Chapter 18 — Quiz

Twenty-five questions to check that you can run a shoot: the roles, the call sheet, the slate, the etiquette and safety, the solo pass order, and on-the-day triage. Mix of multiple choice, true/false (with justification), short answer, and "what's wrong with this shoot?" Answers and a review map are at the end — try each question before you look.

Multiple choice

1. A DP tells the crew, "I want a soft key from camera-left with a stop of separation on the back." Whose job is it to physically place and power the lights to make that happen? - A) The grip - B) The gaffer - C) The AC - D) The PA

2. Which crew role's entire purpose is to prevent the two disasters that cannot be fixed in post — soft focus and lost footage? - A) The gaffer - B) The producer - C) The AC (assistant camera) - D) The sound recordist

3. On a call sheet, "crew call: 08:00" means: - A) The crew should be leaving home at 8:00 - B) The crew should be present, set up, and ready to work at 8:00 - C) The first shot happens at 8:00 - D) The director arrives at 8:00; everyone else is flexible

4. You have three problems at once: a trip hazard across the doorway, a hum in the audio, and a key light that's a stop too dim. Correct triage order? - A) Light, audio, safety - B) Audio, light, safety - C) Safety, audio, light - D) Safety, light, audio

5. The clap on a slate primarily gives the editor: - A) A nice visual to start the shot - B) A matching picture-frame and audio-spike to sync sound to picture - C) Proof that the take was authorized - D) The color-balance reference

6. On a solo shoot run in passes, which job comes immediately before you perform or capture the take? - A) Grip (set the support) - B) Gaffer/DP (set the light and frame) - C) Sound (mic, room tone, listen) - D) Producer (check the plan)

7. Which of these belongs on every call sheet but is most often forgotten by beginners? - A) The director's favorite lens - B) The nearest hospital and route to it - C) The final export codec - D) The color grade reference

8. "That's a wrap" means: - A) Everyone can leave immediately - B) The shoot is over, but nobody leaves until gear is packed and cards are backed up - C) The current scene is finished - D) The camera is out of battery

9. On set, if you notice a light stand is unweighted and leaning toward a person, the right move is: - A) Ignore it — it's the grip's department, not yours - B) Quietly fix it yourself without telling anyone - C) Immediately alert the person whose department it is (or call it out); safety overrides "stay in your lane" - D) Wait until the take is over to mention it

10. If you can bring exactly one extra person to a solo shoot, the highest-value job to hand them is usually: - A) A second camera - B) Sound (mic, levels, headphones, and the authority to stop for noise you can't hear) - C) Slate operator - D) Director

11. The main reason a solo shooter works in passes (one hat at a time) rather than all jobs at once is: - A) It looks more professional - B) One person cannot watch focus, exposure, framing, and audio simultaneously, so sequencing gives them one job at each moment - C) It's required by union rules - D) Passes make the footage higher resolution

12. Which statement best captures the relationship between a schedule and a call sheet? - A) They are the same document with different names - B) The schedule is the producer's private working plan; the call sheet is its published, everyone-gets-it form with contacts, call times, location, and safety details - C) The call sheet comes first and the schedule is derived from it - D) The call sheet is only for professional union shoots

True / False (justify your answer in one sentence)

13. On a small crew, the crew roles disappear — there simply isn't a DP or a sound recordist. T / F?

14. Only the director or a designated safety officer is permitted to stop a shoot for a hazard. T / F?

15. Because no shoot ever goes exactly to plan, detailed planning (call sheet, shot list) is mostly wasted effort. T / F?

16. Self-slating — saying the shot and take number aloud and clapping once on camera — is a reasonable substitute for a physical clapperboard on a solo shoot. T / F?

17. You should schedule the day's must-get shots for the end, saving the best for last. T / F?

18. A used memory card can be reused as soon as the shoot is over, even if the footage isn't backed up yet. T / F?

Short answer

19. Name the core crew roles from §18.1 and give a three-word job description for each.

20. Write, in order, the verbal protocol of a directed take from "quiet on set" through "moving on."

21. State the one safety rule that has no exceptions, and explain in one sentence why it outranks getting the shot.

22. Give the solo-shoot pass order (the seven hats), and explain why support comes before light and light before sound.

What's wrong with this shoot?

23. A crew shows up with no call sheet. Halfway through the day, nobody knows when lunch is, two people are still arguing about which location to shoot at, the on-camera subject has been waiting three hours getting anxious, and when someone burns their hand on a light, three people pull out phones to search for the nearest urgent care. Name every failure and the single document that would have prevented most of them.

24. A solo creator shoots four hours of an event handheld, never once checking audio on headphones, files every clip with the camera's default names, never slates anything, and reuses the one card when it fills. List the specific problems this creates in the edit, and the on-set habits from this chapter that would have prevented each.

25. During a take, the director calls "action." A PA, thinking they're being helpful, walks into the edge of the frame to hand the subject a glass of water, and the sound recordist — who heard a truck outside — says nothing because they "didn't want to interrupt the director." What two pieces of set etiquette were broken, and what should each person have done instead?

Answer Key

Topics to review by question: