Set Dynamics: Roles and Responsibilities

Geoff: 00:00:00

Hey there.

Geoff: 00:00:00

Welcome back to the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast.

Geoff: 00:00:03

My name is Geoff and I'm really happy to have Joth Riggs with me today.

Geoff: 00:00:07

We, um, talked to him already in our first episode.

Geoff: 00:00:10

We heard a lot about his background and the work he's done.

Geoff: 00:00:13

I encourage you to go back and listen to the previous episode if you haven't already done so, and you can find his full bio and learn more about him.

Geoff: 00:00:21

But welcome back Joth.

Joth: 00:00:23

Thanks, Geoff.

Joth: 00:00:23

Appreciate it.

Joth: 00:00:24

Good.

Joth: 00:00:24

Be back.

Geoff: 00:00:25

Uh, we're gonna talk more about set logistics today.

Geoff: 00:00:29

Uh, you've got lots of experience as a first ad, I think a second ad, and as a director, what does all of that look like?

Geoff: 00:00:36

What's the relationship between, those roles when you're on set?

Geoff: 00:00:40

That's what I wanna talk about today.

Joth: 00:00:42

Yeah, sure.

Joth: 00:00:42

Uh, so the first ad is ultimately responsible for basically keeping the machine moving and, making sure that everything is, done smoothly, efficiently, and safely.

Joth: 00:00:56

Um, those are all sort of the, the three main priorities.

Joth: 00:00:59

Um, you know, essentially we say that the priority of the ads is to.

Joth: 00:01:06

Get it in the can.

Joth: 00:01:07

Um, there's a lot of moving parts and, uh, somebody needs to organize all of that and, and keep the whole process streamlined.

Joth: 00:01:16

It's very easy to end up with chaos on a set because there's so many moving parts, so many different departments.

Joth: 00:01:23

Every department's got their own responsibility.

Joth: 00:01:26

Um, but you know, they sort of have blinders on.

Joth: 00:01:29

Sometimes they're focused on.

Joth: 00:01:31

Their immediate task and not always how it fits all, into the big picture.

Joth: 00:01:36

That's the job of the assistant directors to make sure that everything is working in harmony.

Joth: 00:01:42

It's the director's responsibility to make sure everything works creatively and the ad's job to make sure everything works logistically.

Geoff: 00:01:49

so the, director is getting the story told.

Joth: 00:01:54

Absolutely.

Geoff: 00:01:55

assistant director is making sure all the parts work so that the director can do his job.

Geoff: 00:02:00

Does

Joth: 00:02:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joth: 00:02:02

Ideally the director should be really focused on getting great performances from their actors.

Joth: 00:02:07

That's their priority.

Joth: 00:02:09

Uh, whatever it takes for the director to be able to do that.

Joth: 00:02:13

The assistant director needs to facilitate.

Joth: 00:02:16

So, getting the actors ready, making sure that the right

Joth: 00:02:19

actors for the right scene are, you know, ready and in place when, the crew is ready,

Joth: 00:02:25

making sure that the crew all knows what are we doing, what are we, uh, what are we setting up for?

Joth: 00:02:30

What's happening after this so they can be preparing for that.

Joth: 00:02:34

and so on.

Joth: 00:02:34

Yeah, it's a, it's a big logistical process.

Geoff: 00:02:37

So let's talk for a moment about first ad, second ad, uh, what the differences are and what each of them might be doing like on a daily basis.

Joth: 00:02:46

Yeah, so the first ad is really focused on

Joth: 00:02:50

the shot

Joth: 00:02:51

we are doing right now.

Joth: 00:02:53

So, uh, whatever the crew is either shooting or

Joth: 00:02:57

setting up for the ad is

Joth: 00:03:00

prioritizing actually, and then I'll go a step further.

Joth: 00:03:03

Um,

Joth: 00:03:05

and, and then what

Joth: 00:03:06

happens after that

Joth: 00:03:07

and what does today look like?

Joth: 00:03:08

The second ad

Joth: 00:03:09

is generally working on preparing for the next day's work.

Joth: 00:03:13

So they tend to be a day ahead.

