The End

Producer

Raises the money (usually), selects the director (with whom he works on cast and crew hiring) and controls the budget. Some producers are pure money men; others make a major creative contribution to the film.

Director

Takes creative control and develops the script. Decides exactly how the scenes are to be shot and tells the actors what to do. Watches 'dailies' - the takes from a day's shooting - at night. If a film takes 10-12 weeks to shoot, the director is likely to be working on the movie for one year, from development to delivery.

Screenwriter

Writes screenplay either from an original idea or, more commonly, from a published story. Scripts usually go through many drafts and some take years to come to fruition. Some writers specialise in just producing stories and treatments, which are passed on to others who work on detail and dialogue. Some are 'script doctors', re-shaping others' screenplays. Some are 'auteur' directors, such as Woody Allen and Quentin Tarantino who write all their own scripts.

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Director of Photography

Responsible for the look of a film, its lighting, composition and colour. Chooses film stock (lenses, camera settings and movements). Director and Operator decide this after 'line-up'. Oversees grading (printing) of the final print (cut). Although some Directors of Photography operate the camera, most scarcely touch it.

Production Designer

Determines the physical look of a movie and every element that is seen on screen. Interprets and visualises the script with the director and collaborates with the Director of Photography. Must have an extensive technical knowledge of special effects, camerawork and photographic stock. Initial designs are in sketch form, later elaborated into detailed drawings for the construction department.

Composer

Enhances the mood of the film and highlights significant moments. The orchestra plays in front of a screen showing short loops of the finished cut while the conductor hears the soundtrack through headphones and matches the rhythm to the image.

Editor

A good editor, working alongside the director in the cutting room, shapes the pace and feel of a film. Dull footage can be transformed at this stage. They determine narrative logic, subtlety, impact. As shooting progresses, they assemble the material into a rough cut. The old-fashioned metal editing table on which film is literally cut and pasted is giving way to tidier and swifter computer editing.

Casting Director

Negotiations with stars, often key to financial backing, are dealt with by the Producer and Director. Most other roles are handled by the casting director who hires players and negotiates contracts. Usually a woman - because she is immune to temptations offered by hungry starlets - she has an encyclopaedic knowledge of actors and agents.

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Associate Producer

Acts as troubleshooter when technical and logistical problems arise. Liaises between production and post-production team.

Production Manager

Handles the day-to-day organisation of a film production, scheduling, issuing of call sheets, accommodation, transportation etc. He or she is the "go to" person for every need on a set. The job calls for experience in the practical rather than the creative aspects of film production, and is key to an efficient shoot.

Location Manager

Works closely with the director and production designer to find places, buildings, interiors and terrains suitable for the production and then negotiate contracts with owners, sometime organising reinstatement when the production has finished.

Script supervisor

Often known as "Continuity", this is traditionally a woman's job. Armed with stopwatch, clipboard and digital camera, she times each take, records which lens and lens speed is used, logs all the camera moves and characters' positions and every dialogue change, maps the prop layout, and ensures each shot matches up. Her 'book' is the most precious script on a set, stuffed with notes recording every moment of a film's production.

First Assistant Director

The director's right-hand man, the organizers and logistical expert who ensure everything is ready when it should be. They call rehearsals and order silence before a take and plan the next day's shooting schedule. They are the conduit to the director; etiquette demands that requests or information passes via the First AD.

Property Master

Anything that isn't actually an integral part of the set is a prop: a telephone, a framed photograph, a plate of spaghetti. They are responsible for the prop department, making sure all dressing and action props are in the right place and that the stand-by prop men have everything they will need. They run the dressing gangs who prepare the sets ahead of the filming unit and clear them afterwards.

Production Accountant

Presides over the daily ledgers, organises the payments of artists and crew, ensures that expenditure falls within the budget, and liaises closely with the associate producer.

Unit Caterer

Union pressure over the years has successfully raised standards of location catering. Productions have come to a standstill because caterers were not up to scratch. Visitors to far-flung, windswept locations are sometimes surprised to see abundant spreads dished up from retired ice-cream vans and then consumed on ancient double-decker buses converted to dining rooms.

Unit Publicist

Issues a stream of press releases during production, and assists visiting journalists and TV crews (unless the set is closed to outsiders). Creates the EPK (electronic press kit), which is used during the film's release period, and perhaps for a "Making of" documentary. Tact and patience are essential where notorious stars are concerned.

Honeywagon Driver

The honeywagon is a truck or trailer containing chemical toilet cubicles, essential on a location shoot where a wilderness might otherwise be defiled. In epics involving thousands of extras, many such vehicles may be needed.

