Strategies for larger casts.

craigbowman

craigbowman

Veteran
Extras aside, the largest cast for a project I've worked with was 19. Normally an AD was brought in only on those days when extras needed to be organized.

I'm now working on a feature project that has 117 castmembers and that doesn't include the seven different groups of extras required. Given the cast size it would seem to me that it would be logical for this project to hire an AD for the entire duration of principle and bring on an assistant AD for those days which require the organization and handling of the extras.

Has anyone else worked with larger casts and does the approach I'm thinking of make sense?
 
yeah, definitely. bring in a First AD for the entire shoot and a Second AD for the days with mucho cast to wrangle.
 
I've seen Michael Bay in White Sands on the set of Transformers use a bullhorn to talk to a guy standing six feet away.
 
Haha! Yeah! Apparently he's notorious for using that thing. So much so that the cast crew all threw cheap plastic ones at him one day.
 
You should always have a 1st A.D. on any shoot with more than like 4 crew, haha, but yeah on heavy extra days you want a 2nd A.D. if not a 2nd 2nd A.D. as well. We brought aboard a 2nd 2nd for our final day of filming, where we had quite a few extras at a party scene. The rest just a 1st and 2nd.
 
Haha

Haha

Well, an AD is your best friend as a director if they are good, they will help so much with keeping everything on time, on budget, and organized. Of course, a bad one won't be of much use but I've had some great ADs who really helped keep things smooth. I never bring an AD to our corporate shoots with 3-4 people, the director should be able to manage a crew that size and assume AD responsibilities as well, but when it starts to get up there towards 10 people at least it becomes necessary. When you have real departments and whatnot, haha.
 
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