Movie Jobs Fall Into Several Categories
The types of jobs in movies fall into several categories, including temporal (pre-production, production and post-production), creative or technical, and above-the-line and below-the-line pay-rate jobs. Many movie jobs are unionized by Hollywood-based and national guilds, such as the Screen Actors Guild, the Writer's Guild of America, the Director's Guild of America, and even the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE).
Pre-Production/Production/Post-Production Jobs
Many movie jobs span several phases of production. For example, writers will sometimes write a movie script before pre-production starts, make changes during pre-production, and even turn in script pages during production; and directors, who oversee the action of the film all the way through post-production. Producers raise the money for the movie and organize the shoot, and directors of photography plan the shots in pre-production and execute them in production.
Many of the movie jobs, however, are relegated to their temporal place. For example, the bulk of the actors' work is during production, though they must often rehearse in pre-production. Storyboard artists draw out each scene in pre-production; the editors' work is mainly done in post-production when they assemble the movie. The sound department's work is split: sound recorders and boom operators work only in production on-set, while sound engineers and sound editors work in post-production. The electrical department, including gaffers (the department heads) and best boys (their assistants), is only needed to run the electricity for the filming, while the makeup, hair and costume artists have to prepare to make the actors look the part in pre-production, then perform their work during production. Most of the special effects of computer-generated jobs occur in post-production.
Creative/Technical Jobs
Movie jobs also fall into the creatives or technical workers categories. Most obviously, creatives are the workers who make creative decisions during the pre-, post- and production periods. Such workers include actors, directors, writers and many of the heads of a film's editing, sound, costume and photography departments. The workers who answer to those heads are considered technical workers; they follow creative orders. These workers include the assistant directors, the camera and lighting crew, the sound crew and the film editors.
Above-The-Line/Below-The-Line Jobs
Finally, jobs in movies are distinguished by whether they are above-the-line or below-the-line, referring to the line on a balance sheet. The above-the-line jobs are positions whose pay is lucrative, at least in Hollywood. These include actors, writers and directors -- the film's "talent." The below-the-line workers' jobs provide the film's backbone with their work, as they record sound, light sets and create digital effects. Their pay is often set by their guilds. When producers are in a crunch, they sometimes try to renegotiate this pay in order not to deduct from the above-the-line talent remuneration.
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