The Anonymous Production Assistant

Emailing Strangers

Danielle asks: I recently graduated college, during which I had internships on the corporate side of three different television stations (all headquartered in NYC). Since graduating, I’m looking to move into the production side but don’t have the contact base required, since the stations outsourced to external production houses. Through some serious stalking, I uncovered […]

Let It Never Be Said That I Can’t Change My Mind

A couple of sound points came out of yesterday’s comments section.  From Galen: Don’t forget that actors often have to go through hair and make up after the blocking during the lighting set-up. This takes a fair bit of time and it saves production money to have a [glossary]stand in[/glossary]. I’m all for efficiency on […]

Harsh

Stephen Gallagher took issue with my post yesterday: “For those of you who don’t know, a stand-in is quite possibly the most perfect manifestation of how lazy actors are.” Seems kinda harsh both on the actors, who usually seem to use the chunk of time between blocking and shooting to get their lines, and stand-ins, […]

Not Scheduled

Elyse writes: I was told by the UPM to go ahead with getting a job as a PA on the tv show set I’ve been standing-in on, and she told me to speak with one of the ADs. I spoke with one and he was going to set me up with the person to hire […]

Money Can’t Buy Happiness

…but it can buy not-unhappiness.  (I’m paraphrasing Adam Carolla, here.)  (Yes, really.)  (No, I’m not some kind of misogynist.  I just think he’s funny, okay?)  (Shut up.) Anyway. There are rich people who are sad.  There are poor people who are happy.  To a large degree, our ability to put up with things (or not) […]

Quit Whining

After reading the previous post, my wife slapped me across the email, and wrote, “Try doing my job for just one day, then you can tell me how difficult your job is.” I suppose it is better than pushing crates on a dock for a living.

Maybe I Should Quit

Here’s how I tell if someone is smarter than me– when they tell me something, I think to myself, “That makes perfect sense, and I never would have thought of it.” Case in point: I suspect a lot of people aren’t sure what’s the top idea in their mind at any given time. I’m often […]

What to Wear to an Interview

Patrick asks a question I’ve touched on before, but I think bears some detailed answering: What should I wear to an interview for a P.A. job? Should I dress formally? My dad used to tell me I should dress one level higher than the guy I’m interviewing with.  If he’s wearing shorts, I should wear […]

Last Week to Vote

Okay, one more time.  Please vote for my friend’s short, Asleep with the Angels, on OpenFilm.com.  82 of you have clicked on the link, but the leader has 643 votes!  I get more readers than that on an average day. Asleep is in 20th place, which is clearly not right. It’s a damn good movie. It’s […]

We Don’t Need No Education

Commenting on yesterday’s post, Tom asked: Correct me if I am wrong but… Nobody cares if you have a college degree in the industry anyway. You are not wrong. Being a filmmaker, from the biggest producer to the lowliest PA, is not like being a doctor or engineer.  If we screw up, nobody dies.  You’ll just […]

Use What Ya Got

Edward writes: Recently, a new member of my family offered to introduce me to some people and help me get a job as a PA in L.A.  (She works as a marketing executive for a major network.) Now, this sounds wonderful to me, but there are plenty of factors that make me think this must […]