The role of a movie assistant in a movie includes tracking daily progress against movie production schedules, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking players and crews, and maintaining order on site. They should also maintain the health and safety of the crew. The role of an assistant director is often confusing with the assistant director but his responsibilities are entirely different. Assistant directors organize all directors in development, pre-production, on set, through post-production and are often involved in both the personal management and the creative aspects of the production process. Historically, the assistant director was a stepping stone to direct the work; Alfred Hitchcock is an AD, like James McTeigue. This transition into movie directing is no longer common in feature films. It is now more common for assistant directors to switch to production management or producer roles than to direct.
Video Assistant director
Sub-role
Often, the role of assistant director is broken down into the following sub-roles:
- The first first assistant director (first or 1AD) has overall AD responsibility and oversees the second AD. "The first" is directly responsible to the director and "runs" the floor or set. The first AD and the unit's production manager are two of the highest "below the lines" technical roles in filmmaking (as opposed to creative or "over the line" roles) and so, in this strict sense, the first AD role is not -creative. Their responsibility is to keep production on schedule throughout the day, communicate with the entire crew, and maintain the safety and security of staff and shoot themselves. An assistant director should be very good at estimating how long a scene will last. (Sometimes a scene that contains a few pages long in a scenario can be shot relatively quickly, while a half-page emotional key moment may take all day).
- The second assistant director (second or 2AD) creates a daily call sheet from the production schedule, in collaboration with the production coordinator. The "second" also serves as a "backstage manager", associated with actors, placing casting through makeup and wardrobe, which lighten the "first" of these tasks. The second assistant director's supervision, third assistant director, assistant director of training, and setting (extra) background are part of the "second" task.
- The second second assistant director (second second or 22AD) deals with the increase in workload of large or complex production. For example, production with a large number of cast members may require sharing of aspects of backstage managers and production call sheets to two separate persons.
- The third assistant director (third or 3AD) works on set with "First" and may relate to "Second" to move the actor from the base camp (the area containing production, players, and hair and makeup trailer), set the scene of the crowd, and oversee one or more production assistants (PA). Sometimes there is no clear distinction between 2AD and 3AD. Although some industry bodies such as the American Board of Directors have defined the role in an objective way, others believe it to be a subjective distinction.
- supplementary assistant director (AAD or Supplement) or fourth director assistant (4AD or "fourth") or "primary production assistant" (PA key) may have number of tasks. Most commonly, AAD has two broad job functions. One of them is the contraction of the AD assignment in which AD acts as both AD and third AD simultaneously. For example, a production with a large number of cast members can continue the work of making a 2AD call sheet to an AAD job, especially when 2AD has done additional work from a third AD. Another major use of AAD is in addition to 3AD and 1AD for large logistical scenes where more AD is needed to control large numbers of extras. The "Supplementary" can also serve in which the complexity of the scene or special elements in it (action, period work) requires or is best served by a special AD in much the same way as the first AD - directs and controls a number of other Ads to direct action to satisfaction 1AD and director.
- A production assistant is one of the lowest crew in a movie hierarchy in terms of salary and authority. They perform the various tasks required of them by Ads.
The sub-role of assistant directors is different among countries. For example, the difference between the two AD and the third AD is more common in North America. British and Australian production, rather than having second AD seconds, will recruit a 2AD "second" experienced in the same task, and trained to the same level, to enable the division of tasks. 3AD in the UK and Australia has a different task from AD second second, and the requirements are not the same.
Maps Assistant director
Call scroll
The above scroll sequence can be varied by, for example, eliminating voice calls and row claps if the silent shot or "MOS" ("MOS" is the universal abbreviation for "Motor Only Shot"). Other times, for expediency (for example if the shoot begins with closed door closures which then opens), a row may be displayed at the end of the takeoff instead of the beginning. In this case, after a rolling sound, there is an announcement "End board" (also "end slate," "tails," "tail slate," or "tail sticks") so the editing department knows to look for the sync signals at the end of the action. At the end of the action, the director will still call "cut", but the first AD (and possibly others) will immediately call "board the end!" or to keep the camera and voice recorder off before the clapper applauds. Also, as a visual cue to the editors, the keyboard will be shown upside down on the camera.
See also
- The second unit director: the director responsible for directing the second unit, often in parallel and at the same time as the president director, sometimes a specialist director with experience in a particular field eg. car chases, arguments, air barrage etc.
Note
External links
- Director of Guild of America
- Canadian Guild Director
- The Director's Assistant Director of Great Britain
- Association of French Directors Assistant
- Assistant Directors Association
Source of the article : Wikipedia