Paper work, always
Stepping up to work as a loader/central loader position means taking on a lot of responsibility you were spared from while being a trainee. These responsibilities include dealing with a lot of paperwork and being the intermediary between the production team and the camera team. Yes, it's a manual job, but it would be a mistake to underestimate the importance of the admin side of the job.
On short form projects (for example, music videos, commercials, or brand videos), the job consists of taking a few pictures and making sure the equipment goes back to the rental company as it was received. On long form projects (like a TV drama or feature film), you need to be sure to have an accurate log of all the equipment, as you'll be dealing with any swaps, repairs, and acquiring or returning equipment on specific days, such as second unit or underwater equipment. You also need to always know what you have available in your truck for future shooting days. Usually this would be logged on a digital IN/OUT form, which is easily editable. The information you need is put the date you received the equipment, the item received, its serial number, and the date it got returned. Sometimes production hires equipment from multiple companies, so you need to make a note of which company each piece of equipment came from as well.
As is very common, accidents happen on set, so items can get damaged or go missing. When this happens, you need to keep track of any incident on a MISSING/DAMAGE REPORT. You need to explain when and what happened, what's missing or damaged, and if it's been replaced. Then you need to take pictures and talk to the rental company or see if you can fix it on set.
A general TO DO LIST is always useful to keep. Whether you want to use a proper editable format or the notes app on your phone, it’s up to you, but it's definitely useful to keep one to hand to remind yourself and your team what needs doing during the week. There are always so many things to do on set, so be sure to write them all down as soon as you think of them. That way you know you won’t forget.
Each day you'd need to keep timings of your own, as well as the whole camera team’s hours worked, to be able to complete everyone’s TIMESHEET. Timesheets include what time you arrived, what time you wrapped, whether you've done any overtime or pre-calls, any travel days, and if production is providing it, the mileage you’ve traveled. Timesheets are then sent through to the production team so that the team members on PAYE get paid through the production accounting department, and the members who are invoicing, know what to invoice.
You also need to keep an eye on the SCHEDULE and CALL SHEET. It's important to know specifically what scenes will be shot on any given day, as well as in the coming weeks, so you and your focus puller can work together to decide if you need pre-calls or any additional equipment or crew. For example, any days that require a low loader or crane could require a pre-call. Days that have a splinter unit (which is an additional, much smaller crew who go out to shoot inserts or special shots like drone shots), would mean you’d need to make sure there is an additional set of lenses and camera body/rig.
There's important information on these forms that will give you an indication of what to prepare for, and keeping in communication with different departments will allow you to be prepared for every scene. For example, the locations team will be able to help you figure out if there is a functional lift in the next day’s location or if there are any specific rules to follow. If the call sheet says there is a 'Location Move', you’d need to ask the locations team how long this move will be and if it will mean fully reloading the truck or just pushing a trolley a short distance to the next location. Always DOUBLE CHECK THIS with the locations team. If you just look on google maps and it says it's a 10min walk, that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s true. Remember, you are responsible for communicating information to your team, so keep positive, open discussions with all the departments. They will get you the information you need!
You’ll also have to keep open discussions running with the rental house about additional equipment that needs to be sent to you or equipment you already have that needs to go back to the rental house. And you need to always be in contact with the production team about consumables (tape, gels, etc.), about hiring additional crew, and so on. We are all working towards the same goal.
CAMERA REPORTS is also very important to keep track of. A lot of the time these reports don’t get read, but they are extremely useful and necessary to have if there is a question about a specific shot. One day you might need to match a shot you did 3 months ago, or reshoot a scene, and to be able to do that, you need to be able to refer back to your notes in the camera report, which will tell you the distance from the camera to the actor, which lens was used, which T stop, the white balance, and ISO, which should all be in the notes on the camera report. For matching shots, it's also helpful to get a screen grab from the DIT, so all of the Heads of Departments can work together to make everything match.
These are some of the admin tasks I’ve had to complete since stepping up to work as a loader, and I have a lot more to learn to build up my method of working to become as efficient as possible. So here’s to learning and bettering ourselves everyday!
