How Do You Get A 1st AD to Trust and Respect You?
Good question! Don’t try too hard. In my experience, the best way to form trust and respect is to be on time, pay attention and ask the AD’s opinion. Once they feel you’re willing to work with them rather than trying to run their set it generally all falls into place.
Do homework on weekends. KNOW THE SCRIPT. ADs know it inside out, so you have try & match that.
Look at schedule and get in their headspace about what needs to get done so you can try anticipate their (your) challenges.
If you can pose a question or solution at a critical juncture that shows you’ve been thinking ahead, this will often gain their respect.
Their whole mindset revolves around managing the future, so the more you can prepare and try look down that road with them, everyone can use help.
From op perspective one can try glean information from Dir/DP about shooting angles and help ADs w placing the company/trucks/video village. Walking up to them with iPad screenshots of potential fields of view can cut to that chase.
Bring this info to them and have a chat. “Hey, if we do this…I can see that becoming an issue that could be a time suck.” Help them think ahead & show them that you have a common interest in achieving the day.
Make a plan of which department would need a heads up on getting that jump. This of course pertains to your own plans of moving big equipment like cranes etc. “Hey, next setup, the crane base is going to go there so we’ll need that area.”
The relationship between an operator and 1st AD is actually one of the most important AND underrated relationships on a film set. There have been plenty of projects where the 1st AD has relied on me to keep him or her in the loop as to how we are breaking down a scene and the number of pieces of coverage, shot directions, etc. The best way to earn his or her trust / respect is to be honest with him, even if you have to give him news that you know he may not like. People are often giving AD’s unrealistic time estimates for how long certain tasks will take, which is incredibly unhelpful to the person that has to budget the time we have in a given day. I always make sure that I tell the AD exactly how long something will take, and if I hear someone else (like a key grip or even DP) give the AD a massively unrealistic estimate, I’ll actually pull the AD aside and give her a more accurate estimate of how long something might take. That immediately makes the AD feel like I’m on her side and she begins to treat me more as a collaborator. I also sometimes ask the 1st AD to give me her opinion about some creative decision I’m making, having to do with framing choices or shot design. That immediately endears me to the 1st AD because she don’t just want to be considered the person in charge of the schedule and keeping us on track. She is also a creative storyteller and appealing to that side of her does wonders toward making the bond between you and the first AD a strong one.