Joth: 00:03:16

Uh, they will often work back in a

Joth: 00:03:19

trailer,

Joth: 00:03:20

back in the

Joth: 00:03:20

production

Joth: 00:03:21

office.

Joth: 00:03:22

They are going around

Joth: 00:03:23

to different departments saying, Hey.

Joth: 00:03:25

Uh, you know, tomorrow

Joth: 00:03:26

we're using

Joth: 00:03:27

this jib.

Joth: 00:03:28

Tomorrow we have this stunt, uh, you know, are you guys ready for that tomorrow wardrobe, you know, we go into a pool, are you ready for the costumes to get all wet?

Joth: 00:03:38

And do we have everything we need to get our actors dried off and, and so on?

Joth: 00:03:42

So they'll be talking to the different departments throughout the day.

Joth: 00:03:46

On what the next day's work is gonna entail to make sure that

Joth: 00:03:49

when the

Joth: 00:03:50

next day comes, the first ad has everything they need to just implement.

Geoff: 00:03:55

Call times, perhaps that type of thing.

Joth: 00:03:57

Yeah.

Joth: 00:03:58

Well, the first ad will it depends on the relationship between the first and the second.

Joth: 00:04:03

Um,

Joth: 00:04:04

the first ad ultimately has the authority, will make the

Joth: 00:04:08

final call.

Joth: 00:04:09

The second ad

Joth: 00:04:10

will often speculate on what they think the first ad's gonna

Joth: 00:04:13

want.

Joth: 00:04:14

you know, they have a lot of similar knowledge, obviously, and similar information.

Joth: 00:04:19

So they might say, we have a split, for example, which means we have partial daylight work, partial night

Joth: 00:04:25

work,

Joth: 00:04:26

So they, you know, they're looking at the

Joth: 00:04:28

script as

Joth: 00:04:29

well.

Joth: 00:04:29

They're

Joth: 00:04:29

looking at the scenes.

Joth: 00:04:30

They know how much work is in each, and they might

Joth: 00:04:32

say, you

Joth: 00:04:33

know.

Joth: 00:04:34

We

Joth: 00:04:34

have roughly half and half, uh, I think we might wanna shoot for a noon call, which basically means we'll go till midnight, half daylight, half night

Joth: 00:04:44

work.

Joth: 00:04:45

And then the first ad we will assess that and say, yeah, I think Noon's perfect, or, no, we actually need to come in earlier for this, or what have you.

Joth: 00:04:54

And it's a discussion and uh, and then the second ad applies whatever the first ad wants.

Geoff: 00:05:00

Mm-hmm.

Geoff: 00:05:01

What advice would you have for somebody thinking they might want to fill this type of role?

Geoff: 00:05:05

what knowledge or experience do you think they should have?

Geoff: 00:05:09

What's the, the best route to get into those roles?

Joth: 00:05:13

Uh, okay.

Joth: 00:05:13

So two different questions.

Joth: 00:05:15

The route to get in and what, what experience do they need to have?

Joth: 00:05:18

I'd say, uh, first of all, the entry level position on any film set other than a free intern is a production assistant.

Joth: 00:05:28

sometimes referred to as a set pa, so a set

Joth: 00:05:32

PA works under

Joth: 00:05:33

the assistant directors, so they're part of the ad team

Joth: 00:05:37

and they

Joth: 00:05:37

help,

Joth: 00:05:37

facilitate whatever we need to make it happen.

Joth: 00:05:40

Uh, a

Joth: 00:05:41

lot of times that means, um, fanning out to let people know when we're rolling so that somebody's not, uh, you know, hammering, you know,

Joth: 00:05:49

nearby when we're rolling sound, uh, stopping people from walking into the shot,

Joth: 00:05:56

stuff like

Joth: 00:05:56

that.

Joth: 00:05:56

So they, they, just do a lot of accommodating, facilitating.

Joth: 00:06:00

Communicating with people, uh, whatever the a's instructions are and so on.

Joth: 00:06:05

So that's a great entry level position.

Joth: 00:06:08

Um, other, sometimes other departments have their own PAs as well.

