1st AD Jennifer Reiss and 2nd AD Jason Melius discuss the challenges of filming the season finale of CBS' All Rise, which was prepped and filmed entirely remotely.

1st AD Shawn Pipkin-West brainstorms simple solutions for seemingly complex problems.

1st AD Leo N. Bauer take his time on set.

1st AD Michael J. Moore's scheduling system worked like a charm on A Wrinkle in Time.

1st AD Rebecca Strickland filmed all around the world, including on international waters, for The Romanoffs.

1st AD Lisa C. Satriano uses cover sets rain or shine on Black Panther.

1st AD Gerard DiNardi has made a name for himself as a go-to horror AD.

For 1st AD Marty Eli Schwartz, making sure the actors feel comfortable is all part of the job.

1st AD Carol Vitkay explains how she prepped for a house fire in How to Get Away With Murder

1st AD Toby Hefferman on the "biggest challenge" of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

1st AD Lars Winther fights inclement weather on Marvel films.

1st AD Chris Della Penna loves the challenge of the job.

Danielle Rigby’s love of all things equine has made her a better assistant director.

1st AD Richard Styles spends lots of time traveling across the Atlantic from the U.K. to American locations like Oklahoma, Atlanta, and Beverly Hills.

While working the sometimes treacherous water locations on Baywatch, Ken Wada learned staying safe is a team effort.

Not many ADs who have worked on four Martin Scorsese features can say they owe their career to their janitorial services. But that's how 1st AD Chris Surgent got his foot in the door.

Rick R. Johnson talks about what it’s like being a 1st AD on a variety of projects, from family features like, D3: The Mighty Ducks to hit TV dramas like Being Mary Jane.

Eric Fox Hays discusses working in Louisiana on such shows as Common Law, Star-Crossed, and NCIS: New Orleans.

Bruce Moriarty explains how his experiences training horses prepared him in becoming a skilled 1st AD.

1st AD David Webb discusses how his early interest in political science and journalism helped pave the way to working on such films as Argo, The Ides of March, and Milk.

1st AD Thomas Kuk says he loves the unpredictability of non-scripted television, working on dozens of reality shows, including Punk’d, Fear Factor, and Stars Earn Stripes.

Eric Henriquez has traveled all over America as a 1st AD—working in as diverse cities as New York City, Baltimore, and New Orleans.

1st AD Michele Panelli-Venetis' natural gift for organizing led her to a 30-year career working on films as diverse as Alvin and the Chipmunks and Endless Love.

Mark Little went from managing a helicopter courier firm to a 20-year career as a 1st AD, working with directors such as Brett Ratner, Jay Roach, Thomas Carter, and the late George Hickenlooper.

1st AD Anne Berger credits directors Michael Watkins and Michael Dinner on Justified for teaching her to schedule big stunt scenes with special effects in a fraction of the time they’re done.

With a career that includes sterling art house indies and mega tentpole movies, Michael Lerman has seen the full horizon of the AD’s craft--and the view has never been less than incredible.

Assistant Director Carla Bowen does what it takes to ensure a smooth production-even if it means sitting on a surfboard out in the ocean for six hours.

New York-based Julie Bloom says her favorite part of being a 1st AD is visiting places she’s never been.

As an AD in the busy production world of New York, no one gets more out of less than Doug Torres.

If there were an Ironman award for production professionals, Moore would have won hands down. His career began in 1916 as a child actor.

Richard Cowan, a film school dropout from Vancouver, Canada, says becoming a 1st AD by the tender age of 25 was a dream come true.

1st AD Josh King, whose partial resume includes movies starring Mike Myers, Jim Carrey and Eddie Murphy, says running comedy sets is rarely all fun and games.

On the set of the recent USA Network miniseries, Political Animals, 1st AD Richard Coad's biggest challenge was uniting crews from a trio of production centers in the most diplomatic way.

Her love for spontaneous filmmaking began on the streets of her hometown Baltimore, where she worked on her first feature as a production assistant on Barry Levinson's Avalon.

Some are born to it, and others just fall in. For 1st AD Justin Muller it was the former. His grandmother was one of the first women film editors in Italy and his grandfather was head of publicity for MGM Italia.

First Assistant Director Peter Kohn laughs when asked what it is with him and water. "I have spent a fair bit of time around islands," he admits.

One of Hollywood’s most sought after 1st ADs is Adam Somner, whose résumé before he even crossed the Atlantic included some of the most revered names in the British film industry.

As one of the first female assistant directors in Hollywood, Daisy Gerber has been called a lot of things, but studio big shot was not among them.

Charles Washburn, would never have come to Hollywood if not for experiencing the same racial bias in Chicago that blacks in the industry had endured for so many years.

Callow was among the original ADs to join the Guild in 1938 and became one of the savviest nuts and bolts production pros in the industry.

The first black member of the Screen Directors Guild and the second black stage manager to work in network television, Franklin was as determined as he was skilled.

The first Mexican-American admitted to the Guild (in 1937), Day was known for his professionalism - so much so that C.B. DeMille told him he'd never do a picture without him.

With one letter of reference and a British taxi, Stacey arrived in LA from England and worked his way up to AD, a profession he chose because it paid $5 more per week than DP.

Starting out cleaning lights at Biograph Studios, Jacobson worked his way up to 1st AD with on-the-fly solutions like substituting iced tea for whiskey to keep W.C. Fields sober.

A former theater stage manager in San Francisco, Koster - a 1st AD on Private Practice who spent time as 2nd AD on JAG - says the stage is Spanish and film is Portuguese.

A veteran of Six Feet Under and True Blood, this graduate of the DGA's Assistant Director Training Program jokes she's the go-to AD for shows about death, dying, or the undead.

After switching majors from engineering to film, this AD has fulfilled childhood dreams of chasing pirates and launching rockets.

Comparing his job to that of a flight attendant's, this 1st AD maintains that each film can make for a bumpy ride.

A veteran of Home Improvement and One Day at a Time, this 1st AD has had almost as many yucks behind the camera as when the red light went on.

As a 1st AD, Robinson sees his job as balancing the needs of the crew with the director, actors, and department heads and walk a political tightrope every single day.

Having spent the majority of her life on set, Blymyer finds herself now making the move from 2nd AD to 1st.

Twohie, a Queens native (and Mets fan), has spent seven seasons - over 525 games - as an AD for the New York Yankee broadcasts in the Bronx.

Working on tabletop food commercials and network dramas, Harris says he'd rather work with a group of infants over a tray of deli meats any day and that there's a right way to AD beer.

Known for his laid-back rapport with the crew, the Samoan-born Porter will still dash through burning buildings or wade through farm refuse to keep the production on track.

A former stockbroker at Merrill Lynch, Hausman calls himself a "repeat customer" for directors such as Milos Forman, Mike Nichols, Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee, and Sydney Pollack.

Choosing filmmaking over the family restaurant, this AD helped cement Chicago's straight-shooting image on-screen in films like Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Home Alone.

Though his shot precedes him, the longtime AD, UPM, and producer gets a kick out of how his name has become standard production slang.

Working as a messenger boy at Columbia in January 1936, McWhorter attended the DGA's first public meeting at the Hollywood Athletic Club.

After moving to LA after college (a trip given to her by her parents), Green enrolled in the DGA Training Program and began building her two decade career in television.

Like his boss, Scorsese's 1st AD is an avowed cinephile, mentally storing the images he comes across at MOMA, Film Forum and Lincoln Center for visual references later.