Job Roles & the Production Workflow
Who Makes Media?
Creating a media product — whether a film, a website or a video game — is rarely the work of one person. It requires a team of specialists, each responsible for a different aspect of the project. Understanding the key job roles in media production, and the order in which their work happens, is essential both for the exam and for any practical media work you carry out.
Creative and Management Roles
At the top of a production, the producer manages the budget, schedule and overall delivery of a project. They are responsible for making sure the product is finished on time, within budget and to the client's specification. The director makes the creative decisions: visual style, tone, performances and storytelling choices in film and TV productions. In advertising and corporate media, an art director or creative director plays an equivalent role. The graphic designer creates visual assets — logos, layouts, typography and imagery — for print, digital and moving-image products. An animator brings static images or 3D models to life using specialist software such as Adobe After Effects or Autodesk Maya.
Key media job roles include: producer (budget and schedule), director (creative decisions), editor (post-production assembly), graphic designer (visual assets), animator (motion and animation), photographer (stills), web developer (websites and apps), games designer (game rules and experience), and copywriter (written content). Each role has a distinct function in the production process.
Technical and Specialist Roles
The editor assembles raw footage, audio and graphics into the finished product — in film and video they work in editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro; in publishing they use InDesign to lay out pages. A photographer captures still images for use across print, digital and advertising products. A web developer writes the code that brings a website or app to life, using languages such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. A games designer defines the rules, levels, mechanics and player experience of a video game; they work with artists and programmers to translate their vision into a playable product. A copywriter produces all the written text in a media product — advertising straplines, website copy, script dialogue or magazine articles.
This is one of the most commonly confused pairs in the exam. The producer oversees the logistical and financial side of a production: they set the budget, manage the schedule, hire the crew and ensure the project is delivered to the client. The director is responsible for the creative vision: how the product looks, sounds and feels. On a small production, one person might do both jobs, but they remain conceptually distinct. A useful memory hook is: the producer handles the money and the meetings; the director handles the camera and the performances.
The Three Phases of the Production Workflow
All media production — regardless of sector — follows a three-phase production workflow: pre-production, production and post-production. This framework helps teams plan their work, manage resources and deliver a finished product that meets the client's requirements.
Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production
Pre-production covers everything that happens before any content is actually created: writing the script or brief, storyboarding, casting, scouting locations, creating mood boards, planning schedules and budgets, and sourcing assets such as images or music. Production is the active creation phase — filming takes place, photographs are shot, web pages are coded, or game levels are built. Post-production begins once raw content has been gathered: footage is edited, audio is mixed, colour grading is applied, graphics are added, and the product is reviewed and refined before final delivery.
Pre-production (planning): scripts, storyboards, mood boards, schedules, budgets, location scouting. Production (creating): filming, photographing, coding, building. Post-production (finishing): editing, audio mixing, colour grading, graphic overlays, review and final delivery.
Students often write that post-production only means "editing the video". In reality, post-production encompasses a wide range of processes: audio mixing and sound design, music licensing and composition, visual effects (VFX) and colour grading, the creation and integration of motion graphics or animated titles, quality assurance review, and final export or delivery to the client or distributor. In an exam, naming several distinct post-production tasks — not just "editing" — will score significantly higher on explain and describe questions.