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Camera Operator

Senior figure in a camera crew, they film the scene as the director instructs, and are key to the composition of every shot, starting and stopping the camera on the commands "Turnover" and "Cut" and seeing that it is run correctly during a take.

Focus Puller

First assistant to the camera operator; they ensure that the actors are in focus. They measure the focal lengths of each shot meticulously with a tape measure before each take and change the film magazines. They also check for the dreaded "hair in the gate" - stray strands of hair or small pieces of celluloid that get stuck behind the lens and show up on the screen.

Clapper-loader

Snaps the clapper-board and marks the slate at each take, so sound and picture can be synchronized when the film is edited. Also loads the film magazines.

Dolly Grip

'Grips' perform the manual task of moving the camera. The dolly is a wheeled platform carrying the camera itself, the operator and perhaps an assistant, which usually moves along a smooth track. The dolly cannot be motorized because it would vibrate, so the grip must manhandle it. Talented grips are sought after for their ability to repeat the same complicated move time and again without any change of pace.

Sound Mixer

Headphoned and hunched over a digital audio tape recorder, they're the one who at the start of each take calls "Speed" to indicate their equipment is running correctly. Sometimes known as the floor mixer, their function is to ensure dialogue is properly recorded. They also record 'wild tracks' of ambient sound in any given set, or the sound of nearby trains or the birds in a garden.

Boom Operator

Strong, dextrous member of the sound department who can handle the long pole on which the microphone is swivel-mounted. Once lighting and camera positions have been determined the boom operator has to work out how to keep the microphone close to the actors but out of shot without casting any shadows.

Gaffer

Chief electrician, sometimes called "Sparks", who works with the director of photography. An aristocrat of the production force, with his own team to carry out orders regarding site, rig and lighting operations.

Best Boy

Not necessarily young or male, this is the gaffer's senior assistant. They head the team positioning lights and the organisation of power sources.

Second Unit Director

A large production will have a second unit to shoot action sequences, continuity shots, crowd scenes and inserts.

Wrangler

A cowboy term for somebody herding livestock, it has been used in the film industry since silent days for anyone who looks after animals or trains them for special tricks or stunts. Usually they are for horses and dogs, but some films have been known to have chimpanzee, spider and even cockroach wranglers. Strict rules protect animals from harmful practices in filming, unlike the old days when they could be killed on camera.

Greensman

Ensures that plants, real and artificial, look right on a set. As a horticulturalist, they have to know indigenous and seasonal differences, and how best to prevent wilting under bright lights. In the old days nobody cared that Robin Hood's Sherwood was forested with Californian eucalyptus, but now experts in the audience will spot errors.

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Wardrobe

Whether it's outfits for 1,000 Roman legionnaires, or gowns to fill an 18th-century ballroom, or the denims and T-shirts in a teenage comedy - they have to be stored, issued and accounted for, and carefully maintained for their next appearance. Studios once had huge wardrobe departments, but today costumes are usually rented. Stars are occasionally allowed to keep prized items.

Make-up Artist

Early performers wore white faces and black lips so their features would register on camera. The introduction of panchromatic film and the arrival in Hollywood of Max Factor changed everything. Makeup ranges from simple application to elaborate prosthetics that can turn men into gorillas, aliens or pond life. Makeup departments on big films sometimes run to dozens if not hundreds of technicians, and since 1982 the category has had its own Oscar.

Stunt Double

Performs the daring feats that stars cannot do or cannot be allowed to do. Stunt men specialize in being drivers, horsemen, fencers or acrobats.

Stand-in

Stars are too expensive to be kept hanging around on set during the time-consuming process of arranging precise camera and lighting positions, so each has a stand-in of similar build and colouring, and identically costumed. They must remain immobile for long periods as technicians make fussy adjustments.

Stills Photographer

In the old days stills were specially posed after each set-up and extensively used for front-of-house displays at cinemas. Now the stills photographer works during rehearsals. Occasionally he or she will be a "special", a big name photographer hired for the film in the hope that his or her prestige will secure wide coverage in the world's press.

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The post-production supervisor oversees everything that happens up to the point where the film is delivered. This includes dubbing, re-shoots, colour grading, legal clearances, distribution arrangements, previews and settling bills. He or she has to work very closely with the producer, director and editor.

Sound-effects specialist, named after the great Jack Foley who pioneered modern techniques. Provides many of the sounds (other than dialogue) - from subtle footsteps on the stairs, to the blast of a multiple car pile-up. Painstaking post-production work is often carried out on a foley stage - an area with a variety of surfaces and props.