The views from above and below the line.

The Line, in movie making terms, is the line between creative people and craft people. You are "creative" if you've got a job like writer, producer, director, director of photography, production designer, actor. These are all creative decision-makers. You are "craft" if you have a job like Gaffer, Key Grip, Set Dresser, Prop Master, Assistant Camera, or any of the legions of worker bees in each of those departments.


This week I had two classes that had guest speakers talking about their careers and what their jobs entail and what skills we might need to do them. One was a producer/production manager who spoke in my Line Producing class. His most notable credit is that he produced My Big Fat Greek Wedding which is possibly still the most profitable movie ever made. (Based on % largely because they made it so cheaply.) He's been in town for the last 3 months for the shooting of something for one of the big studios. I will refer to it as The Studio.

The other guest was in last night's Cinematography class. He is a working 1st Assistant Camera. At a guess I would say he's in his 50s and he's been working in New England as a 1st AC for a very long time. Many projects with my professor as DP. They talked about staying friends with the people you like working with and going from job to job with them.

The Producer talked about liking to do work for The Studio because they have a reputation for high quality and are willing to spend the money necessary to maintain that quality. He sort of laughed and said, they'll never give you more than you need, but they will generally give you enough. They were shooting around Glouster and Beverly substituting in for Maine because MA has tax credits and ME doesn't so it's more cost effective to shoot here. He said the above the line people all got brought in from LA, as did the top tier of the craft people mostly. But the bulk of the craft people were local, which is why the states give tax incentives, to bring jobs to their residents. The A Unit 1st AC was actually a guy from Vermont because that's the job that pulls focus and the DP had worked with that guy before. They were shooting film and so focus is even more important because you won't know until the next day if you didn't get it right and reshoots are expensive.

The 1st AC did not work on The Studio job, partly because of the reason above, and partly because when they called him up to do 3 days of work on the 2nd Unit he declined. He said he doesn't like working with The Studio because they're such cheap bastards (I'm paraphrasing). He had an offer for some commercial work at the same time as the movie offer and he would make more on the 1 day commercial than the 3 days for the movie.