A film crew is a group of people, hired by a production company, for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture. The crew is distinguished from the cast, as the cast are understood to be the actors who appear in front of the camera or provide voices for characters in the film. The crew is also separate from the producers, as the producers are the ones who own a portion of either the film studio or the film's intellectual property rights. A film crew is divided into different departments, each of which specializes in a specific aspect of the production. Film crew positions have evolved over the years, spurred by technological change, but many traditional jobs date from the early 20th century and are common across jurisdictions and filmmaking cultures.
The cinematographer or director of photography is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera and light crews working on such projects. They would normally be responsible for making artistic and technical decisions related to the image and for selecting the camera, film stock, lenses, filters, etc. The study and practice of this field are referred to as cinematography.
A camera operator, or depending on the context cameraman or camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film camera or video camera as part of a film crew. The term "cameraman" does not imply that a male is performing the task.
The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union (Bectu), formerly the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union, became a sector of the Prospect trade union in the United Kingdom on 1 January 2017 following the merger of Bectu with Prospect. It has approximately 40,000 members who work in broadcasting, film, theatre, IT, telecoms, entertainment, leisure and interactive media.
The role of an assistant director on a film includes tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, and maintaining order on the set. They also have to take care of the health and safety of the crew. The role of an assistant to the film director is often confused with assistant director but the responsibilities are entirely different. The assistant to the film director manages all of the directors in development, pre-production, while on set, through post-production and is often involved in both personnel management as well as creative aspects of the production process.
Christopher George Joseph Challis BSC, FRPS was a British cinematographer who worked on more than 70 feature films from the 1940s onwards.
Television crew positions are derived from those of film crew, but with several differences.
Guy Mervin Charles Green OBE BSC (5 November 1913 – 15 September 2005) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and cinematographer. In 1948, he won an Oscar as cinematographer for the film Great Expectations. In 2002, Green was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the BAFTA, and, in 2004, he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his lifetime contributions to British cinema.
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera, or ballet production who appears in a nonspeaking or nonsinging (silent) capacity, usually in the background. War films and epic films often employ background actors in large numbers: some films have featured hundreds or even thousands of paid background actors as cast members. Likewise, grand opera can involve many background actors appearing in spectacular productions.
Billy Williams OBE, BSC is a British cinematographer.
Peter Austin Harley Newbrook BSC was an English cinematographer, director, producer and writer.
Oswald Norman Morris, BSC was a British cinematographer. Known to his colleagues by the nicknames "Os" or "Ossie", Morris's career in cinematography spanned six decades.
Ronald Charles Taylor BSC was a British cinematographer, best known for his collaborations with directors Richard Attenborough and Dario Argento. Throughout his career, he was nominated for two BAFTA Awards for Best Cinematography and won an Academy Award for his work on Gandhi (1982), which he shared with Billy Williams.
British Film Editors (BFE) is a not-for profit honorary society of professional British Film and Television Editors.
Ernest Day, B.S.C. was a British cinematographer and director of film and television, known for his collaborations with David Lean and Lewis Gilbert. He spent the majority of his career as a camera operator, often referred to Lean as his "eyes", and was the first British cameraman to operate a 70mm film camera. He was nominated for an Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Lean's final film A Passage to India (1984).
Polly Morgan is a British cinematographer who has worked on the studio feature films Lucy in the Sky (2019), A Quiet Place Part II (2020), Where the Crawdads Sing (2022), and The Woman King (2022). She was also the cinematographer for multiple episodes of the TV series Legion (2017–2019). Morgan is accredited by the British Society of Cinematographers (BSC) and the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC). To date, she is the only woman to be a member of both, and she is the youngest member of ASC.
Paul Beeson, B.S.C. was a British cinematographer. He was initially at Ealing Studios before going on to work on films for various other companies. He worked on over three hundred feature films, including 74 where he was director of photography.
The Guild of Television Camera Professionals (GTC) is a not for profit organisation representing camera people working in all genres with around 1500 members globally with the majority being in the UK. The stated aim of the GTC is "to preserve the professional status of all those earning their living through working with television cameras and to establish, uphold and advance standards and expertise within our profession."
Alan Stewart is a Scottish cinematographer.
Robin Vidgeon BSC, is a retired cinematographer best known for his work on Hellraiser, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, and Nightbreed. For many years he was a focus puller, working with the late cinematographer Douglas Slocombe and camera operator Bernard (Chic) Waterson.
