availability of personnel

introductory task...

• Director/s - director and assistant director
• production - crew, cast, director, etc
• camera - cinematographer and camera crew
• lighting - light operators
• production sound - sound operators
• art department - set designers, costume designers and prop makers
• special effects - editors
• stunts - stunt coordinator, safety crew
• post-production - editors, publicity and media sponsors

what is a skeleton crew?

• A skeleton crew can vary. It is most commonly known as a crew consisting of at least 2-3 people or can be as large as 12-15 people. In other words, it's the minimum amount of people needed to make a film or media product. 

which two people does his skeleton crew not include and why?

• He doesn't include a director or producer as they are necessary for a production to work so they are separate to the skeleton crew in theory.

list the five essential roles Kroll believes must be filled in order for the film to stand a good chance of being successfully completed...

• director of photography
• makeup and hair
• production assistant
• location audio
• gaffer/grip

for each of the five, include two or three of the reasons Kroll gives for needing the role filled

director of photography - 

1. need someone who can understand and help develop your vision
2. working without a director of photography can work against you very quickly
3. it makes the production process a lot quicker and more efficient

makeup and hair - 

1. shows major creativity within the production
2. pushes the actor to both look and at more like their character
3. makes the production look more professional 

production assistant -

1. having a production assistant helps to split up the amount of work between people so that the pressure isn't all on the director or producer.
2. they are still learning and can bring a positive attitude to the set
3. they can help make certain decisions that will cause the production to run smoothly

location audio - 

1. its crucial that your production, at the least, has good audio. having a good audio and a bad visual looks more professional than a production with bad audio and good visuals
2. when noosing your location, you have to take into consideration things like echoing and sound quality in general

gaffer/grip -

1. having an experienced person filling this role could save the production a huge amount of time.
2. they help to make the most of each and every shot that's taken, making the process more efficient and effective.

account on the contrasts and comparisons in personnel for a small and large budget production

a small budget production and a large scale, feature film vary in many different ways. one of these key differences is the crew. by this, I mean the size, quality and specific members involved within that. starting with the crew size itself, for a small budget film production, it's common sense to guess that it'd be a smaller selection of people. this is usually where a skeleton crew would come in handy and become more relevant to the process. a skeleton crew consists of the fewest amount of people needed for a production to be competed at a certain standard. these type of crews usually consist of the more basic personnel for productions. they are typically: director of photography, makeup and hair, production assistant, location audio, and the gaffer/grip. these are the most essential roles that are needed to be filled for any production to work. however, a larger scale production will, understandably, have a much larger selection of personnel for their crew. where a small budget production would have a crew of around 15 people at the most, a crew for a larger production can be within the hundreds. on top of the members of the crew that a small budget production has, a feature film production has so many more in addition to create a powerful and effective team dynamic. feature films will most likely have crew members such as: a camera crew, light operators, set and cost designers, prop makers, stunt coordinators, dialect coaches, safety crew, a publicity crew, and media sponsors. as well as this, the post-production process entails having skilled and experienced editors to bring the project together to make the vision that the director would want. both crews contain similar members to make sure the production runs smoothly, but a larger scale production will have more personnel alongside the basics.

who's in my short film crew?

within a short film, crews range from a basic skeleton crew to a crew which can contain up to 50 people at the very most. in my opinion, the most essential roles to fill in a short form film are as follows: director, director of photography, makeup and hair, production assistant, location audio, and  a safety crew. having a director is crucial to any production, without them, there's no vision to build a production around to start with. they supervise the crew and cast from start to finish. a director of photography is needed because they create all of the shots within the production. having an experienced director of photography can mean that your film appears more professional than amateur.  makeup and hair are always underrated, but people forget that they help to create the characters that the actors are there to portray. a production assistant is needed to relieve the responsibilities of the production's main producer. they share out the jobs needed to be completed so that the producer isn't overwhelmed with the responsibilities within the production. this way, the producer can put more time and energy into different aspects of the production, hopefully, improving the overall quality. the audio at each location needs to be managed very carefully on short form films as you have less time to tell your story. short form films have a limited amount of time to make a good impression, so it is imperative that the aspects that are within the production are done to the best of their ability. depending on the location, the audio quality will be hindered. if you were to shoot scene at a beach, the wind would obviously alter the quality of audio. this is where the location audio would be sorted out to be at a quality worthy of the production. this could mean possibly moving location or just altering the current location. finally, a safety crew is vital for any production, short or large scale. the safety and wellbeing of your cast and crew always has to be a top priority during the production process. they're the ones turning your original idea into a film, there's no production without them, so they must be looked after.

if I were to bring together a skeleton crew of my own from my class, the majority of the classmates would be of huge help to the production. personally, I have a lot of experience with photography, therefore I could be helpful when it comes to the lighting and potentially some of the recording aspects. the set construction and design could go to the people who've had experience around dt and art in the past five years as they'd know their way around those aspects and the creativity from the art students would help a lot. editing can be done by the photography and students who took media for their gcse as they'd have a lot of experience with that subject. all round, I think the creativity and skill of the group as a whole could being together a great production.