On that set it would just depend on how they were dividing things up and on what the bulk of the shots for the shoot would be.

Typically there is a dolly grip around for all of the camera moving and mounting on vehicles and other items. If this is an overall shoot that doesn't have a lot of that they may just have a camera operator. Most of it just depends on the size and budget of the film.

In the case where there is a dolly grip controlling the camera's location in space, a focus puller controlling the focus -- a) we call the guy controlling the camera's direction in space the PA/camera assistant and b) there's no camera operator?

I guess the question I meant to ask lo so many posts ago is that I don't get the term "camera operator." Your page says "Smoothly and efficiently operates a camera during the production and keep the frame composed properly," but that seemed like at least two guys were doing that, and in the puller's normal operations, he'd be contributing too.

But I may just have to make peace with not being able to work it out.

That's the trick on most films. There really are anywhere from 2 to 4 people doing the job that makes the camera do those things. To me that's what's so cool is that they all work together to get these amazing smooth shots.

OMG, I just read something that made The OC gayer. Consider the parallels between Ryan in season 1 and Alex -- the ones that were freaking pointed out onscreen by Seth, and the whole tossed out of the family home and invited (even jokingly) back to the Cohen house -- she's a total Ryan substitute. Which, judging from previews, will become even more apparent. Yay.

eta:

To me that's what's so cool is that they all work together to get these amazing smooth shots.

See, I can't imagine how the focus puller does his job, period. To think he's synching in real time with so many other people, boggles the freaking mind.

Computers are easy.

See, I can't imagine how the focus puller does his job, period.

Me, either. Cause I'm guessing movie lenses aren't SLR.

Yay.

Very Yay!

He's going off very strict distances. Basically all the moves are run through once, and he'll literally take a tape measure from the gate out to the focal point and do that for each move in the shot. Then on the roll he does all of that in time. Pretty crazy stuff.

Cause I'm guessing movie lenses aren't SLR.

What Z explained (after admitting it was sorcery) was that the FP knows the focus settings for (in this scenario) five positions, and then transitions between them. Now, the camera's moving in 3D space. I can't even imagine being sure the camera was back in position 3, much less deciding on what gradient to change focus when it moves to position 5 versus moving to position 2. And I'm decently spatially coordinated.

Well YAY! Except the big... That Thing.

Well, there's a whole different person who's making sure that it hits points 1 through 5 exactly on.