It takes a whole lot of people to make one of those movies you go to see at the cinema.

Some of those people work specifically where the movie is being filmed.  The places where the filming takes place are called locations, and you can find out more about all those important "on location" film jobs by clicking here.

There are also many other people who work to create a movie.  They work before and after the filming, looking after everything from planning to casting to budgets, and putting the film together into the form that you end up seeing.

Here are some of the "behind the scenes" jobs that people do to create movies.

Producer

Producers are the business people behind movies. They choose the film to be made, work out how much it will cost, then set about getting money to fund it. 

Producers then hire people (like the director and heads of the various departments), and make sure that the movie will get a paying audience at the end. 

Production

Creation of the new movie is called production (the movie itself is also known as a production). 

The production manager is in charge of the business side of making of the film.  He or she makes sure that filming happens on time, and manages costs so that the movie doesn't end up costing more than expected. 

Communicating between the production manager and the producer is the line producer,  who is responsible for looking after the budget (managed by the production accountant who makes sure everyone gets paid!) , and for organising everything that is needed for the film to be made.

The production co-ordinator looks after hiring people to work on the movie, both crew, and actors (who are chosen by the casting director).  This person rents all the equipment needed for the film, and is responsible for making sure that everything and everyone is organised to be in the right place at the right time.

A movie needs to be filmed in places that suit the story and are easy for a film crew to use.  To find places to film, and to pay to use them if necessary, the production will have a location manager.  A location scout will first look for and find possible locations, and then the location manager makes sure they are suitable and available to be used when needed.

A publicist works to get publicity for the movie so that the public will hear about it.  For example, when you see an actor interviewed on TV before a movie comes out, that has been organised by the publicist.

Art Department

This large department looks after how the film will look.  This includes costumes, hair styles, make-up, props, sets and settings, and even special effects. Each of these have their own sub-departments, all reporting to the production designer.

The Art Department also has a section which produces all the posters and other graphics for the movie.

Post Production

Shooting the film is only part of the movie making process.  There is a lot that needs to be done to turn the pictures and sound recorded on location into a finished movie.  This is called post production ("post" means "after"), and co-ordinating everything is the responsibility of the post production supervisor.

The scenes of the the film will have been be shot out of order, so an editor works with the director to put the film together in a way that best tells the story.  The film is then cut and put into order by a negative cutter.

Visual effects are added to the film by a team headed by the visual effects supervisor.  The members of this department can create different backgrounds, make completely new scenes to work with or without the live action, add items to the film, or remove unwanted objects.

ACTIVITY: Be a Foley Artist & Make Your Own Sound Effects

The sound of a film is called the soundtrack. The sound designer is responsible for making sure the sound on the finished film is perfect.   Where the actors have been recorded saying their lines is called dialogue, and a dialogue editor puts that together to match the film pictures.  All other sounds are edited in by the sound editor.   Music (also called the musical score) is organised by the music supervisor and written by a composer.  Any other sounds which might be still needed are specially made and recorded by a foley artist.  The final soundtrack is balanced by the re-recording mixer.

When you add in all the crew members who work on location while the film shoot is taking place, you can see that the great movies you see are due to the combined efforts of many talented and clever people.

If you were to work on a movie, what job would you like to do?