Film Crew

I feel rather sheepish to declare that I am not all that good in instantly recognizing English Grammar terms such as Adjective, Adverb, Pronoun etc. I can categorize these by example, but not instantly by name. An uncanny similarity in terms of my inability to instantly understand things is in the world of Movie technical terms.

Yeah, I read that Ravi Verman did the Cinematography for Anniyan and Shankar did the screenplay. But what exactly each of these responsibilities constitute, I am not sure of. So, I did some research on this today and thought that if there is atleast one other person who did not understand these technical terms, this could serve as a handy reference. All the following are the people behind the scenes.



Obvious Film Credits

Director: Of course we all know this one. This is the person in charge of orchastrating the whole movie. This is the person that extracts performances from the actors. This is the person that converts the stone idols in the script to real moving characters. e.g. Shankar, Manirathnam

Producer: Finances the movie project and gets commitments on schedules and dates from all the pieces concerned, such as director, script writer, actors, music directors, etc. e.g. Prabhu, R.B.Choudhary, V.Ravichandran

Music Director: Another obvious function, this is the person that composes tunes for songs in the movie, based on situations specific to the movie. e.g. Illayaraaja, A.R.Rehman

Lyricist: This is the person that puts words into a song sequence. e.g. Vairamuthu, Vaali

Playback Singers: Persons who sing the songs to the tunes and by the lyrics.

Choreographer: This is the person responsible for mentoring the dance movements during a song sequence. e.g. Raju Sundaram, Dance Master Kala

Dialogue Writer: Person who writes the dialogues for the movie. e.g. Crazy Mohan, Balakumaran.

Story/Script Writer: The person who writes the overall story (not specific dialogues) on which the movie is based. Sometimes these are adaptations from novels or written by the directors. e.g. Kamal Hassan, K.Balachandar, Shankar, etc.

Less Obvious Credits:

Camera/Cinematographer: This is the person that records visual images for the cinema and later post processes them. Usually the director of photography is another term used for this function. e.g. P.C.Sreeram, Rajiv Menon, Ravi Varman.

Light Direction & Arrangements: This is the person that decides the amount of light required in the sequences in the movie, based on the script and situation involved. Very often, the cinematographer assumes this role. e.g. P.C.Sreera, Ravi Varman

Action/Stunt Director: The person who directs the fight sequences in the movie. e.g. Super Subbarayan

Art/Production Designer: The person(s) involved in the overall visual appearance in the movie, including but not limited to set design, location, art work, etc. e.g. Sabu Cyril, Thotta Tharani

Screenplay: This is the next stage of Story writing. It is the art of creating the blue print for the movie and its functions overlap with script writing. So, very often we find that the director and/or the story writer get involved in screenplay. This could sometimes be adapted from novels or other movies.

Editor: As the name mentions, this is the person who does the "anga oru vettu inga oru cuttu", which is chops the sequences to make the movie flow smoothly and to fit within the time window required. e.g. Suresh URS, V.T. Vijayan

Others: The other lesser known functions involved, include set decorators, clap boys, operators, stunt/body doubles, etc. Read this link for more information if you are still interested. Otherwise, enjoy the future reviews from a more informed, Ram, Ram, Ram! Monday, June 20, 2005 at 2:48 PM

This is a very nice post. I am also another in the category who does not know very well what each of the film credits mean. This helps a lot. Thanks for posting this with good examples that I could identify with. 1:47 PM  

Sindhu,

Thanks for the compliments. Do visit regularly. 1:49 PM  

Wow! quick response. This is an interesting blog and I will visit often. I am awaiting your anniyan review. 1:54 PM  

There is another important thing called "story boarding"" which is what the crew and directors have in hand during shooting.

it is a picturistic book of the movie. Think how the movie wud look if it was presented as a comic book. with characters standing (and the dialogs are in a bubble above them). This gives the cinematographer an idea as to who all should be in the scene and from which angle the scene is to be shot. This gives the art director an idea of where the scene will take place how much space will be required etc.

this is a really tough process which very few directors follow. 9:41 PM  

Hawkeye (Bharath?)

Yeah thanks! I forgot that one and did not find it in Wikipedia ;-))

Thanks for visiting and do come back when possible!

--Ram 8:35 AM