The Lingo

In all likeliness if you intern on a production you have the roll of a PA, that's a production assistant. Your job will be supervised by the Assistant Directors and you will have to inform everyone else on and off set as to what's going on shooting wise. I was not aware of any of the lingo that people use on set, and embarrassed myself during the first week. While people realize that you are still learning, it helps if you know the basics. No one was angry, they were just amused.

The first AD will most likely yell the following cues to inform everyone of what's going on, you will echo these...

Picture's Up - The cameras are set and ready to begin rolling on the scene.

Rolling - yeah...they're rolling

Cut - You guessed it

Going Again - rolling will commence immediately after cut has been called

First Team - The cast that will be performing the scene

Second Team - the stand ins

Martini - The last shot of the day

Grace - the last shot before lunch

Wrap - Game over folks

Ten One - polite slang for bathroom ( Hey intern, cover me, ten one)

Flying In - rushing towards set

Moving On - Setting up for the next shot

Crafty - craft services in charge of food

Distro - distribute (Hey kid, distro these call sheets)

PR - Production Report

Locking Set - making sure everyone is quiet and not disrupting the shot

Call Sheets - The schedule for the day

Prelims - a preliminary call sheet for the next day



There are more that have probably slipped my mind, so if you can think of any drop a comment. Most of these are basic, but you will most likely spend your days speaking via walkie talkie. And the more concise you can make your conversations, the better.

-DB