Joth: 00:06:12

Sometimes there might

Joth: 00:06:12

be a camera PA, a wardrobe pa. So for example, if you're interested in one of the other

Joth: 00:06:19

departments, uh, besides the ad department, you might see if there's a PA position in their department, which it's, again, it's like a runner, a gopher.

Joth: 00:06:29

Uh, you know, and anything I can do to help kind of position.

Joth: 00:06:33

So that's the best way to get in, uh, if you wanna be an a, an ad. And so as a PA you get to spend a lot of time on set.

Joth: 00:06:43

You get to understand all the different roles on a set, what everybody does, who's responsible for what, and so on.

Joth: 00:06:50

And so that starts to arm you for what it takes to become a second assistant director.

Joth: 00:06:57

Um, there's multiple second assistant directors on a film crew as well.

Joth: 00:07:01

There's a key second assistant director, that's the one we were just talking about who does the call sheet.

Joth: 00:07:07

And then there's second, second assistant director.

Joth: 00:07:10

And then beyond that, there may be additional second assistant directors.

Joth: 00:07:14

if you're on a small project, you may only have one.

Joth: 00:07:17

If you're on a Marvel Blockbuster, you may have seven or eight second ads.

Joth: 00:07:23

Um, with different responsibilities.

Joth: 00:07:25

some are assigned to different units.

Joth: 00:07:27

You might have a stunt unit, you might have a driving unit, um, an action unit.

Joth: 00:07:33

And, uh, so you, you may have multiple second ads.

Joth: 00:07:36

So while you have the second or the key second working on tomorrow's work, as I mentioned, the second, second tends to be right on set near the first ad. Facilitating today's shot, the shot we're setting up right now.

Joth: 00:07:52

So while I'm first thing, for example, I have a second, second who's helping me set Background.

Joth: 00:08:00

Background are what we refer to as the extras on set, the atmosphere.

Joth: 00:08:05

And uh, you know, if we're in a restaurant scene, all the other people sitting in the restaurant eating that don't have dialogue, uh, would be considered extras.

Joth: 00:08:15

That has to be set.

Joth: 00:08:17

That's the one creative aspect of the ad's role.

Joth: 00:08:21

well, maybe not the one, but it is, one of the bigger ones.

Joth: 00:08:24

So creatively speaking, the ads tend to be the ones that set up all of the blocking, all of the movement of all of the non-speaking parts in a scene.

Joth: 00:08:35

Um, if you have one in particular, let's say you've got a, a character on a sidewalk and, uh, somebody goes up and, you know, may a, a street performer and somebody goes up and throws money in, in his hat and he says, you know, thank you very much.

Joth: 00:08:51

And then the guy keeps going, that would be considered a featured extra.

Joth: 00:08:55

Because that extra, they still don't have lines, but they are actually called out in the script.

Joth: 00:09:01

They actually have specific action as opposed to just random passerby in the background.

Joth: 00:09:07

so, you know, depending course on how big the project is, we'll determine how many seconds you need.

Joth: 00:09:13

You may need, several just to work with all of the extras and to set them.

Joth: 00:09:18

Um, so as a pa. Your next move would typically be if you were to move into the ad department would be as a second, second ad or additional second ad when you're working as a second.

Joth: 00:09:33

Second for a little while, you start to understand a bit more about department heads and, and bigger picture items.

Joth: 00:09:40

Then you kind of move up to, to key second ad. Um, and then the next step after that would be first ad. So that's the hierarchy.

Geoff: 00:09:49

very interesting.

Geoff: 00:09:50

now you've worked in all of those roles, is that correct?

Joth: 00:09:53

I have.

Joth: 00:09:53

Yeah.

Joth: 00:09:54

There, you know, there, actually there's one other sort of intermediate role that I didn't mention, uh, I did in the last podcast, which is, assistant Director trainee.

Joth: 00:10:04

there is a training program that the Directors Guild, offers that trains people to become assistant directors.

Joth: 00:10:12

Um, there's only a handful of them, maybe a, dozen or two dozen.

Joth: 00:10:17

in the country.

Joth: 00:10:18

And so, um, if you're fortunate to be able to get into that program, then it is a bit of a stepping stone.

