Organization is the key to getting any large project completed and that’s as true for movie production (big budget or independent) as it is for building a skyscraper or running a ship. We’re going to use the analogy of running a ship to describe how a film is organized. Because this is about making movies, we’ll use a pretty famous ship – the USS Enterprise from Star Trek.
The captain of the ship would be analogous to the director—everything is being done to make his vision happen and to make it happen as fluidly as is possible. Everything on the sets is focused on achieving that end goal and, ultimately, the success or failure of the movie rests with his execution of the vision.
The job we’re going to cover is less glamorous, but no less important. It’s the first assistant director. Going back to the USS Enterprise analogy, if the director is Captain Kirk, the first assistant director is Mister Spock. It’s the assistant director’s job to make sure that things happen in the right order and that all the messy routine details of running a stage and set operation happen, solving problems before they come to the attention of the director and presenting information to the director when a decision needs to be made. In most cases, the assistant director reports to the producer, who’s managing budgets for several productions at the same time. While production generally deals with finances, the director’s side of the job deals with actors, which is the distinction between the assistant director and the production manager.
Most of the first assistant director’s jobs are logistical in nature. It’s his responsibility to make sure that the production schedule is created, that it’s broken down to a day-by-day shooting schedule. It’s his responsibility to make the daily call sheets, which are distributed to production crew and cast members, telling them where and when to meet for which scenes. When the set is being populated, it’s the first assistant director’s job to make sure that people are in the right place at the right time. First, the first assistant director establishes what’s causing any delays in the scene shoot, including which department (makeup, talent, grips, etc) so that everyone’s informed. This saves time and money, no matter what size of production is being run and communications and organizational skills are essential for this job.
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