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Second unit is a discrete team of filmmakers tasked with filming shots or sequences of a production, separate from the main or "first" unit. [1] The second unit will often shoot simultaneously with the other unit or units, allowing the filming stage of production to be completed faster.
The functions of the second unit vary, but typically the first unit films the key face-to-face drama between the principal actors. Two frequent ways a second unit is used are:
In both of these scenarios, the purpose of the second unit is to make the most efficient use of some of the resources that are expensive or scarce in film production: actors' and directors' shooting time, sound stage usage and the cost of sets that may have been built on stages.
The work of second units should not be confused with multiple-camera setups, where several cameras film the same scene simultaneously. Large productions may have multiple second units. Although filmmakers may refer to having "three or four units working", each unit would be called an "additional second unit"; usually none would be described as the third or fourth unit.
The second unit has its own director and cinematographer. A key skill for a second unit director is to be able to follow the style being set by the film's primary director. Jim Henson, has said, "The most important thing about any second unit is that you can't tell the difference between the second unit and the first unit. It must have the stamp of the first unit, both in photography and the style of direction. ... You try to copy what the first unit does as much as possible. You mustn't be on an ego trip and try to do your own style, because your material has to cut into theirs and it mustn't jar, it must fit in exactly so no-one can tell the difference." [2] Brett Ratner, commenting about Conrad E. Palmisano, who directed second unit for him on multiple occasions said, "He has the understanding of what it takes to create a great action sequence and never deviate from the story or the tone of the film." [3]
Occasionally, some second unit directors work with certain directors on several projects, such as Allan L. Graf, who directed second unit for Walter Hill on several of his films, as well as Eric B. Schwab working with Brian De Palma on his films. Certain films also may have more than one second unit director. Examples include The Departed , Superman Returns , The Expendables , Spider-Man , Spider-Man 2 , Spider-Man 3 , X-Men: The Last Stand , X-Men: First Class , Captain America: Civil War , Blade: Trinity , Transformers: The Last Knight , Cowboys & Aliens , Minority Report , and Bad Boys For Life .
Some directors, such as Christopher Nolan, [4] Quentin Tarantino, [5] Paul Thomas Anderson, Mike Judge, and Stephen Hopkins, do not use second units in their films.
Sometimes, if a film has no second unit, another person will only direct a sequence. An example of this is Robert Shaye, who directed the melting staircase sequence of Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street , which he produced, as well as having two uncredited voice roles as the television newsreader and the KRGR radio broadcaster. Occasionally, there is an uncredited co-director to a project. An example of this is Up in Smoke , where Tommy Chong, in addition to co-writing and co-starring in the film, co-directed the film uncredited alongside Lou Adler. This also happened with George Lucas, who directed the Vietnam War scenes in More American Graffiti for Bill L. Norton and directed reshoots Red Tails for Anthony Hemingway, in addition to serving as executive producer. Sometimes, actors get a start serving as second unit director, like Danny McBride, who served as second unit director for David Gordon Green on George Washington , before making his acting debut in Green’s next film, All the Real Girls .
There have been times where the stunt coordinator is not the second unit director. An example of this is John A. Stoneham, Jr. He served as stunt coordinator on Four Brothers , Shooter , Dawn of the Dead , and Total Recall , but Doug R. Coleman, Jeff Habberstad, Clay Staub, and Spiro Razatos respectively directed second unit as opposed to Stoneham, Jr. He also served as stunt coordinator on Mean Girls , Bridesmaids , and Super 8 , but no second unit was used during the filming of those three films.
Because second units often film scenes with stunts and special effects in action movies, the jobs of stunt coordinator and visual effects supervisor often get combined with that of the second unit director. Unlike an assistant director, who is second-in-command to the main director, a second unit director operates independently, and thus can be a stepping stone for aspiring directors to gain experience. [6] Other times, directors may return to predominantly working as second unit directors for the remainder of their career.
Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which increasingly involves the use of digital technology. When putting together some sort of video composition, typically, one would need a collection of shots and footages that vary from one another. The act of adjusting the shots someone has already taken, and turning them into something new is known as film editing.
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.
A stunt is an unusual, difficult, dramatic physical feat that may require a special skill, performed for artistic purposes usually for a public audience, as on television or in theaters or cinema. Stunts are a feature of many action films. Before computer-generated imagery special effects, these depictions were limited to the use of models, false perspective and other in-camera effects, unless the creator could find someone willing to carry them out, even such dangerous acts as jumping from car to car in motion or hanging from the edge of a skyscraper: the stunt performer or stunt double.
