Creative, Technical and Senior Roles

Making a media product takes more than one person. The people involved are grouped into creative, technical and senior roles, based on the kind of contribution they make.

Group	What the roles do	Roles
Creative	Generate original ideas and content	Animator, content creator, copy writer, graphic designer, illustrator or graphic artist, photographer, script writer, web designer
Technical	Carry out practical work to capture, build and finish products, such as operating cameras or writing code	Camera operator, audio technician, sound editor, video editor, games programmer or developer, web developer
Senior	Provide leadership, direction, coordination and management	Campaign manager, creative director, director, editor in publishing, production manager

The groups show what a role mainly does, not everything it does. Many media jobs mix creative and technical work: a photographer decides the composition and lighting, which is a creative judgement, but also sets up and operates the camera, which is technical. Senior roles usually go further by adding responsibility for other people, so a production manager may have strong ideas but is judged on whether the project is delivered on time and within budget.

Where a role sits also depends on the production phases. Technical work is mostly needed during production and post-production, because there is nothing to capture, build or edit until work is under way. Senior roles usually run right through a production, from planning to the final version, because someone has to keep making decisions and coordinating people at every stage.

Take a trailer for a museum's dinosaur exhibition. The script writer drafts the narration, the illustrator draws the dinosaur artwork, the camera operator films the fossils, the sound editor edits the recorded narration and music, and the video editor assembles the clips. The creative director settles the overall style, and the production manager makes sure everything is finished before opening day. Each role adds a different piece, and the trailer is only complete once all three kinds of work have happened.

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