Film Roles

This essay is talking about the many roles, which are needed for the film making industry.

Director

A director is someone who directs and leads the film crew, the visual storyteller. A director is involved in all three stages of making a film, pre-production, production and post-production.

Pre-production 

Script analysis 

Story boarding

Scheduling

Location scouting

Casting & talent 

Production

Set design

Crew hiring 

Shot selection

Actor performance

Post-production 

Picture edit

Sound edit

Music/Score- Partial.

Cinematographer 

The director can collaborate with a cinematographer some directors choose to do their own cinematography. Cinematography is the creation of motion picture images. It can involve the use of film or digital imagery but usually with a movie camera. 

A cinematographer is the one photographing with a motion picture camera; the cinematographer is the one who is in charge of the camera and lighting crews. They are responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the imagine.

Highly experienced cinematographers make up to £500,000 

Starting cinematographers make on average £25,000 - £30,000

A DP that’s just started may earn £250 a day, experienced DP's make up to £9000 a week

Producer

A film producer initiates, coordinates and supervises also controls matters like raising funding, hiring personnel and arranging distributors. A producer is involved is the whole process of making a film from development to the finished thing. Producers make £40,000 if they are beginners, experienced producers make from 300,000 to 600,000

Executive producer

An executive producer is the person who develops the idea for a film. This can include purchasing/optioning a book, a short story or screenplay overseeing the adaptation. The producer can in some cases be involved in hiring the director, writer/s, and lead actor/s. They determine how long the film can be shot for and are involved in hiring/firing decisions.

Average pay for a executive producer is £54,000, this depends on the film budget most executive producers earn percentages that allow them to make six figure salaries from a film.

Production designer

The productions designer is responsible for the look of the film. From early on in the development of a film the production designer collaborates with the director of photography to establish the visual feel and specific aesthetic for the film. The production designer guides the other crew such as costume designer, the key hair and make-up stylists, the special effects director and the location manager to make sure they all have the same view of what the film should look like.

Prop master

During production the prop master maps out where all the props will go, making sure the props are positioned in the right place throughout the film. The job is a calibration with the director, production designer, cameraman and set decorator and many others to express their stylistic and aesthetic requirements. The prop masters maintain their own budget. 

Special effects:

The person in charge of the special effects team would be the special effects supervisor. This person would instruct the crew on how to design moving set elements and props that would explode, burn, smash, collapse safely. To make this work they would need to work close with the special effects technician also they are responsible for the weather conditions in a film. A disadvantage for this job is that the greatness of the effects depended on how much budget the film had so if it was say a B movie it would have to use the basic effects. The cost of a visual supervisor can vary from as low as $3-400 a day or as high as 10k per week. Some go for $8,500 for five days, $11,050 for 6,

The Visual Effects Producer

Works with the Visual Effects Supervisor to break down the script into storyboards, and advises the Director as to how they should approach the scenes. Together they determine which sequences are to be shot as live action elements, which would work well in miniature or if they should be computer generated.

Visual effects supervisor is responsible for achieving the creative aims of the director through the use of visual effects While it is a creative role, most supervisors have a technical background and are capable of making  decisions about the most  effective technique to employ . Often a supervisor will work with a visual effects producer and CG (computer graphics) Supervisor. The disadvantages of this job is that some directors / producers may not be easy to get along with which if that did happen could possibly damage the film.

production sound mixer
is  responsible for recording all sound recording on set during the filmmaking using professional audio equipment, for later inclusion in the finished film, or for reference to be used by the sound designer and sound effects editors,. This requires choice and placing  of microphones, choice of recording media, and mixing of audio signals.

The sound mixer is considered a department head, and is  completely responsible for all aspects of production sound including the hiring of a boom operator and utility sound technician, planning the technical setup involving sound including both sound equipment and ancillary devices involved in syncing and time offsets, guessing and discussing sound-related problems with the rest of the crew, and ordering and preparing the sound equipment to be used on the set. The disadvantage with it is that if some of the mics go wrong you would have to halt some of the film production. The average salary of this is $49,000.