4

The Production Team and Staff

This chapter examines the many personnel on a production team (see Figure 4.1 for their hierarchy), explaining their duties from low- to high-budget films. The people discussed here are the heart of the production process, the support team that works mainly from the production office.

Unit Production Manager

The unit production manager (UPM) works directly under the producer. This person oversees more of the day-to-day running of the crew and set. The UPM is the first person the crew may come to with problems. In fact, much of the day-to-day business of the UPM is solving problems. A good UPM will accept these problems without stressing out and work to solve them. The UPM begins work shortly after the producer and works through some of post-production. The main difference from high to low budget in regard to the production staff is in the existence of coordinators. A very-low-budget project may not have any coordinators at all, leaving all the coordinating duties to the UPM. Following are the duties and responsibilities of the UPM when there are coordinators in place.

Pre-Production

• Answers directly to the producer and director, although he will work mostly with the producer.
• Contacts and works with the film commission in the city or state of shooting to get assistance in locating local housing, crew, and filming locations.
• Hires the production office coordinator (POC) and other crew members, which may include the rest of the production team, the location manager, and script supervisor.
• Based on recommendations and bids from certain departments, contacts vendors and secures equipment packages. These packages may include but are not limited to the sound, camera, lighting, and grip packages.
• Makes deals with crew members. Often, different department heads come with their own crews. It is still the job of the UPM to give final approval to their rates and hiring.
• Goes on location scouts.
• Manages the budget (this continues through post-production). The UPM is expected, as part of her responsibility to the producer, to keep the project from going over budget. Whereas the producer may be looking only at the bottom line, the UPM is supervising all line-item spending.

Figure 4.1 Production team hierarchy

Production

• Approves all call sheets and production reports.
• Continues to oversee all departmental budgets and spending.
• Spends time on set to handle crew problems.
• Approves purchase orders, check requests, and cash advances for crew members.
• Fires crew if necessary.
• May attend dailies.

Post-Production and Wrap

• Sometimes secures crew gifts for the producer.
• Returns to the studio (if it is a studio shoot) to arrange for the completion of post-production.
• Approves the list of credits, which is then handed over to the producer.
• Usually spends one to two months in post-production, continuing to monitor the budget and post-production crew.

Qualities of a Good UPM

A good UPM is one who:

• Can handle thousands of details at once.
• Has a great memory for numbers (which helps in dealing with the budget).
• Has no difficulty troubleshooting constant problems.
• Can anticipate potential problems.
• Can deal with problem personalities and their conflicts.

Production Office Coordinator

The POC is usually the liaison between the studio and set and oversees the running of the production office. He answers directly to the UPM. The jobs of the POC and assistant production office coordinator (APOC) sometimes overlap. For instance, when I worked as an assistant, I coordinated travel for the cast and crew. Some POCs may prefer to do travel themselves. It is usually at the discretion of the POC which duties will be covered by the assistant. The POC will start work on a show when a location (meaning city, not set) is secured and will continue through wrapping out the production office. Typically, the POC will finish at this point. However, in some cases, a production company may have a POC permanently on staff who will continue to work from show to show.

Pre-Production

• Hires the APOC and office assistants.
• Oversees cast physicals and cast insurance.
• Sets up the production office. This involves various duties covered in Chapter 5.
• Coordinates production meetings for crew.
• Sets up production files (also in Chapter 5).
• Finishes deal memos and tax paperwork with crew after they are hired by the UPM.
• Sometimes procures product placement. In higher-budget productions a product placement company may be hired to procure product placement for the project.
• May research equipment packages for the UPM.
• Oversees creation, updates, and distribution of the cast, contact, and crew lists.
• Oversees all paperwork distribution to the crew.
• Sometimes coordinates cast and crew travel.

Production

• Coordinates sending and receiving dailies to and from the film lab.
• Manages petty cash for the production office.
• Oversees script pages (changes) and their distribution.
• Opens or closes the production office in conjunction with the assistant coordinator.
• Troubleshoots everything having to do with coordination of the office.

Wrap

• Wraps out the production office. See Chapter 5.

Qualities of a Good POC

• Is extremely organized.
• Loves and can handle a lot of detail work.
• Has a service-oriented personality.
• Can handle stress well.
• Is able to lead a team of assistants.
• Has excellent sense of follow-through.

