C R EWING UP
integral on set. That person is my best friend; I love a good AD. They make it all possible. One of the most important things for me is to be involved with the scheduling. You really want your DP, the 1st AD, and yourself to sit down at least a week beforehand, and talk through the schedule, look at each day in detail, try and figure out what are the red flags—this scene is going to take long because it’s in a car, or whatever it is. I’ve seen directors have a total meltdown because this wasn’t taken care of and subsequently made it a very uncomfortable experience for everyone else.” WHO DOES WHAT
Line Producer/Production Manager
Unless you have a bunch of money to make your short, you usually have one or the other to do both jobs. This is the righthand person who handles the budget and all things (outside of talent, your DP, and their crew) necessary for production. Things like managing the budget (set out by the producers—and your credit card limit), talent transportation, production drivers, SAG and extras paperwork, PAs (production assistants), catering, and craft service personnel. They work in close conjunction with the 1st AD, who is in charge of making sure your shoot stays on schedule. Most times on short film shoots this person is almost always also one of the producers (or the producer) on the film. What a number of successful filmmakers I know have done is to seek out people who are coming up through the producing ranks as line producers. The awesome thing about hiring a line producer to be your producer is that they have a solid understanding of how much things cost and what you can replace with cheaper but as effective replacements. You and your DP want hundreds of dollars’ worth of gels and your line producer
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