Film Q&A: What are the Duties of an Assisant Director?
Joe Njiki asks:
There is this unending contoversy about the role of an assistant director and what is supposed to be his job.
Some people in the industry have gone as far as creating things such as "Artistic director" simply because nobody wants to an "assistant" to someone else.
Before I go on to your question, we have to talk about the director.
The director is the person in charge of all artistic matters throughout the production of a film. He is the supreme commander of the film army. Like a general, he may ask for advice or assistance. Like a general who has to obey his nation's government, he may have to take outside direction from a producer or a studio executive.
A First Assistant Director is one who is assigned by the Employer as the first assistant to the Director.
The First Assistant Director, alone or in conjunction with the Unit Production Manager (UPM), organizes pre-production, including organizing the crew, securing equipment, breaking down the script, preparing the stripboard and a shooting schedule. During production, he assists the Director with respect to on-set production details, coordinates and supervises crew and cast activities and facilitates an organized flow of production activity. The First Assistant Director may be assigned responsibilities of the UPM. His or her prime responsibility is to service and assist the Director.
The second assistant director makes sure the production stays on schedule, assists with extras, does start and end of day paper work, checks cast and crew in/out.
Unit directors are another matter. If your production is big enough and on a schedule, the filming work may be broken up so that you can use more than one film crew at a time. Each such unit has a director, called a unit director, with the designation of their unit prepended. (i.e. Second Unit Director, or Miniatures Unit Director).
Each Unit is a complete film crew. They will each have Unit Production Managers, First and Second Assistant directors etc etc. They are essentially complete productions, except that they report back to the Director and his direct reports.
The second assistant for the entire production is called a Key Second Assistant. The Second AD for the most important unit not under the direct control of the Director is the 2nd Second Assistant. Additional units are assigned "Additional Second Assistant Directors."
The Second Assistant Director on the Miniatures Unit is an Additional Second Assistant Director and will report to the Miniatures Unit Director during the day AND the Key Second Assistant Director at the start of the day, mid-day and end of day.
Art Director is a different job entirely. They manage the people who design and build sets. They have several direct reports, including the Production Designer and the Set designer. Someone who is an art director is not on a career track to become a director, they have already achieved the top of their particular profession and the skills an Art director needs are very different from the skills of a Director.
It is important that your crew use industry standard titles when possible, because they will not be hired for the jobs they can do if they use the incorrect title.
Now if you are doing something like running a film school, then its better to do several very small productions. This way everyone interested in directing gets a chance to be director- and they also have to be assistant and second assistant and production manager- etc etc.
Finally- if some of the people on your crew are so petty and unprofessional that they refuse to be an assistant to someone else, then fire them. This idea, its like joining the army and expecting to be General the first day. Production is a hassle, and everybody is already very busy. You don't have time or money to waste on immature people who can't, or worse won't, do their job. It is easier and cheaper to replace them as early as possible in the production, and doing this will benefit your final production.
Also, be certain that your people are objecting to being an assistant. They may really be objecting to the person they will be assigned to assist.
Also be clear that these are valuable positions in the industry in Hollywood. Salary for an Additional Second Assistant Director is set at a MINIMUM of $1438 US per week. A First Assistant Director earns a minimum of $3846 per week with the other Assistant directors falling in between.
You can find a lot of film jobs defined in the Internet Movie Database glossary.
You can also see some complete definitions of job responsibilities on the Director's Guild of America website. See section 1-300 of the Basic Agreement (page 5 in the linked file, which is marked as page 10 of the BA.)