The Art Department

This department is sometimes surprisingly more technical and less 'arty' than the name would suggest, but there is no doubt that it's an extremely creative department. As part of your progression up the roles, you will most likely spend a lot of time drafting at a board or on a computer, producing technical drawings for the construction team. In some of the junior roles, you might not spend much time on the sets until you get more experienced, and your main tasks will be office based on the larger productions. On smaller productions, you may be called on to help with a bit of everything and anything! In the long term, you will learn skills such as how to survey locations, draft and produce construction drawings. In the senior roles you will supervise the builds and manage the team.

Concept artists work within the Art Department, so if you like drawing in a freer way to technical drafting, then concepting could be for you. Although these days, concept art usually requires a good knowledge of at least one 3D modelling program as well as being able to produce 2D concepts. You'll be helping the Production Designer to create the look of the film before the technical drafting begins. 

If you're more of an organiser, but like to be where the 'art' is, then you could look at being an Art Department Coordinator. 

The Set Decoration Department

The Set Decoration team works closely with the Art Department. They source, hire and commission props and dressing for the sets. There can be very little drawing, apart from floor plans to show where the dressing goes, and you might make mood boards to help establish the 'look'. There can be a lot of driving involved, to source the dressing, as well as being on set in the studios or at locations, where you will dress the sets with the help of the props team.

If you like varied working days then this department will be great for you. Good management and multi tasking skills are needed, as well as a fantastic eye for pulling together all the dressing and creating a beautiful, cohesive set, using pieces sourced from all over the country or even the world.

Props

This department is in charge of all the props and dressing that the Set Dec department has sourced. Crew members will look after the logistics of making sure the props and dressing are on the right set at the right time as well as stored and transported properly.

They are generally extremely practical and multi-skilled. If the Set Dec team wants to hang some heavy drapes on a delicate wall, it's the props' job to make that happen in a way that doesn't damage the location wall. There's also a fair bit of hefting heavy items around to get them on set.

Prop Modelling

This department is mostly only found on bigger films. If a smaller production needs a special prop created, they will most likely source the job out to an independent prop workshop rather than hire prop modelers. It's also workshop based for the most part, although you may also be involved in larger items like vehicles and spaceships, or specialist effects such as glowing stalactites in a cave, which require work out of the workshop and on the set. This department suits people who are great with attention to detail and technical skills. You will need to learn a lot of skills with hand tools, machines and various techniques with chemicals. You might specialise in one area of prop making, such as mould making / metal work / 3d printing / leatherwork or one of the other disciplines.

Graphics Department

And lastly, Graphics. Graphics is it's own sub department, sometimes under the umbrella of Art or Set Dec, but usually working for both departments as well as props and numerous other departments. If you're into typography, and illustration then there are many directions that you can go in with this department. You can specialise in sci-fi and modern eras with screen graphics and contemporary or futuristic graphics, or you can focus on period jobs. On productions set in the medieval times, you might have to polish up your calligraphy and write letters with a quill, or for the Victorian period you'll be trying to fake a printing press effect for playbills. You will inevitably spend a lot of time working on the computer, but there is also a fair bit of creating physical items. It can be really diverse and you'll get to work on a huge range of items, from carpets, tapestry and marble floors, to maps, neon signs and spaceship control panels. 

Other Departments

We often get asked about the Costume and Production departments, so have added some notes on these. Both are very different to all the departments above! Costume can be very creative as you can end up designing and concepting. However, it can be some time before you get to that stage, and junior roles will be more about sourcing and buying. There are also lots of technical roles within costume, such as pattern cutters and breakdown artists where you will have to have learned a lot of technical skills.

Production is all about organisation. The Production department is the hub of the feature or series and sorts out all the logistics for all the other departments. As a junior, you are likely to start by organising office equipment and spaces as well as distributing production paperwork. Eventually you could work in positions with a lot of responsibility, taking care of the whole crew and also the production budget. Great for multi taskers who are organised, hard workers and amazing problem solvers.