The role of an Assistant Director on a film includes tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, and maintaining order on the set. 

It was a pure pleasure to sit down with 1st Assistant Director Mathew Dunne. Mathew has worked on some of the top action movies in the last 20 years, including: Starship Troopers (1998), The Last Samurai (2003), Mission Impossible III (2006), Live Free or Die Hard (2007),  X-Men: First Class (2011), Iron Man 3 (2013), and the last 3 Planet of the Apes movies. As of this interview, Mathew is currently working on War for the Planet of the Apes, coming out in 2017.

Matthew Toffolo: In a typical Hollywood production, how many weeks before shooting does the 1st AD come aboard the film? When setting the schedule for the production, who is generally in the…