A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed to a daredevil, who performs for a live audience. When they take the place of another actor, they are known as stunt doubles.
In filmmaking, a double is a person who substitutes for another actor such that the person's face is not shown. There are various terms associated with a double based on the specific body part or ability they serve as a double for, such as stunt double, "dance double", "butt double" and "hand double".
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.
Enos Edward "Yakima" Canutt was an American champion rodeo rider, actor, stuntman, and action director. He developed many stunts for films and the techniques and technology to protect stuntmen in performing them.
Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screenwriting, casting, pre-production, shooting, sound recording, post-production, and screening the finished product before an audience, which may result in a film release and exhibition. The process is nonlinear, in that the filmmaker typically shoots the script out of sequence, repeats shots as needed, and puts them together through editing later. Filmmaking occurs in a variety of economic, social, and political contexts around the world, and uses a variety of technologies and cinematic techniques to make theatrical films, episodic films for television and streaming platforms, music videos, and promotional and educational films.
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Hal Brett Needham was an American stuntman, film director, actor, writer, and NASCAR team owner. He is best known for his frequent collaborations with actor Burt Reynolds, usually in films involving fast cars, such as Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Hooper (1978), The Cannonball Run (1981) and Stroker Ace (1983).
Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior.
In filmmaking, dailies or rushes are the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. The term "dailies" comes from when movies were all shot on film because usually at the end of each day, the footage was developed, synced to sound, and printed on film in a batch for viewing the next day by the director, selected actors, and film crew members. After the advent of digital filmmaking, "dailies" were available instantly after the take and the review process was no longer tied to the overnight processing of film and became more asynchronous. Now some reviewing may be done at the shoot, even on location, and raw footage may be immediately sent electronically to anyone in the world who needs to review the takes. For example, a director can review takes from a second unit while the crew is still on location or producers can get timely updates while travelling. Dailies serve as an indication of how the filming and the actors' performances are progressing. The term was also used to describe film dailies as "the first positive prints made by the laboratory from the negative photographed on the previous day".
Television crew positions are derived from those of film crew, but with several differences.
Victor Monroe Armstrong is a British film director, stunt coordinator, second unit director, and stunt double—the world's most prolific, according to the Guinness Book of Records.
Nighthawks is a 1981 American neo-noir action crime drama film directed by Bruce Malmuth and starring Sylvester Stallone with Billy Dee Williams, Lindsay Wagner, Persis Khambatta, Nigel Davenport, and Rutger Hauer. Its score was composed by Keith Emerson. The film was noted for production problems.
Monte Hellman was an American film director, producer, writer, and editor. Hellman began his career as an editor's apprentice at ABC TV, and made his directorial debut with the horror film Beast from Haunted Cave (1959), produced by Gene Corman, Roger Corman's brother.
A production board, stripboard, or production strip is a filmmaking term for a chart displaying color-coded strips of paper, each containing information about a scene in the film's shooting script. The strips can then be rearranged and laid out sequentially to represent the order one wants to film in, providing a schedule that can be used to plan the production. This is done because most films are shot "out of sequence," meaning that they do not necessarily begin with the first scene and end with the last. For logistical purposes, scenes are often grouped by talent or location and are arranged to accommodate the schedules of cast and crew. A production board is not to be confused with a stripboard used for electronics prototyping.
Superman is a 1948 15-part Columbia Pictures film serial based on the comic book character Superman. It stars an uncredited Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill as Lois Lane. Like Batman (1943), it is notable as the first live-action appearance of Superman on film, and for the longevity of its distribution. The serial was directed by Thomas Carr, who later directed many early episodes of the Adventures of Superman television series, and Spencer Gordon Bennet, produced by Sam Katzman, and shot in and around Los Angeles, California. It was originally screened at movie matinées, and after the first three scene-setting chapters, every episode ends in a cliffhanger. The Superman-in-flight scenes are animations, in part due to the small production budget.
Dan Bradley is an American stunt coordinator and second unit film director. He has worked on Independence Day, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, Superman Returns, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Where The Wild Things Are, Quantum of Solace, and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
Charles F. Stahelski is an American stuntman and filmmaker. He is considered a highly-influential figure in the action film genre. He first achieved prominence as a stunt performer and coordinator, notably as the key stunt double for Keanu Reeves on The Matrix (1999), and as the martial arts stunt coordinator on its first two sequels. He subsequently directed the 2014 film John Wick, starring Reeves, and its three sequels.
