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The Best Guide You’ll Ever Read for On-Set Etiquette

by Evan LuziMiscellaneous Tips

  • 0

Brandon Tonner-Connolly with Alicia van Couvering write excellently about “The Seven Arts of Working in Film: A Necessary Guide to On-Set Protocol.” The seven arts being:

  1. Presentation
  2. Department
  3. Asking Questions
  4. Following Through
  5. The Next Step
  6. Common Sense
  7. Being a Hero

Imagine that you are in a dark cave with a group of people, and all of you are running around in different directions. In a corner of the cave is a flashlight, which is spinning through the room.

Suddenly, the flashlight lands on a single person. Everyone stops. Until that person does his or her job, no one can move forward.

At some point during the shooting day, that flashlight will land on you. Everyone will be looking at you and waiting for you to do your job, or the production will stop moving. That flashlight can feel like a warm spotlight or it can feel like the high beams of a speeding car, fixing you in its headlights, determined to mow you down. It all depends on how well you understand your job and the jobs of others around you.

This is one of the best guides to setiquette (set etiquette) I’ve ever read, so if you feel you’re still a little green on set, drop what you’re doing, read it, and savor every word.

Evan Luzi

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Creator of The Black and Blue. Freelance camera assistant and camera operator. Available for work: Contact Evan here. Learn more about Evan here.

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