Cast and crew is the term typically used to refer to entire team of individuals that were involved in the making of film. The cast is the actors and actresses that appeared in front of the camera or during an animation or dubbed movie they may provide the voices of the characters.
The producer is also often thought of as separate from the crew as they are the only people involved that actually partially own or have legal rights to the film. Every movie has a different size of production team but regardless of the type or scale of the project, it is the film talent that makes it all come together as a success. Here is an overview of some of the different job roles involved.
Director
The director is control of all of the creative aspects from the film and will guide the actors, camera angles, lighting and choose locations. The title of the director is always kept separate from the rest of the crew and it effectively an entity of its own. Some of the jobs during the actual production side might blur with that of the producer and whilst the director has a great deal of artistic license, they are officially below the producer in the chain of command so to speak.
Production team
The production team can be very large as they are responsibility for over-seeing all aspects of the film form start to finish. There are often numerous producers involved on a large budget film and they will all focus on their own specialised tasks. The executive producer is mainly involved in financing rather than the creative or technical sides, the line producer manages the budget and the production manager is in charge of cast and crew and scheduling.
Camera and Lighting
The name of this department is fairly self-explanatory but can be made up of a significant number of film talent, whom all have their own roles. There will be electricians, lighting technicians and a number of camera operators with the director of photography taking the lead.
Art Department
The art department is usually the largest in terms of personnel, as their duties are vast with roles including set designer, illustrator, graphic artist, construction co-ordinator and set dresser.
Costume, hair and make-up
The costume department has an important role in ensuring the integrity of the production by dressing the actors in the suitable clothing. Hair and make-up similarly ensure that the actors appear as they should for the character.
Additional departments
There are a number of additional departments that play an important role as film talent. For example the special effects team, stunts department and sound department are all integral to the making of a successful film. There is also of course the post-production team consisting of editors, visual effects and music departments who polish off the finished piece.
