The Anonymous Production Assistant

Help! I Need Some Direction in Life and I Feel You Are the One to Help Me!

Krista writes: I’m graduating in May from college. Even though I majored in advertising, the film industry has always been interesting to me. If I’m able to land some type of internship in this industry, what are the work hours usually like for a PA? 9-5pm, 6-12pm…? and how much do you work on weekends…..? Considering how dire […]

What Does Everyone Do?

Here’s a quick plug that nobody’s paying me for. (Unlike The Hollywood Survival Guide, which pays me cold, hard PayPal credits every time one of my readers buys one. So, please do; hosting this website isn’t free!) Alas, no one is paying me to plug Writing Movies for Fun and Profit, by Robert Ben Garant and […]

TAPA On Set

An Office PA’s place is in the office. (Any loyal readers want to embroider that on a pillow for me?) So when an Office PA ventures on set, it creates a classic fish-out-of-water scenario. On my last show, I had to accompany the supervisor’s seventeen-year-old neighbor to set. She sat there, starry-eyed, watching take after […]

Foreign Experience

Max writes: I work as an office PA in Malta, which has a small but steadily growing film industry largely based on foreign films shooting here rather than our own local production. We have all manner of shoots here from music videos and small commercials to high-budget, high-profile American films and TV, and everyone pretty […]

Do I Stand a Chance?

Miruna writes: In november I’ve quit my job… The main reason I’ve quit my last job is that I desperately want to go back and work in the movie industry, it’s the perfect work place for me, I love it, I love everything about it. The thing is, I would love to work for real movies, […]

Get Your Head in the Game, Rook

One of the PAs in the office is on the chopping block. Every day, he’s working to keep his job – fighting to keep his spot on “the team.” He doesn’t know it, but I hope he senses it. Over the last few weeks, I hope he’s noticed that the office has grown more frustrated […]

Making the Transition From Theatre to Film

K writes: I am a theatrical PA and have been for the past several years and have a degree in stage management…but I’m looking to leave the theatrical world behind and move into the film world. I feel like I’m running into constant roadblocks due to my entire (ENTIRE) resume being theatre related and it […]

The Future is Now

Amy writes: How long do you have to be a private assistant until you get a job in a TV show or a movie ? Do you get to talk or know the actors and actresses ? And how hard is it to get that job?… I am not even done with school yet but […]

Chatty Cathy PA

The new PA in the office caught a bad rap on his first day. Actually, he walked in with a bad rap, and his first day only confirmed it. He’s chatty. There’s a fine line between being friendly and being chatty. He has crossed that line, and, while he doesn’t know that the coordinator, APOC, […]

August 11 Job List

Guess who has a new UTA Joblist! That’s right, TAPA! Now, you do, too.

Applying to be a Writer’s PA

J asks: I called up some shows a couple weeks back and asked if they were hiring, and of course they were all staffed up, but said I could fax a resume that they’d “keep on file”. Now I know you’ve written that if you want to be an Office PA you should contact the […]