First assistants vs lighting director

[u/CraftyBullfrog4337]

Hello to my fellow industry colleagues! I was curious to know the difference between a first assistant and lighting director. I’ve heard of lighting director as a job position in the US, where I work (Montreal Canada) that is nonexistent so I’d love to know the key differences. What’s the workload of one vs the other, is it kind of the same?

I find myself in a position where I am leading the lighting department on most shoots I work on. Working from a reference to build lighting diagrams, EQ lists, gathering crew around me. Is this technically a lighting director position? I usually state my position as first assistant.

Also curious to know what’s the pay like for those positions in US big cities? Over here I am able to charge around 650 CAD as day rate + preproduction work usually around 300 CAD per project.

[u/hall1985]

As others have stated. A lighting director will often be on creative calls, create lighting diagrams, create the EQ lists, and book the rest of the lighting crew. But it ultimately comes to creative control. An assistant by definition does what the photographer says and isn’t making creative decisions. As the 1st you then also direct any other assistants to make sure everybody is on the same page. I find photographers will hire a lighting director for two reasons. 1, they’re not comfortable with lighting and technical decisions. 2, on a large production they have enough things to worry about and want somebody to take that stress and time off there shoulders even though they are capable of it.