Local Production Coordinator

A local production coordinator is a type of coordinator who lives in the area where you are shooting. This coordinator has the advantage of knowing the area and can more easily secure local services. You would find this position only on higher-budget projects. In these higher-budget projects, the production coordinator will run the production office at the current location. When the time is appropriate, approximately two weeks before the crew is to move, the production coordinator or UPM will hire a local production coordinator to set up the production office in the new location. The local production coordinator will continue to work in the office during the time the crew is there and will then wrap out the office after the crew leaves. In some cases, when a local production coordinator is not hired, the assistant production office coordinator may be given the task of setting up the new office. She will then hire office assistants to help find and secure local services.

Assistant Production Office Coordinator

The APOC assists the POC in running the production office, answers directly to the POC, and fills in for the POC in her absence. Many of the duties of the POC and APOC overlap or are interchangeable at the discretion of the POC. Many APOCs are hired locally, as they will have better knowledge of local services. Still, some POCs prefer to work with the same APOC. The APOC will begin shortly after the POC starts and continue through wrapping out the production office.

Pre-Production

• May handle cast and crew travel. This job would continue through the production and wrap time. Part of coordinating travel also includes distribution of the travel/movement form (see Figure 4.2).
• Handles hotel reservations for cast and crew as they arrive and leave the location.
• Handles housing for lead actors in high-budget projects.
• Sets up laundry service for cast and crew.
• Locates and secures local services such as beauty salons, restaurants, entertainment, and medical facilities.

Figure 4.2 Example travel/movement

Production

• May type call sheets and production reports (sometimes done by the DGA trainee) and is responsible for their distribution.
• Assists in or may be responsible for distributing most of the paperwork for the crew in conjunction with the POC.
• Coordinates the pre-production party, also called the meet-and-greet.
• Secures emergency forms for all crew and cast.
• If required by the studio, completes weekly reports. A weekly report is a compilation of the information found in a week of production reports (see Chapter 6 for a detailed description of the production report).
• Opens or closes the office in conjunction with the POC.
• Keeps a running hotel log of cast and crew.
• Receives the production calls: first shot, lunch, and wrap.
• Continues working on travel.
• Oversees duties of the office assistants.

Wrap

• May compile and type credits for the UPM.
• Coordinates the wrap party.
• Assists the POC in wrapping out the production office.
• May assist in procuring crew gifts.

Qualities of a Good APOC

• Is extremely organized.
• Loves and can handle a lot of detail work.
• Has a service-oriented personality.
• Can handle stress well.

Travel/Movement

In low budget, travel is often kept to a minimum. Handling travel/movement on medium- to high-budget productions can be a demanding job. On a daily basis, anywhere from a few to a dozen or more cast and crew may be traveling to and from the location. The POC or APOC will manage this job. The job begins in pre-production and continues until the last crew and cast have returned home. Following is a general list of travel-related duties and responsibilities:

• Works with travel agency to secure air travel.
• Works with transportation department to provide airport pickups and returns.
• Completes a daily travel log (see Figure 4.2) showing who is traveling where and when.
• Informs hotel of cast and crew arrivals and departures.
• Works with agents to provide for specific travel needs of stars.
• Works with AD team to confirm cast arrivals and departures.
• Works with UPM to confirm crew arrivals and departures.
• Works with the accounting department to process reimbursements to cast and crew who may not wish to use their travel allotment.
• Keeps a list of ingoing and outgoing flights to and from the location on certain airlines that fly direct.

The process of providing travel on a typical basis is as follows:

1. Use the day-out-of-days to find out when cast needs to travel.
2. Confirm cast travel with ADs.
3. Receive crew travel dates from the UPM or POC.
4. Contact the crew, cast person, or agent and confirm travel arrangements, such as: Does the person want a window or aisle seat? Does the person need a special meal? Will the person need an allowance for extra baggage? As a rule, all SAG-AFTRA actors and DGA members fly first class.
5. Contact the travel agent to secure the booking.
6. If needed, inform the transportation department of any ground transportation needs via a transportation request form.
7. Inform the hotel of any arrivals or departures.
8. Greet the cast or crew at the hotel once they arrive.

Office Production Assistants

Office production assistants (PAs) are assistants for the UPM, POC, and APOC. They may begin work shortly after the APOC begins, or may be brought in earlier, depending on budget. They will be used for a short period to help wrap out the production office. A PA holds various duties in the production office during pre-production, production, and wrap:

• May keep shipment logs (see website for an example).
• Gets lunch for all office personnel. This duty may seem easy, but it is very difficult. The PA has to get lunch for anywhere from ten to twenty people who all want something different, from a different restaurant. Furthermore, he has to give appropriate change back to each person. I have seen office PAs take up to three hours to accomplish this.
• Completes general office duties such as making copies, making coffee, faxing documents, answering telephones (if there is no receptionist to do so), screening calls, running errands, distributing mail, dividing resumes and putting them in a notebook, distributing call sheets in the production office, copying call sheets for the crew, and assisting the POC and APOC in wrapping out the office.