Joth: 00:10:25

You'll work for 400 days, which is essentially almost two years as an assistant director trainee.

Joth: 00:10:32

The DGA will assign you to projects and you'll basically kinda work as a shadow to the second ad.

Joth: 00:10:41

And then when you finish your 400 days, you become a second ad. So I actually was in that program, actually I, I started as a pa. So I was a pa, well, gosh, I'll go even further.

Joth: 00:10:51

I started as an intern before I was ever in a paid position.

Joth: 00:10:55

I worked for free on a set and, uh, and then I worked my way up to PA and got, you know, basically minimum wage and.

Joth: 00:11:06

The, the great thing again is that it allowed me to really start to understand the inner workings of a set.

Joth: 00:11:12

and then I was fortunate to get accepted into that training program.

Joth: 00:11:16

So I did 400 days as a DGA trainee.

Joth: 00:11:20

Then I moved into the DGA as an assistant director, and was a second assistant director.

Joth: 00:11:25

Was a second.

Joth: 00:11:26

Second.

Joth: 00:11:27

I was an additional second, so.

Joth: 00:11:30

Depending on the projects I ended up on, I would either be working with background, I would be working with what we call first team, which is principal actors, getting them ready, getting through hair and makeup and so on.

Joth: 00:11:42

Um,

Joth: 00:11:43

by the

Joth: 00:11:43

way, I

Joth: 00:11:43

mentioned that the

Joth: 00:11:44

second, second works on set with the first ad. you may have another second.

Joth: 00:11:48

Second or an additional second.

Joth: 00:11:50

Running first team back at base camp.

Joth: 00:11:53

Getting the actors through hair and makeup every morning get making sure that they know what we're doing.

Joth: 00:11:58

Escorting them to and from the set.

Joth: 00:12:00

Oh, I'm sorry.

Joth: 00:12:00

I actually didn't answer the second part of your question.

Joth: 00:12:03

The first one was how to get there.

Joth: 00:12:04

The second was what are the skills necessary?

Joth: 00:12:07

That's an important one, and that's something that I learned in the training program that, first of all, you have to have an absolute can-do attitude.

Joth: 00:12:16

Um, you, you really need that to be in the film industry at all.

Joth: 00:12:20

Uh, it's gonna require a lot of effort, on your part, a lot of energy.

Joth: 00:12:26

And, you know, it's not a nine to five sit at a desk, punch a clock kind of job.

Joth: 00:12:32

It's a kind of job where you do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Joth: 00:12:35

And so if you're not, you know.

Joth: 00:12:38

Ready and willing and able to do whatever it takes.

Joth: 00:12:42

Yeah, you're not gonna last very long, right?

Joth: 00:12:44

You, you've really gotta be ready to jump in and help out and do whatever.

Joth: 00:12:48

so that can do attitude is, high priority.

Joth: 00:12:52

The second thing that's really important in particular for the ads is diplomacy.

Joth: 00:12:58

The ads are the management department.

Joth: 00:13:02

so therefore we have authority.

Joth: 00:13:04

We can essentially tell the crew what to do.

Joth: 00:13:08

However, we also have to answer to the higher ups we have to answer to the studio, the producers.

Joth: 00:13:18

Um, and then our principal actors, especially our lead actors, you know, they carry a lot of weight on a project.

Joth: 00:13:25

There's not an authority scenario with that, but you don't wanna ruffle feathers of your actors.

Joth: 00:13:31

That causes a lot of problems.

Joth: 00:13:33

So you have to be able to tell people what to do without people feeling like they're being told what to do.

Joth: 00:13:42

It's a really fine line, and so diplomacy is really critical.

Joth: 00:13:46

You can't say, Hey, you, you know, cut it out or do this now.

Joth: 00:13:53

Even though technically you have that authority, you ruffle feathers and you're gone.

Joth: 00:13:58

You have to do it in a way that respects people, that treats people, as professionals, because everybody else has their jobs.

Joth: 00:14:06

You have to really understand their priorities so you can come and meet them where they are to try and get what you need while allowing them to get what they need.

Joth: 00:14:17

Because there's a lot of friction on a film set because every department, works for their department head.

