The Many Roles of Film Production

A lot of work goes into making a film. Even when it is less than 25 minutes long. The best films have production teams with widely varying skill sets assigned to work on them.

Writers

Before filming can start, a short film has to be written. Screenplay writers dictate the action and dialogue of a film by writing them down in a specific format designed for films. There are separate writers meetings for writers to generate ideas and get cracking on scripts in order to make them shootable.

Actors

Actors come in with their lines memorized and are prepared to bring the action of the film to life. Our actors are mostly amateurs and first time actors although some of our members have experience acting on the stage or in other films. We will be hosting film acting lecturers this year to strengthen our pool of actors.

Cinematographers

A cinematographer or director of photography is the chied over the camera and light crews working on a film. Cinematographers are responsible for making artistic and technical decisions related to the image. We will have cinematography workshops throughout the semester.

Directors

Directors are in charge of the whole operation. They need to have extreme attention to detail. The best directors are artistic risk takers. Biggest job on set as they have to direct both the actors and the crew.

Producers

Producers are the movers and shakers of the operation. They raise the money, hire the director, choose the cast, oversee production and postproduction, and mastermind the marketing. In addition they are production designers, location scouts, and so much more. More often than not the work is split among many people.

Editors

Editors piece the film together so that audiences can view it. They have a lot of important decisions to make in terms of what footage to use and where and when to cut. As a club we use Adobe Premier Pro to edit, as we get it free through Loyola.