1st AD = Stage Manager for TV

"Quiet on the set!...Sound ready?...Camera ready?...Roll Tape..."

Hi! My name is Sara Scheinman and I am the 1st Assistant Director (1st A.D.) for Res. Life. The quote above is what I will get to say on the set right before each take, but as usual I'm getting ahead of myself. We aren't quite there yet. Right now we are still in pre -production for just over another week. Wow, only a little over a week. That is so daunting. In just over a month this whole thing will be over. I have no idea what I will do with all the time that will be freed up (and it will be a lot!), but I know I will miss the exciting crazy sometimes stressful wonderfulness that is Res. Life.

Again, I'm getting ahead of myself. So you want to know what I do in pre-production? I email. I email for hours on end some nights. I email so much that if emailing were sold by a commercial corporation where you have to pay for every individual email you send I would be responsible for keeping the corporation in business! What am I emailing? I email schedules...shooting schedules, breakdowns for the shoots, rehearsal schedules to the actors, and updates and questions to Pat mostly pertaining to the cast. For I am the official "Keeper of the Cast." I am the link between the cast and the production staff.

That's not all I do. (And here I felt deprived when most of the other people on the crew had 47 million titles and I only had one... little did I know what I was getting myself into!) The 1st AD is to Television what the Stage Manager is to Theater. (Like that SAT style analogy right? :-P) Both positions require being the liaison between the cast and crew, scheduling, conversing with different production departments, and ultimately "calling" the show during production. (All those jobs are why it has taken so long for this post to finally be written...)

In addition to emailing and keeping the cast updated I also work a lot with the script and this wonderful program called Movie Magic Scheduling (which has only made me want to throw my computer out the window a few hundred times...). I read through each draft of the script and breakdown every scene which means I figure out what cast members, props, set decorations, wardrobes, vehicles and other random things are needed in each scene. Then I fill out breakdown sheets with all that information in the Scheduling program and from there it helps me make a pretty shooting schedule and other forms that all the crew need. Before printing those I double check with Chris our King of Props and Set Dec about those lists, Susanne and Pat about our cast and extras, and Pat about our shooting schedule. From there this huge packet, about 41 pages long, is printed for everyone and we go over it in production meetings.

Of course the script has been revised many times, locations have changed, and characters have changed so the breakdown sheets are tweaked and altered regularly. When a massive number of changes occur then new versions are printed for everyone (don't worry, we recycle!!).

Ok I've babbled long enough. I hope you are all still awake!! My next post will be about the next phase: Production. And what it is like to be 1st A.D. ON SET! (Hopefully it will also be funnier :-P) I am incredibly excited to be on set. My background was in theater and my favorite part was always tech week and then the performances. Well, this week is tech week and next weekend is performance number 1!!
-Sara

PS - Pat it may have taken me almost two months to finally post, but look at how long it is! (Sorry Leo! I didn't mean to outbabble you!!...but since I did, can I have the prize? I like Chocolate!)