Joth: 00:14:26

They don't work for you, so to speak.

Joth: 00:14:29

And so, you

Joth: 00:14:30

know, for

Joth: 00:14:31

example, if you work in the camera department as an assistant camera, the DP is usually the

Joth: 00:14:36

person who's gonna be

Joth: 00:14:38

hiring

Joth: 00:14:39

or allowing you to be hired on their team.

Joth: 00:14:42

Ad don't hire camera team.

Joth: 00:14:44

So

Joth: 00:14:44

even though the ad has the authority to say, Hey, you need to be doing this or

Joth: 00:14:48

that

Joth: 00:14:49

they wanna please their boss, which is gonna be the dp, and if the DP had them doing something different, you've got conflict.

Joth: 00:14:57

So you have to understand

Joth: 00:14:59

the hierarchy, what their priorities are, and again, what yours are and how you can meet them.

Joth: 00:15:05

Um, so, so diplomacy is key.

Geoff: 00:15:08

Yeah, I mean, of what you're saying works of course, and is important in all areas of life, and especially in leadership.

Geoff: 00:15:15

So I I think very much what you're talking about is leadership type roles

Joth: 00:15:19

Yeah.

Joth: 00:15:20

Management.

Geoff: 00:15:20

Yeah.

Geoff: 00:15:21

And, doing it well is important.

Joth: 00:15:24

Absolutely.

Joth: 00:15:25

Um, unfortunately, there are a lot of

Joth: 00:15:28

people

Joth: 00:15:28

on film sets that don't understand good management skills, and there's reputations out there.

Joth: 00:15:35

I. Some ads that are screamers or, you know, just don't treat people right.

Joth: 00:15:41

they make the rest of us look bad and it's unfortunate.

Joth: 00:15:45

Um, but the good ones are, calm and understanding and communicative

Joth: 00:15:51

and those are

Joth: 00:15:52

all things that are gonna make you a really strong ad and team player and you're gonna work a lot more often.

Geoff: 00:15:59

Yeah.

Geoff: 00:15:59

It also sounds to me like, one of the things as you're, you're starting out and maybe working your way up, one of the things that you're doing is learning the different parts and the different departments of what's going on on a set.

Geoff: 00:16:13

And the more you know everyone else's roles, while you may not know how to, to actually fulfill the role yourself, having an understanding of them is really gonna help you do your job.

Joth: 00:16:23

Yeah, you really need to put yourself in their shoes because here's the unfortunate.

Joth: 00:16:27

Fortunate thing about the film industry, it's an entire world of freelancers.

Joth: 00:16:31

Nobody has job security.

Joth: 00:16:34

We work on that project and when that project's over, every last one of us is unemployed.

Joth: 00:16:40

So when you're talking to a special effects guy who's setting up his pyrotechnics or whatever, uh, you needed to move quicker or you need him to do it somewhere else.

Joth: 00:16:51

Remember that, that person's priority is making sure that that pyrotechnic goes off exactly as planned and that it's perfect because that's how he gets his next job.

Joth: 00:17:03

And so anything you do to curb that is gonna be met with resistance, right?

Joth: 00:17:09

So they aren't always the crew is not always gonna cooperate if you aren't, again, coming alongside them.

Joth: 00:17:16

Now if you have the understanding that, okay, what this person requires, let's say it's a prop person and they're building a prop or something.

Joth: 00:17:23

Okay?

Joth: 00:17:23

I know that, that the producers or the director has been coming down hard on them to make sure that this is done on time or that it looks a certain way and you know, they need to use the drill and we're shooting and you need them to be quiet.

Joth: 00:17:40

So it's rather than just say, Hey, cut it out, you know, you need to stop right now.

Joth: 00:17:46

You need to say, Hey, you know, can you go do that over there?

Joth: 00:17:50

Or How much more time do you need?

Joth: 00:17:52

Maybe, maybe we can stall.

Joth: 00:17:54

I mean, maybe it's like, well, I only need two more minutes and then I'm done.

Joth: 00:17:58

Okay.

Joth: 00:17:58

You know what?

