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Part 1 “Best Boy”, “Key Grip”, “Gaffer”, “Foley”. Just what are these jobs in movie making?
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Exterior movie set
I was asked by a friend recently, “What’s a Foley Artist?” The reason I’m asked these types of questions, I’m a retired 1st Assistant Director after working 22 years in film production. I’ve worked on all types of productions; movies, TV series, documentaries, commercials, and music videos. All of these productions use the basic number of production slots (departments) that make up a film crew. Assistant Directors (my job slot) comes under the Production department. Through out the next few weeks I’ll run through the job slots for the departments and the next time you’re watching the closing credits for a movie and see a credit like “Best Boy Electric”, you’ll know what it means!
The basic departments are: Production, Art Department, Hair & Make-up, Wardrobe, Camera, Production Sound, Grip, Electric, Editorial (Post-Production), Visual Effects, and Sound & Music. The number of technicians (crew) needed depends the scope of the film to be shot. The smaller film project can use as little as 10 people with crewmembers doing a couple of slot responsibilities, while bigger full scale projects costing millions will have hundreds of crewmembers. All use the same departmental structure.
An example would be instead of having a Key Make-up person and a Key Hair person; one person would double to cover both jobs. The word “Key” usually designates the head of a department. And, the term “Best Boy” is not what is commonly thought of as an errand runner or anything of that sort! The “Best Boy” designation is the second person in charge of that department. An example would be the Grip department, more on what that department does later. The slots would be; Key Grip (the one in charge, Best Boy Grip (the 2nd person in charge), and the rest of the various grips (dolly grips, rigging grips, company grips, etc) make up that department!
Next time, we’ll start with the Production department, the guiding force of a project! For those who have an interest in production I have two very good books to recommend. For general production and a good overview is “The Complete Film Production Handbook”, Third Edition By Eve Light Honthaner. It’s a good book for overall production from concept to finished product and comes with a DVD with all of the forms, etc you need! For those who are more advanced, and by the way its what I call my “Bible” for assistant directors is “The Film Director's Team” (available in hardback and paperback) by Alain Silver & Elizabeth Ward. This book provides an overview for assistant directors with various forms, duties, and responsibilities the job slot involves.
See you at the movies!
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