Documentary

Producer

• Schedules the production (calendar).
• Writes/gathers/edits interview questions (in collaboration with the director)
• Makes a b-roll shot list (in collaboration with the director)
• Budgets the production; manages purchasing
• A clearing house for all project documentation, the producer maintains personal and location releases.
• Maintains credits list
• Markets the film
  • Hires poster designer
  • Oversees trailer
  • Strategically enters the film in festivals and competitions.

Director

• Interviews the film’s subject.
• Makes a b-roll shot list (in collaboration with the producer).
• Writes/gathers/edits interview questions (in collaboration with the producer)
• Works within budgetary constraints.  Adheres to production schedule.
• Manages conflict on set.
• Coordinates with camera crew and composer to ensure a consistent creative execution.
• Works with the editor to create the film in its final form.

Assistant Director

• Authors call sheets.  The contact person for everyone in the cast and crew.
• Schedules the production (stopwatch).

Camera Operators (2)

(a.k.a. director of photography, lighting cameraman, camera operator)

• Records multi-cam interview
• Records B-Roll, sensitive to the shot list (see director and producer roles above)
• Manages camera and lighting crew
• Oversee the selection and manipulation of technical equipment to create screen images.
• Lenses & Filters
• Lighting techniques
• Camera movements
• Aspect ratio, digital effects, image contrast, frame rates
• Manages and backs up all recording media (in conjunction with the Digital Imaging Technician); Delivers recorded media to the editor

Gaffer

• Designs and implements the interview lighting scheme in concert with the Cinematographer
• Supervises a crew that safely maintains and moves lighting equipment.
• Keeps detailed nominal, repeatable lighting plots.

Production Sound

(a.k.a.  production sound mixer, location sound recordist, location sound engineer, or sound mixer)

• Works within budgetary constraints.  Adheres to production schedule.
• Manages audio crew (chiefly a utility sound technician).
• Selects, maintains, and deploys microphones, cables, field recorders, mixers, and headphones
• Makes and logs dual-system recordings of all location dialogue
• Makes and logs recordings of roomtone and wildcat effects
• Manages and backs up all recording media (in conjunction with the Digital Imaging Technician); Delivers recorded media to the editor.

Digital Imaging Technician

• Manages, logs, and backs up all audio and video recording media; Delivers recorded media to the assistant editor.  Provides empty recording media to the cinematographer.  On smaller crews, this is often a function of the producer.

Editor (Visual)

• Selects shots, combines them into sequences.
• Works with the director to creatively tell the film’s story

Assistant Editor

• Organizes raw footage.  The variety of b-roll makes labeling and arranging server folders and project bins considerably more intricate than it might be on a narrative film.

Editor (Audio)

• Combines the following elements to meet technical standards of level and creatively tell the film’s story:
  • Dialogue
  • Foley, Effects, Atmospheres
  • Score.  Contract with a composer to add original music.  Records and mixes separate tracks of audio.

Colorist

• Effects basic color correction.
  • Input LUT (Look Up Table)
  • White Balance
    • Temperature
    • Tint
  • Tone
    • Exposure
    • Contrast
  • Highlights
  • Shadows
  • Whites
  • Blacks
• Make individual shots recorded under different lighting conditions look like they belong in the same scene.
• Monitors for broadcast-safe levels of brightness and color.
• Adds subjective, creative color grading to creatively tell the film’s story.

Graphics

• Designs titles (coordinated with marketing for branding consistency)
• Designs visual effects
• Designs credit crawl
• On smaller crews, this is often a function of the colorist or producer.