Joth: 00:17:59

We might be able to afford to take two minutes and like, okay, well then, then I'm gonna let the gaffer tweak the light that he was just talking about.

Joth: 00:18:07

So finish up.

Joth: 00:18:08

But you know, so it's communication and it's understanding what that person needs, understanding that the gaffer has requested, he needs a minute, you know, and again, it's this big dance, all right?

Joth: 00:18:19

But the Big thing is that you have to

Joth: 00:18:21

understand what people require and then you have to really be diplomatic and respectful of their needs.

Geoff: 00:18:28

Well, Joth, you've given us a really good perspective on the logistics and the roles, on set, especially with regards to, uh, assistant directors and the various roles that come under that.

Geoff: 00:18:38

Um, now your experience, of course, goes into directing as well, which is, different again, from any of those roles.

Geoff: 00:18:47

What I would like you to do is take a few moments and tell us about your course because, you've got a very extensive course, it's called Directing Your Movie.

Geoff: 00:18:55

Uh, we're actually, it's available on our website.

Geoff: 00:18:59

for those who are listening, you can go to, uh, ffa association.com and find it under online courses.

Geoff: 00:19:05

But tell us about that course right now, please.

Joth: 00:19:08

Yeah.

Joth: 00:19:09

Well first of all, I started as a director, um, early on with short films, and then I moved into assistant directing because I had opportunities.

Joth: 00:19:18

I really enjoyed it and, uh, and then it kind of stuck for a while.

Joth: 00:19:22

And then later in recent years, I've gone back to directing again.

Joth: 00:19:28

I

Joth: 00:19:28

still

Joth: 00:19:28

assistant direct as well.

Joth: 00:19:29

I

Joth: 00:19:29

I like both.

Joth: 00:19:31

Um, but

Joth: 00:19:32

because I've done so much assistant directing, which is essentially the right hand man of the director, I have worked with so many directors.

Joth: 00:19:41

I have seen so many

Joth: 00:19:42

directors in action.

Joth: 00:19:45

some who are amazing, and some who are

Joth: 00:19:48

terrible.

Joth: 00:19:49

I've been able to learn so much from watching them and experiencing what they're going through.

Joth: 00:19:56

And it's, ironic because I often say, 'cause, I mean,

Joth: 00:19:58

I've worked with some of the

Joth: 00:19:59

best directors in the business.

Joth: 00:20:01

I learned way more from the terrible ones because the best directors make it look so

Joth: 00:20:07

easy.

Joth: 00:20:08

it's almost like sleight of hand, you know?

Joth: 00:20:10

Wow.

Joth: 00:20:11

How did they do that?

Joth: 00:20:12

That was amazing.

Joth: 00:20:13

They said one thing and got exactly what they needed.

Joth: 00:20:16

So it's a little harder to discern, but the bad directors, it's super easy to see what doesn't work.

Joth: 00:20:22

You know?

Joth: 00:20:23

Whoa, okay.

Joth: 00:20:24

When you approach somebody like that, you don't get what you're looking for, you know, or you, your miscommunication is really causing, a problem with the crew and so on.

Joth: 00:20:36

so I knew that AI knew I had a lot to offer and so I thought, you know,

Joth: 00:20:41

I wanna put something together from a logistics standpoint on directing, because so often a lot of

Joth: 00:20:48

what you read or watch on directing is about the creative side which is super important, but a lot of people don't really talk about the nuts and bolts of directing what is required from a, director.

Joth: 00:21:02

What do you do when you, when you first get on set,

Joth: 00:21:05

you know, what's the first thing a director does?

Joth: 00:21:07

A lot of people it'll talk about things like that.

Joth: 00:21:10

What's the second thing you do?

Joth: 00:21:12

You know, it's just not

Joth: 00:21:13

the sort of thing you generally talk about.

Joth: 00:21:15

Um, and so, so I talk about the specifics of the day-to-day, what that

Joth: 00:21:21

looks like in pre-production

Joth: 00:21:23

When you're in development, developing the story, the script casting, uh, scouting, and then what that looks like

Joth: 00:21:30

when you're actually shooting, when you're onset during production.

Joth: 00:21:33

What's the day to day look like?

