An Evening with Craig Huston: The Life of a Career Assistant Director

Craig Huston is a name you might know and might not. He’s not an actor or director or producer, but he’s had a career spanning decades. He has worked on 25 feature films and several TV series. I had the incredible opportunity to listen to him on Monday (7 December, 2009) at the December IFASA meeting.

Visit Craig’s IMDB page. He is a long-time career AD. What an amazing career!

The purpose of Mr. Huston’s discussion was to enlighten the Tucson indie film community on what it is an AD does for a production. Many things I learned I did not know and many I kind of guessed, but he definitely filled in many of the details. His experiences seem to mirror that of another career AD, Peter D. Marshall.

Craig started with some of the basics of what an Assistant Director is and does: first of all, the AD is NOT the director’s assistant (that’s listed in the credits as “Assistant to the Director”). Many seem to think an AD is there for the Producer. This is closer to the truth, but it isn’t the whole truth. Craig drew a diagram on the whiteboard in the room we were in. The circles intersected so there was a small space shared by both circles. On the left, he wrote “director” and “creative” and on the right, “producer” and “money.” In between is where the AD lives.

Some of the duties an AD performs are detailed below:

• Break down the script (using something like Movie Magic) - maintain overall cohesion with the script. The AD in this case needs to know the script better than anyone else on crew.
• Do the location scouts; figure out where and when to shoot and, more importantly, figure out where you will NOT be shooting so the crew can determine where things like equipment will rest, cables can run, lights can stand, microphones can record sound, cameras can record visuals, effects can go, etc.
• Manage extras - determine where, how many, and the overall look of the “crowd.”
• Get the department heads (like costume, makeup, effects, grips, the producer, director, DP/Cinematographer, etc) and break down everything in a meeting.
• Handle production reports to the producer who will want to ensure the production does not go over budget.
• Act as Tech Scout - take the production heads to the various locations so they can see where they will be shooting to take care of any technical details before shooting begins.
• Handle pre-production rehearsals if possible.
• Manage the hair, makeup, and hair tests so the cameraman can determine which lenses, f-stops, and film stock(s) to use.
• Manage photo sessions
• Handle any pre- or post-production second unit footage (B-Roll).
• Handle all the scheduling for cast and crew. This is a ridiculously important part of the AD’s duties. A good AD shines like mad here. A good AD can get the schedule to within 30 minutes of real time. The AD may also have to speak with the director to ensure the production continues on time (and on-budget). There is a massive amount of work involved here - juggling crew, cast, sets, locations, and budget to fit within a pre-designated schedule (ie: you have xyz number of days to shoot for the budget…).
• Talk with the producer. Something interesting Craig mentioned: in film, the director usually picks the AD; in TV, the producer picks the AD. Talking to the producer could mean having a schedule to keep and the AD will need to report.
• Fun info I didn’t know: The final shot is called the Martini Shot. The second-to-last shot is called the “Abbey Singer” because this famous AD would always report to producers phoning in to the production (then largely done on soundstages) that they had just this shot to do and one more to prevent the producers coming to the set. Craig related a cool story of shooting in Russia where the crew spoke no english, but still knew what an “Abbey Singer” was.
• The AD is responsible for safety and security on-set.
• The AD is generally the most visible and vocal person on-set.
• The more communication the AD has with the director, producer, and other persons on set and involved with the production, the better the AD will be at their job (important for those who have never really worked with an AD in the past).
• Some important notes: take care of your cast and crew. Show them you value their time by not taking outrageous breaks, have a schedule and keep to it. Don’t think that you can keep beating a cast and crew to do their thing when you aren’t paying them. If you can’t afford to pay cast and crew, treat them as if you were, anyway.
• The AD can be a whip-bearer here; telling everyone what to do and when. Also, the AD can develop a schedule that works for everyone so they don’t have to.

Finally, I know I am good on-set, but I am not this good. Craig has shown me I don’t really want to be an AD, I really want to direct. I’m better at it. I like being able to trust the people on my crew to do their job(s) without concern.

Thanks for your time and effort, Craig, it is greatly appreciated! Later I hope to do a more formal interview here.

Are you and AD? Would you like to share your experiences? Let me know here!