Roles in the Media Industry

Hello!

Today I was researching different job roles that there are within the media industry. During my research I have learnt about the different types of roles there are and what each of them involves.

The main roles that I looked at were Film Producer, Director, Camera Man, Editor and Production Sound Mixer.

Each of these roles are mostly involved with being self employed and working on a freelance basis. When you first enter the industry your malinly working on a voluntary basis with a role title called Runner. This role mainly involves making the tea for the film crew along with doing odd jobs around the set and helping things run more smoothly through out the day.

Whilst researching on the internet I had come across several media related job emploment site called Skillset.

I found this web site to be very useful becuase it supplied me with lots of step by step guidence of how to get your career started in the industry. It gave me information of the different roles that are out there.

It also gave me a good insight of the different areas that there are within the industry like:

• TV


• Radio


• Film


• Gaming


• Corporate and promotional films


• Animation

Another website that I had been on was Freelance Broadcaster. I found this to be a very useful website because it helped to inform me of what current jobs there are in the industry including the areas of the country that they're based at.

I had discovered some other websites but had not yet investigated like:

• http://www.productionbase.co.uk/


• http://www.shootingpeople.co.uk/


• http://www.startintv.co.uk/

I managed to look into the different responsibilities that each of the roles have.

Film Producer

The role of the film producer is to overlook and supervise the project by taking care of matters like:

• The financial cost of the project


• Hiring the key people to make the film


• Marketing along with promoting the film for the distributors.

The producer is involved throughout the whole production of the film from the development through to the completion.

The producer has the ultimate complete control of the project and is responsible for everything that happens in the production.

Whilst researching this role I found that there are lots of other types of producers like:

• Executive Producer would over look the financial and creative sides of the production.


• Co-Producer would organise and provide the money to finance the project along with being involved towards the day to day production.


• Associate Producer would share the same amount of resonsibilities delegated from the main Producer.


• Assistant Producer would work under the supervision of the Associate Producer.
  


• Line Producer would overlook the budget of the film along with the day-to-day production of the project.
  


• Administative Producer would employ freelancers to work within the production.

Film Director

The Directors role is to control the creative and the artistic side of the production of the film. The Director developes a vision towards how the film should look and to take into consideration of how he wants the audience to experience when watching the finalised cut.

The Director works very closely with the film crew and actors by guiding them through his creative vision so that he could create some positive results.

On set the Director is responsible deciding and approving every camera angle, lens effect, lighting and the set design.

Besides controlling the creative side they are also responsible for the coordination and dramatic effect displayed by the actors.

During the post-production the Director also plays the key role in overlooking the last phases of creating the final look of the film.

At this stage the Director works closely with the film editor to ensure that the selected shots and cuts for the scene is sending the right emotions towards the audience. Apart from workng with the film Editor the Director also works along side with the sound production along the musical composition.

It is up to the Producer who selects and hires the Director. During the different phases of film making, the Director works closeley with the Producer where they are both responsible for the script approval, financial matters, contract negociating along with marketing to distributors.

Camera Man

The role of the Camera Man is to operate the film camera. The Camera Man is responsible for maintaining composition throughout a scene or a shot.

It is very important that the Camera Man communicates with the Director so that they can both confirm creative and technical decisions.

Film Editor

Film Editors play a very important creative part in the film making process. Film Editors are responsible for arranging the dialogue, music, pace, visual and sound effects into producing a variety of edits and then finishing with a final cut.

The Film Editor is mainly used during the post-production of the film making process.

Production Sound Mixer

The role of the Production Sound Mixer is to record the sounds and sound effects on location or on a studio set. They are mainly responsible for the quality of the sound by keeping control of the sound levels so that it doesn't peak. The Production Sound Mixer plays a big during the post-production phase. During this process the production sound mixer corrects any errors that might have occurred during the recording process.