I can’t tell you how many times a day people call the office and ask to be connected to some other department. Or a department head rings because he can’t remember his own department’s extension. Or someone on set calls to be connected to someone else… who is also on set.
I always want to tell people, “You have a crew list! I know, because I gave it to you. Use it.”
I mean, if the costume buyer is in the car, and needs to talk to the prop person about coordinating the character’s dress with her gun, then fine, sure, I understand that you don’t have the property department on speed dial.
But if you’re sitting at your desk, in your office, please, please, please pull out your crew list and look the person up. That’s exactly what I do when you call me.
The worst, though, is when one of the producers calls for his assistant’s cell. How little respect must you have for someone who basically runs your life, that you can’t even program her number into your phone?
Then again, maybe his assistant just hasn’t programed her number into the boss’s phone. Which, really, might be for the best.
10 Responses
I really enjoyed reading it. . Sometimes they don’t give a good costumer service and I hate that=)
I’ve been reading this blog for a long time, and I enjoy it. What i’m about to say, please dont take as an assault on your person. I know plenty of PA’s, i’ve been one, and i know how abysmally ungrateful a job position it is.
But that said, when are you going to move on? Surely you dont want to be a PA forever. I remember you mentioning something about writing.
Im not trying to be an asshole, honest. I work in film too. Im at the bottom too. And i get the angle of landing some reality into all these over-glorifications of how film business really is. Hearing about all the silliness of how hollywood works, and all the counter-intuitive realities of working from the bottom-up is fun and all. It will blur into noise eventually. Depressing noise.
From a writing standpoint: is this story going somewhere? What i mean is, when are we going to read a post about how to move up the ladder? What’s your exit strategy?
And yeah, i know, life isn’t a movie. But c’mon. You gotta know what i mean here.
Cheers dude, good luck. And again, this comes from a fan, not a hater.