The Anonymous Production Assistant

Many Departments, One Screw Up

Over at the Hills are Burning blog, AJ has a great post about how you need to take responsibility for your own time card. Basically, the best boy grip on one of her shows told her he doesn’t bother keeping track of in and out times on his department’s time cards, because all of that […]

Accepting Friends

Brittany writes in (via Facebook): Hi TAPA, what better way to ask a question about Facebook, then via FB message? I’m wondering where you come down on adding other crew members (including those that are above you) or cast as friends on Facebook. What if THEY friend request you? Should you wait until the project […]

Dan Harmon Apologizes & The Black Swan Interns Win

If you’re not a fan of Community, you may not have heard about the whole Dan Harmon saga. Basically, he created a funny show, then got fired being kind of a jerk, and the show went on without him. The season was generally reviled, but Community is still coming back next fall, somehow. NBC decided […]

Perks of Being an Assistant

Sasha writes in: Can you talk a little about the following, in regards to PAs AND Director/Producer assistants for a mid- to big- budget feature? – Box rentals/kit fees – Vehicle costs/mileage reimbursement – Cell phone usage – Meal allowance – Overtime when working on a weekly rate For those of you who are new […]

What Is Success?

Mike, the Hollywood Juicer, sent me an interesting blog post written by Gorman Bechard. You should read it. Seriously, click on that link, then come on back. I’ll wait. You’re back? Great! Some of you, I’m sure, cheated, expecting that I would quote the relevant parts to explain the point I’m getting at. Well, I […]

TAPA Tweets for the week ending 2013-06-09

Working Title http://t.co/b9fWPGFfQX 07:19:06, 2013-06-03 Awwww, I remember when this was me: http://t.co/yqwBj17Dey 09:48:55, 2013-06-04 RT "If you tweet #FML, your Fun My Life wish may just be satisfied. By us. http://t.co/HQnwFFjLjF" Quick, NO ONE tell @JELLO what FML means. in reply to JELLO 09:50:16, 2013-06-04 @AdamUltraberg – @YahtzeeCroshaw called it XBone, to my endless […]

How to Interview

[Redacted]{{1}} asks: I just got a call to come in for an interview next week on a new show. Over the past decade of my production experience, every significant job I’ve had came from word-of-mouth, friends, people I’ve worked with before, etc. – I’d never even had a resume till recently, and I’ve never actually […]

Working Title

Gabrielle writes in (via Twitter, which is why it’s so short): The movie I worked on is still in pro&working under a mock title does the m.t. or the actual name go on the resume? This is similar to a question Melissa asked a couple months ago, but it still bears addressing. I’m assuming you […]

TAPA Tweets for the week ending 2013-06-01

TAPA Tweets for the week ending 2013-05-25 http://t.co/og5lsLjTVo 13:35:20, 2013-05-26 So, I Have This Weird Idea… http://t.co/UUMQygwVdq 09:01:21, 2013-05-27 RT @commonladybug: This Tuesday has Monday written all over it. 07:20:43, 2013-05-28 RT @BrieCook: The bad part about rolling straight into a shoot day after a long weekend is that I fear today's episode will kick […]