Joth: 00:21:35

and then

Joth: 00:21:36

post-production, I mean, it's, it's a long process.

Joth: 00:21:39

There's a lot to it, and my course goes step by step.

Joth: 00:21:43

I think there's 64 segments, uh, covering, each one, um, from A to Z all the way through.

Geoff: 00:21:51

mm-hmm.

Geoff: 00:21:52

Sounds, very extensive

Joth: 00:21:54

It's very thorough.

Geoff: 00:21:55

Yeah.

Geoff: 00:21:55

Yeah.

Geoff: 00:21:56

So, as I mentioned, you can find that course, um, under online courses on our website, faf association.com.

Geoff: 00:22:04

Uh, how might they best know whether it's suited for them?

Joth: 00:22:09

Well, there's a trailer for the, for the course and, and I believe you have that on your site as well.

Joth: 00:22:14

it's just a brief, it's a, it's a two or three minute trailer where I basically kind of give you a snippet into a moment honest film set where I talk about all of the different roles and it's the kind of thing that either really excites you or completely bores you.

Joth: 00:22:33

And I think that's one way to know whether or not film is for you, if that trailer.

Joth: 00:22:37

Sounds super exciting Then this is definitely the thing for you, and I think you'll get a lot out of that course.

Geoff: 00:22:44

So tell us about Whitestone Entertainment, your production company, and, uh, what you've been working on or what's coming up.

Joth: 00:22:51

you know, it's initially way back when I came out of film school and, and started doing short films.

Joth: 00:22:56

It was Whitestone Productions.

Joth: 00:22:59

Um, as I got more involved in the film industry and, I realized that what really sets great films apart is whether or not they're,

Joth: 00:23:09

entertaining.

Joth: 00:23:10

and I thought, you know what?

Joth: 00:23:11

It's not just enough to actually make a movie.

Joth: 00:23:13

You gotta make it great.

Joth: 00:23:14

You gotta make it entertaining.

Joth: 00:23:16

And that's when I changed the company name to Whitestone Entertainment.

Joth: 00:23:19

Um, Whitestone, which by the way comes from Revelations two 17,

Joth: 00:23:24

where Jesus says, I give you each a white stone.

Joth: 00:23:27

He's making reference to in their days of hearing, court trials, jurors would be given a white and a black stone, and at the end of the testimonies, they would put a white or a black stone in a pouch to determine guilty or not guilty.

Joth: 00:23:42

And I always love that knowing.

Joth: 00:23:44

Jesus says, in Revelations, I give you each a not guilty verdict, a white stone.

Joth: 00:23:50

So that's where the name of my company comes from.

Joth: 00:23:52

Um, and Whitestone is essentially, those are projects that originate with me.

Joth: 00:23:56

So right now we have a feature film and development, uh, an action thriller.

Joth: 00:24:00

Actually, we're in pre-production, we're casting as we speak.

Joth: 00:24:04

it's an action thriller that, um, myself and my writing partner, Matthew Easton wrote and, um, we are hoping to shoot it later this year in New Mexico.

Geoff: 00:24:14

Cool, cool, cool.

Geoff: 00:24:15

So you still work on projects for other production companies.

Geoff: 00:24:18

You get hired as a director, hired as a first ad or second ad, but your own projects are done through Whitestone Entertainment.

Joth: 00:24:26

Yeah, that's correct.

Joth: 00:24:27

So I, I do direct for other people.

Joth: 00:24:29

Those would not be considered a white stone.

Joth: 00:24:31

White Stone is a project that, yeah, that, that comes from me.

Joth: 00:24:34

Yeah.

Geoff: 00:24:35

We'll get links in the show notes for, uh, your production company and also tell us where people can find you if they wanna, learn more.

Joth: 00:24:43

Sure.

Joth: 00:24:43

Um, well, my production company website is whitestone entertainment.com

Joth: 00:24:48

and, uh, I'm on social media.

Joth: 00:24:50

I'm, I'm mostly on.

Joth: 00:24:51

Facebook.

Joth: 00:24:52

I post a lot of behind the scenes photos from a lot of the sets that I work on there.

Joth: 00:24:58

I'm also on Instagram.

