I was the AD (Assistant Director) on a shoot last week, so I’ve been thinking about how my approach to that particular role has changed over the years. As an AD, my job is often focused on pre-production: setting schedules, managing call sheets and other logistical details. Those responsibilities make it easy to transition to this role as a producer, since I’m often already heavily involved with all of those aspects of the shoot. For other shoots, I might just come in on the filming day, which is a much different sort of task.
The first couple of times I was exclusively a production AD (no pre-production involvement), I thought my job was to maintain tight control over the set. I anxiously watched the clock, over-communicated and used my position to scold and push wherever necessary. While this could be efficient, I didn’t enjoy my time and often felt completely drained at the end of the day. Bossing people around and trying to single them out when they’re holding up production is not a recipe for success. It leads to anxiety and resentment on everyone’s part.
My approach now is different. I try to arrive early on set and communicate with every single person on the crew. I want to make sure they understand what they’re contributing to the project and that they can come to me with questions. They need to understand the most crucial parts of the day for their job; they need to understand how they can help to make sure that we stay on schedule.
My primary responsibility is to the director; I am an assistant, after all. I need to understand what their goals are for the day and how they like to work. There are lots of ways to balance them out and provide support: I can be a technical liaison between them and the department heads, a sounding board for ideas, and helping execute large setups or intricate action with a large crew. In all cases, I’m trying to decrease friction for them and see problems before they arise.
Like most jobs on set, the more prepared and deliberate I am with my efforts, the easier the day goes. It’s like the saying, “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.”