Receptionist

A receptionist in a production office does what a traditional receptionist in any office would do. She mainly answers telephones, screens calls, greets guests, and takes up any duties of the office PAs as needed. The receptionist can start anytime in pre-production, budget permitting, and would finish work shortly into the wrap period. You basically want a receptionist working by the time your incoming phone calls increase to the point that they interfere with the duties of the office PAs. This frees up the PAs to do other work.

Qualities of Good PAs and Receptionists

• Can handle stress well.
• Has excellent typing skills.
• Is organized, dependable, and can follow orders well.
• Knows how to work office machines such as the fax and copier.
• Can handle a multiline telephone with a large volume of incoming calls.
• Knows enough about production to properly screen phone calls and guests.

Head Accountant

The head accountant, also known as the production accountant, is the person who handles the actual disbursement of funds to vendors, cast, and crew. He may also handle the crew payroll if a payroll service has not been hired. The accountant is the source for all actual currency traffic on a daily basis. Because you start to spend money early on in pre-production, the accountant will start work anywhere from a month or more before principal photography and continue through the end of post-production. In low-budget projects the producer or UPM may cover the duties of the accountant, which can be very time-consuming. Even if you do not have a full accounting team, having someone else handle the finances is wise. The duties of a head accountant include the following:

• Answers to the UPM and producer.
• Examines expense reports.
• Produces cost reports.
• Issues petty cash when needed.
• Tracks the budget.
• Makes sure all vendors are paid.
• May issue paychecks.
• May issue payroll reports.
• Submits credit reports to vendors as needed (to establish an account).
• Wraps out all vendor accounts at the end of post-production.

First Assistant Accountant, Second Assistant Accountant, and Accounting Apprentice

The accounting assistants have various duties under the head accountant. Most assistants are working their way up to head accountant. How much responsibility is given to this crew usually depends on each person’s level of experience. Therefore, their duties are listed together as follows:

• Checks expense reports for errors.
• Delivers paychecks to crew.
• Screens calls for head accountant.
• Processes various paperwork for head accountant.
• Completes general office duties such as copying and faxing.

Qualities of a Good Accounting Staff

• Knowledgeable with experience in general accounting procedures.
• Knowledgeable in the running of a production.
• Able to deal with the fast pace of a production.
• Excels in dealing with numbers and paperwork all day.

Technical Advisor

A technical advisor is a person who comes from a specialized field. This person is hired by the production because she has expertise in one particular area. For instance, if the film is about a military operation, the production will hire a military person to be on set and advise the filmmakers. Or, if the film is a medical drama, the production may hire a doctor to advise. The advisor may also be more scholarly. If the film is about the Civil War, the production may hire a Civil War historian to advise. The technical advisor may be needed for advising on the script only or may be hired to be on set for the duration of the shoot. Following is a general list of technical advisor duties and responsibilities:

• Reads the script and advises the writer of technical inaccuracies.
• Meets with the director and/or producer to discuss level of involvement.
• May stand by on set to answer technical questions.
• May stand by on set to give constructive criticism of technique.
• May examine sets for technical accuracy.
• Is expected to speak up if the director or actors are being inaccurate.

Script Supervisor

The script supervisor is an essential position from the lowest- to the highest-budget project. This person is in charge of the continuity of the film and of ensuring that everything that needs to be shot gets shot. He keeps track of changes actors make in the dialogue while shooting. If the schedule changes, he knows what can be shot. The script supervisor is the one person on set who must be watching everything in front of the camera, catching all continuity and logging it. The script supervisor “times” all rehearsals and takes and watches the continuity of the actors, while also making notations on each take. This job requires a lot of skill and attention to detail. One of the most important duties is to make sure the axis is not crossed. The axis is an imaginary line extending between two actors in a scene. If you shoot one actor from one side of the line, and another actor from the same side of the line, you can cut the two shots together and they will look like they are looking at each other. If you shoot one actor from one side of the line and the other from the opposite side of the line, when you cut the shots together it will look like they are looking in the same direction, and not at each other. While continuity is also the responsibility of the director, the director is expected to be able to rely on the script supervisor for support in this area. The script supervisor will start usually one week before principal photography and finish one or two days after principal photography is complete.

