Learn
The jobs most people have never heard of.
Director, actor, producer, camera operator, maybe writer. Everything else, the gaffer, the best boy, the grip, the standby art director, the script supervisor, the DIT, the focus puller, the rigger, the colourist, is invisible from outside. You cannot want a job you have never heard of. This section sets out what the roles are, what they are called on the day, what they pay, and what it takes to get there. Everything here is written for people aged 18 and over.
Start
Start from what you are good at, or start from the job.
How the industry works
How the industry works.
How a film gets made
Development, financing, pre-production, production, post, delivery, distribution — what happens, in what order, and who runs each stage.
How a set works
The call sheet, the chain of command, who calls what, why it is quiet when it is quiet, and what a trainee does all day.
How crews are hired
Recommendation, availability and the phone call — why applications rarely work, and what does.
How departments fit together
Every department on a unit, what it does, how many people are in it, and who reports to whom.
Everything in this section
Everything in this section.
The progression ladder
Trainee to head of department, rung by rung, including the rungs that are missing.
Where your subject leads
Physics to camera, mechanics to grip, electronics to lighting, code to virtual production.
Who else can help
A signposted directory, with the criteria applied before anything is listed.
