Some of the key job roles and responsibilities within the film industry are the director, cinematographer, editor, producer, production designer and the costume designer.

Firstly, probably the most important person with the production of a film is the producer. This is because they are involved in all the stages of production within a films life, starting with just the idea of the film, to acquiring the films budget or the handling how it gets distributed. In a way the producer is the manager of the film and has the final say in what decisions are made and is very important in coordinating the filmmaking process. I also think that being a producer can be quite a tough job, as despite the fact that without them the film would simply not be made, they don’t really receive as much recognition as they maybe should, as people like the directors who are normally hired and don’t have to worry about tasks like exhibition get much more praise.

As I just mentioned, while the director may not be as important as the producer, they are still hold a very key role in crafting a film, as they are involved in two very important stages of producing a film which are overseeing both the shooting and assembly of a film. However, the director shouldn’t be misunderstood for doing everything within the film as they rely on many other people and technicians such as cinematographers, editors or sound designers. But directors do have quite a high statues as when we watch a film we are normally seeing their vision and in a way their film.

One of the biggest aspects of film is visuals, and this is captured by the DP (director of photography)/cinematographer. The role of the DP is to capture what’s on the script/screenplay in video form and does the by paying attention to both the cameras technical capabilities such as using the correct lenses, selecting a suitable focus, using zoom correctly, and through lighting. When the director wants a certain type of visual style, this can be achieved by the DP through how they manipulate the camera, their choice of lighting or through deciding whether the cameras should use film stock, or be digital. 

As I’ve mentioned before editing can vastly shape the end result of a film. This is because the choices an editor makes, concerning which shots to use and how to assemble them can really have a profound effect on the appearance of a film. And while the job of an editor may sometimes look quite simple, as it appears that all they have to do is select shots which appear in a continuous sequence, in reality this is not really the case as in just one scene the editor will have to choose from what can be dozens of different shots and decided how they have to be cut and assembled, and because of this, editing a film in normally quite a time-consuming part of production.

While it may seem quite simple a costume designer is very import role within a film as the costumes that characters wear can convey aspects such as the films time period, characters economic status, occupation and personality, without any dialogue having to be spoken. This is therefore an important tool as it allows the dialogue to be freed up and used for other objectives within a film.

The dialogue in a film can seem very natural to an audience however, the screenwriter’s job is much more than crafting dialogue, it is to shape the sequence of events within a film through crafting a screenplay which if done correctly will allow scenes to transition from one to the next in a way that allows the story to unfold logically and in an interesting way. Once again due to the fact that dialogue seems very natural many people misunderstand the role of a screenwriter and therefore is quite similar to the role of the producer as they are both quite overlooked.

Lastly, while a cinematographer/DP will influence how the film is shot, the role of the production designer is to create a world in which the film lives in, and this normally happens before anything has ever been filmed, because the production designer is normally the first artist in the production to translate the screenplay into visual form. This is achieved through storyboards which are a series of sketches which show films visual progression from one scene to the next. Another big job of the production designer is to design the style for the set’s in the film, which can be used to convince the audience that despite filming taking place in a studio, it appears that a film may be happening inside a train carriage or in the interior of a submarine.