketch artist. These artists either make a living in Hollywood with such work or are sometimes part-timing it from other careers, such as comic books. The sketch artists draws out the storyboards and sometimes assists other positions in need of visual representations of ideas before actual creation.

Special Effects Technician: this title is one that varies on a production to production basis. It does not refer to the people who gave Godzilla life or created the pod race. The special effects technician can be a pyrotechnic (paid to play with fire, and really big fire at that!) or the person who runs the rainmaker or makes a chair move by itself.

Technical Advisor: in any film where an aspect of reality is being presented as believable truth to the audience it is necessary that the presented image be realistic . Thus if a picture revolves around a military plot, a technical advisor is assigned who is familiar with the military who can then advise the director and other members of the production of aspects to help them create the most truthful picture possible.

Transportation Captain: despite a name that seems ripe to poke fun at, the transportation captain is critical to ensuring the production runs smoothly. This is because the position handles the logistical nightmare of moving hundreds of people and literally tons of insanely expensive equipment on a daily basis from location to location while also ensuring that the least amount of time is spent doing it.

Wardrobe: the wardrobe of the characters in the picture is as important as any of the other aspects of the projected personality and as such requires extensive amounts of time to perfect. On many sets, the wardrobe department’s job is to simply (hah! nothing is simple!) outfit the character with appropriate clothing from an inventory (or from stores). In cases where a character is unconventional or the performer is an A-list star, then the wardrobe department will include a designer who creates unique costumes for the character to wear. As in all the other creative positions, the wardrobe requires extensive amounts of research, both character and environmental, to create the clothing that accurately and most effectively reflects the mood of the film.