The Anonymous Production Assistant

I Hate Your Work

Recently, I got rejected. Not by a significant other or a friend, or even an employer like this blog usually focuses on. I had a client hate the spec I was commissioned to create for them. It sucks wholeheartedly, of course, but it’s a testament to my progress these past long years that I wasn’t offended, […]

PA vs. PA

This happens all the time with people new and/or unfamiliar with the industry: they get Production Assistant and Personal Assistant confused. PA vs. PA. Yet there is a distinct difference between these jobs. This should not be an official barometer, but if laundry is in any way involved in your job then you’re the latter PA, […]

Polite or Timid?

A PA’s struggle for self-respect is neverending. We’re at the bottom of things, we hold no power, we have fifty bajillion bosses, and we deal with an industry with some of the most upsettingly unstable people to still hold a job. It’s really hard to keep some kind of dignity, some kind of pride in […]

Comic-con: Not for Comics Alone

It’s Christmas in July in San Diego. That’s because one of the biggest pop culture celebrations in the country is going on: the San Diego Comic Con, nerd heaven, and the film industry’s bucktoothed mistress. The Con began as a regular comic book convention, but since the industry discovered it was one of the best […]

Solidarity

Carmageddon came and went and as usual, thing in LA are overhyped. The end of things passed and it didn’t make a difference. Except that maybe it did… Driving on the 101 Sunday night, I saw a notifier on the road said “405 is now open. Thank You Los Angeles.” Well, that was a nice […]

You’re Not On the List… Sorry

I see, through your blog, that it is typically the AD or 2nd AD who hires set PA’s. My question is how do I get the contact info for the AD or 2nd AD (for a particular production), and what is the appropriate amount of time, prior to production, to first contact them? I live […]

Film School Explosion

The New York Times recently wrote up a story about the current surge in Film School applicants: for example, 4,800 students applied for 300 spots at USC Graduate, up from 2,800 last year. This is astonishing, and astonishingly scary. There is no place for all these people to work. What a glut in the market. […]

Just tell the whole world why don’t you…

I understand. Humans are forgetful. We get emotional and angry and our heads fill with stormclouds and all we see is red, but please, PLEASE, this is a professional environment. Do not under any circumstances, chide a person over walkie. It happens to us PA’s all the time. We’re human too. We fuck up here and […]

When I grow up I wanna be…

When you first start working in the film industry you realize that it is, well, big. I mean crazy small REALLY big. It employs a lot of people (although never enough it seems…). The term “filmmaker” is kind of a misnomer; everyone who works here actually does something else that they happen to translate to the […]

Life’s Not Fair

Running the same train if thought as political hires, I recall a specific event that happened on a previous gig that hammered home how unfair it all is. I was working as a PA in the post department on a major studio film (can’t say which but when I mean big I mean summer blockbuster […]

Key is the key

Oscar writes: Hi there, I read most of your site and enjoyed it a lot… But what I’ve failed to find info on online is what exactly it is that a Key set PA does. I’ve been hired into this position in a film and I want to educate myself on the position. I mean, I’m […]