Careers A–Z · Camera
Camera trainee
The entry grade in the camera department. You learn the department by being useful in it, and the way you are useful is being early, tidy and impossible to rattle.
It is a credited grade, not work experience.
The basics
Also known as, and where the grade sits.
| Camera trainee | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Camera trainee. A US-style crew may say 3rd AC; the UK grade is trainee. |
| Level | Entry. The first paid grade inside camera. |
| Reports to | The 1st AC (focus puller); day to day, the 2nd AC (clapper loader). |
| Comes after | Runner, a trainee scheme, film school, or nothing at all. |
| Leads to | Clapper loader / 2nd AC. |
The job
What does a camera trainee do?
You are on the truck before unit call. Trolleys built as the 1st AC left them, batteries charged and rotated, mags, cards and filters where the department expects them.
Then you run the department’s legs. Kit to and from the truck, slate when the 2nd is on the camera, cart restocked, marks taped, rain covers on before anyone asks. And you watch, which is half the grade.
The unglamorous end: you are last off the truck. Trolleys through wet car parks, cases in weather nobody would choose, long stretches standing available. Nights are cold for eleven hours.
The requirement
What is a camera trainee good at?
Almost none of the requirement is technical on day one.
Being early
Early enough that the trolleys are built before the 1st arrives.
Order
Other people’s kit, back in the same case the same way.
Anticipation
The thing in your hand before it is asked for.
Composure
Spoken to sharply at four in the morning, and not passing it down.
Stamina
Long days on your feet. Access needs get planned around, not held against you.
Kit
Tools of the trade.
| What | The actual items |
|---|---|
| Bodies | ARRI Alexa 35 and Mini LF, Sony VENICE, RED. On film, an ARRICAM or a Panavision body. |
| Carts | Magliner trolleys as camera, lens and battery cart. O’Connor and Sachtler heads, standard and baby legs, hi-hat. |
| Consumables | Camera, gaffer and paper tape, chinagraph, lens tissue and fluid, markers, cable ties. |
| Power | V-lock and Gold Mount batteries, chargers, block batteries, an extension run. |
| Weather | Rain covers, umbrellas, dry socks, a coat that works. Real kit, not a joke. |
The unit
Who does a camera trainee work with?
| Who | What passes between you |
|---|---|
| 1st AC | Keep the cart stocked so they never leave the eyepiece. |
| 2nd AC | Who trains you. You take slate, mag runs and paperwork when they are stacked. |
| Grips | Trolleys, dolly, track, camera height, who is carrying what. |
| Sparks | Cable runs across your trolley path, and whose stand is in whose shot. |
| ADs | Where the unit moves next, and how long you have. |
Routes in
How do I become a camera trainee?
No single door. These are the routes people took.
Up from runner
The commonest route. A year running, visibly good, then ask camera.
Trainee schemes
Funded entry schemes. Competitive; apply more than once.
Rental house
Prep floors hire people with no credits and teach kit fast.
Sideways
Photography, IT, engineering, the trades.
A degree is a route, not the route, and it is not essential here. Nobody asks to see the certificate. A course helps where it puts kit in your hands and people around you.
Every route needs somebody willing to vouch for you.
Nearby
The grades either side of this one.
Read the grade above you before you need it.
Camera department guide
Everything free and worth paying for in this department, in the order to take it, with the books.
Never been on a set? Start here. Offered a first day? Read this first. Want to know where this grade leads? Where people have gone names people who trained here and the productions they went to.