Pre-Production

• Times the script. This is a process where the script is read aloud and timed with a stopwatch. The supervisor mimics all the movements of the actors and records the times for each scene. The times for each scene are then added together to achieve an estimate of the final film’s length in minutes and seconds.
• Completes a form called a day breakdown. The day breakdown is useful to the script supervisor and other crew such as the director and DP. In the example breakdown (see Figure 4.3), the column “Day” refers to the day of the story. Scene one takes place on the first day of the story. Scenes two, three, and four also take place on the first day of the story. Scene five takes place on the second day of the story. This breakdown helps people see at a glance on what day of the story a scene occurs. Since scenes are usually shot out of order, this form is very helpful for continuity.
• Completes her own breakdown of the script, checking for any references to future details, as well as overt actions such as running, jumping, and skipping (any action that might require close scrutiny for continuity).

Figure 4.3 Example day breakdown

Production

• Stays on set close to the director and camera.
• Unlike the positions with assistants who can take their place while they use the bathroom, the script supervisor must stay at camera at all times, leaving only during lighting or setup changes.
• Sometimes reads off-camera dialogue to the actors and, if needed, prompts actors with dialogue.
• Times rehearsals and each take with a stopwatch.
• Lines the script according to shot coverage (see Figure 4.4). Lining the script is the process of keeping track of what part of the script a shot covers. For instance, in the example script, the line that extends from the beginning of scene twenty to the end of scene twenty represents shot number 20A. The shot is called 20A because it was the first shot taken of that scene. The next shot will be called 20B, and so on. Shot 20A’s coverage is the entire scene. Shot 20B starts at the beginning of scene 20 and ends right after Dr. Slayvnak’s first line. Lining the script allows the script supervisor to have a visual representation of how the scene has been covered. This is important to make sure that all dialogue and every part of a scene is shot.
• Keeps the scene log. See Figure 4.5.
• Numbers all the shots as shooting progresses.
• Completes a daily progress report for the 2nd AD. See Figure 4.6. This information is then transferred to the production report.
• Takes photos at the beginning and end of appropriate scenes. These pictures can be useful for continuity. For instance, if in a scene an actor falls to the ground, the script supervisor may take a shot of the actor, which captures the actor’s exact positioning of arms, legs, etc. This photograph may be needed later if the scene is reshot or covered from another angle at another time.
• Watches for back matching. This is when an action or piece of dialogue in a scene references an action or dialogue in another scene. For instance, an actor in scene ten may say, “Hey, that was great pizza we had last night.” The script supervisor must then make sure that in the previous scene the actors did eat pizza.
• At the end of the day copies all paperwork and gives it to the editor.

Figure 4.4 Example shot coverage

Figure 4.5 Example script supervisor’s daily log

Figure 4.6 Example script supervisor’s daily report

Wrap

• Has one day of wrap time where she cleans up the script and notes and turns them over to the editors.

Qualities of a Good Script Supervisor

• Is extremely detailed.
• Can multitask for ten to twelve hours per day.
• Has excellent concentration skills.
• Has excellent memory of events.

Product Placement

Product placement is placing a brand-name product in a shot so that it is recognizable. A brand-name product could be a simple soda can or a fleet of cars. The amount and use of product placement in your production is determined by the content of your story. In return for a product being placed in a show, the company will often supply the crew with the product. This situation provides the product company with advertising and the production company with free product. The process of product placement begins with the script. In a low-budget production the POC may do a product placement breakdown and then contact companies directly for use of their product. I once worked a show as a POC and did this. Because our cast needed to smoke cigarettes in a few scenes, I contacted R.J. Reynolds and requested permission to use their cigarettes in our film. R.J. Reynolds read the script, looked at what our distribution was, and agreed. In return for placing their cigarettes in our scene, they provided the production with one hundred cartons of cigarettes!

Another approach is to hire a product placement company, which will go through the script and look for possible product placement opportunities. The company will then contact various brand-name companies and solicit them for placement in the picture. The product placement company then coordinates getting the product to the crew. Most product companies will require that they receive still photographs of the product in the shot, which you make sure your still photographer takes.

There’s an App for That!

Although many script supervisors still do their job with a traditional paper and pencil, many have gone digital. For years that meant just filling out their forms on a laptop. Currently there is also full-on software designed for script supervisors that will help with most of the breakdowns and prep work. There’s even a built-in camera for taking continuity shots (http://scriptesystems.weebly.com/).

Summary

The production team comprises the executive producer, producer, associate producer, UPM, POC, local production coordinator, APOC, and assistants. Assistants work either directly for a producer or UPM or in the production office. Other personnel who work closely with the production team include the accountants, technical advisor, and safety manager. The producer is responsible for the running and final product of a project. The coordinators and assistants lend support by working as liaisons in the day-to-day running of a show, providing the crew with assistance in their daily living, work, and travel. The production team is there to ensure that pre-production adequately prepares the show to run smoothly and that the crew has sufficient support.