Joth: 00:24:59

I'm on LinkedIn.

Joth: 00:25:00

but you'll see, you'll get the most out of the experience if you followed me on Facebook.

Geoff: 00:25:06

Cool.

Geoff: 00:25:06

Well, I really appreciate your, um, your input today.

Geoff: 00:25:11

I think for me.

Geoff: 00:25:12

It's been a, a unique interview in that we haven't really covered this type of stuff, before.

Geoff: 00:25:18

And, you know, to have somebody walk through the logistics of set and, uh, the roles on set.

Geoff: 00:25:25

I think it's very valuable for those who aren't so familiar.

Joth: 00:25:28

Well, you know, but, that's one thing I wanted to mention by the way, is a lot of people, when they think they wanna go into film, they all think they wanna be the director or.

Joth: 00:25:36

the producer.

Joth: 00:25:38

And don't realize that there's, uh, probably 150 different things you can do on a film set and so many more opportunities.

Joth: 00:25:46

I mean, there's only one director on any given movie, but you might have eight grips.

Joth: 00:25:51

So, you know, that's a great way

Joth: 00:25:54

to get involved in production.

Joth: 00:25:57

Uh, and the other thing is, of course, if you're directing

Joth: 00:25:59

and you are new, you're by nature, right?

Joth: 00:26:03

You're gonna be working with a pretty inexperienced team.

Joth: 00:26:06

And so you're not really going to learn a whole lot about how the greats do it.

Joth: 00:26:12

But if you get yourself on a professional film set with bigger, you know, more experienced people.

Joth: 00:26:19

in a smaller role, then you can learn.

Joth: 00:26:22

And so get yourself onto a film set as a set costumer, as a grip or an electrician or a props person or DIT or script supervisor or special effects or stunts.

Joth: 00:26:34

I could go on and on.

Joth: 00:26:35

There's so many different, assets, on a film set, and not everybody needs to be the director.

Joth: 00:26:41

or the producer.

Geoff: 00:26:43

Yeah.

Geoff: 00:26:43

And if your goal is to become a director, you can learn a lot along the way.

Joth: 00:26:47

Well the other thing is that you really need the respect of the crew.

Joth: 00:26:52

'cause you are at the helm and if you have no clue what it is they do, it's gonna be very difficult to get that.

Joth: 00:26:59

So the most respected directors are the ones that have a sense of what it is their crew is doing and why and how they can help.

Joth: 00:27:10

and that just goes a long way toward having a really harmonious work environment, which also means

Joth: 00:27:18

that

Joth: 00:27:19

it's much easier for the director to.

Joth: 00:27:21

get what they want because there's,

Joth: 00:27:22

two kinds.

Joth: 00:27:23

of sets.

Joth: 00:27:23

There's sets.

Joth: 00:27:24

of harmony and sets of chaos, and there can be a lot of, um, antagonism if you have a director who's clueless or doesn't treat the crew right, or with respect.

Joth: 00:27:35

Then there's gonna be a lot of, uh, a lot of friction and it's not gonna be a pleasant experience and the director's not gonna get what they want.

Joth: 00:27:45

When they treat their crew with respect, it's a lot easier to get amazing stuff because then the crew is, willing to go above and beyond or to give it their all to make sure that they're giving the director their best.

Joth: 00:27:57

And that's ultimately what you would want as a filmmaker.

Geoff: 00:27:59

Mm-hmm.

Geoff: 00:28:00

Great advice.

Geoff: 00:28:01

Joth, thank you so much for sharing today.

Geoff: 00:28:03

It's been great having you.

Geoff: 00:28:05

, a lot of deep stuff here and I think a lot of value for our listeners, so I really appreciate it.

Geoff: 00:28:09

Thank you so much for taking your time and sharing.

Joth: 00:28:13

Yeah.

Joth: 00:28:13

Thanks so much, Geoff.

Joth: 00:28:14

I enjoyed it.

Joth: 00:28:15

Appreciate it.

Geoff: 00:28:15

Take care, and I remind everyone, take look for directing your movie.

Geoff: 00:28:21

just go to faf association.com and online courses.