Third Assistant Directors

Here is how this works in practice. Our third-assistant-director roster covers the senior 3rd ADs who handled background-extras choreography, on-set crowd-control, walkie-talkie set-lock. Plus the floor-management hand-off to the 1st AD across the Vikings six-season production at Ashford Studios Wicklow (the Norse-army battle crowd days, the longboat-fleet sea-battle reconstructions), Game of Thrones across Titanic Studios Belfast and Paint Hall (the multi-thousand-extra Battle of the Bastards crowd-management precedent that earned multiple Primetime Emmy wins for outstanding drama series), Foundation across Troy Studios Limerick (the Apple TV+ 320,000 sq ft Trantor-sites crowd days).

Here is the short of it. Penny Dreadful and The Tudors at Ardmore Studios Bray, the Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi Skellig Michael unit-and-helicopter cast-and-crew choreography, the Saving Private Ryan Curracloe Beach Wexford D-Day reconstruction (the largest beach-landing extras-call-in in Irish cinema history with over 750 American-Army-replica extras). Plus the recent Banshees of Inisherin Achill Island unit, Belfast 2021 Troubles-era riot reconstruction, Normal People HBO Trinity-and-Sligo crowd days, and the An Cailín Ciúin Gaeltacht school-and-family crowd-day units.

Here is the breakdown. 3rd AD workflow runs background-extras choreography (the Lock Casting, Lisa Zambra, and Movie Extras Ireland databases plus the Irish-Equity-registered union day-player roster). Walkie-talkie set-lock-and-perimeter discipline on Motorola DP4400e UHF Channel 1 production-Channel-2-art-and-Channel-3-camera split. Plus the floor-management hand-off to the 1st AD on shot-completion-and-reset cycles. Trainee-and-runner integration (the IADT Dún Laoghaire, Pulse College Dublin, Filmbase Ireland, and Trinity Film Studies entry-level pipeline). SIPTU union coverage on the working roster, with day-rate-and-weekly-rate per the Screen Producers Ireland (SPI) industry-collective-agreement. Bilingual EN / Irish (Gaeilge) capacity for Gaeltacht productions.

Here is what that looks like on the ground. Section 481 32% tax credit qualifies 3rd-AD spend through Irish-resident hires plus the 40% regional uplift on named-area shoots. EUR Eurozone with GBP NI dual-currency, plus the Atlantic-maritime-climate weather-discipline (rain-cover-and-cover-set workflow that Banshees and The Wonder shoots demanded), and CTA-borderless cross-border UK movement on Belfast units.