Shooting Movies Without Shooting Yourself in the Foot

CHAPTER 6 The Crew

Let's start off planning for a film with a full professional crew. When you're working as a professional DP, your hiring responsibilities are for camera, grip, and electrical crews. The camera crew consists of the second camera assistant, the first camera assistant, and the camera operator in ascending order of status and authority. On shows using many cameras shooting simultaneously, there may also be a “loader.” Usually loaders aren't necessary except on multiple camera or very physically difficult shows (like some hard-to-get-to locations where the camera equipment may be separated from the shooting company by miles). And on digital shows, the second assistant fulfills the functions of a loader, and there'll be a DIT (digital ...