Category Archives: On the Job

Job Offer I Don’t Want

Posted on May 20, 2013 by | 2 Comments

A Canadian reader wrote in–

I recently moved to a big city in Canada to work in the film/tv industry. I graduated from uni last year and I thought I wanted to do editing. Then I did editing at a small company in my hometown and realized that it was not what I dreamed it would be. So I moved to the big city and joined the Guild (paid the fee) to be an apprentice AD. I have yet to be called into work on set, but I had a very promising interview, with a followup scheduled this week, for a reality TV editing job. Full time gig. But it’s not really what I want to do.

If I get the editing job, do I take it and postpone my set dreams another year or do I turn it down and keep working at a well-known coffee company and putting myself on availability lists for the guild? City life ain’t cheap, but I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot career-wise/get sucked into a black hole of job hate. Any advice?

First, I should say I am not familiar with Canada at all. I cannot tell you what the odds are of getting a job through the guild. You seem to be describing a traditional union, like the UAW, or the second season of The Wire.

Say what you will, I LIKED the second season.

Seniority sucks.

Here in America, film unions are more like loose associations that give you insurance when you pay your dues. There’s no guild hall where everyone hangs out, waiting for their next gig.

That being said, my general inclination is to take the job you’re offered. You never know when/if you’ll get another offer that you want. Remember, an interview is not a job.

And heck, maybe you just had a bad experience. Not everyone’s first job is all hugs and puppies.

Yeah, I found this picture on a PTSD forum. What of it?

Or puppy hugs.

Sometimes your first job involves cleaning dildos.

But that was one job. Maybe you’ll love editing at this next place. Also, who knows what opportunities it will open up in the future? Reality shows are very fluid. Maybe you can transition into a production role.

Having goals is great, but don’t ignore the present while hoping for a brighter future.

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Posted in Finding a Job, On the Job

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It’s Out Of Your Hands

Posted on May 16, 2013 by | 1 Comment

The gods of TV have spoken, smiting the wicked who hath not wrought high ratings, returning from the grave those who might yet do so, and bringing forth a new schedule that shall surely disappoint come September.

That new schedule means some of you who landed pilots have a good twelve episodes to look forward to.1 It also means some of you who were on shows are now out of a gig.

I used to panic when this happened to me. And it used to happen a lot. I was a kind of show killer. Nearly every series I was on got cancelled. Even shows that had been hits tanked when I started. One year, I worked on three pilots, and none of them got picked up. I was getting shows cancelled before they even aired!

Then, one season, I landed on a show a few months into its first season. A good show, probably one you’ve heard of. The day I started, they got picked up for the back nine. We got picked up for a second and third season, and still counting.

The lesson is, most shows get cancelled. If you’re fresh out of film school and landed your first show, congratulations! But know that it’s twice as likely to fail as to succeed. It’s not your fault; you’re not a bad luck charm (and neither am I).

It’s part of freelancing in television. If you don’t like it… well, you’re a normal human being. But if you can’t take it, you’re in the wrong business.

Footnotes    (↩ returns to text)
  1. Although even a twelve episode “guarantee” isn’t really a guarantee. I was on a show that stopped production while we were shooting episode 9, because the ratings for episode 4 were so terrible.↩

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The Right Title

Posted on May 10, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Alex writes:

I got my first big PA job! A friend in the camera dept. put a good name in for me. I’m a 3D Camera PA for [REDACTED]. I was just curious how I should put that on my resume. Do I specify what kind of PA I am or just put Set PA again like the other ones? Right now it reads:

3D Camera PA Movie Title Movie Prods, LLC

First of all, as I tweeted recently, you should list the studio, not the movie’s LLC. You want the name of the biggest company involved, which means somebody whose logo will be at the beginning of the company. If this were a TV show, you’d most likely use the name of the network.

But as to your actual question, you should make two versions of your resume. If you’re applying to a job in the camera department, use “3D Camera PA;” that’s a pretty cool title. If, however, you’re applying to production, change it to “Set PA.”

This goes for basically any low-level job. If you worked in casting, but you’re applying for a job in the office, put “Office PA.” I mean, they’re in an office, right?

This doesn’t work for the serious, skilled crew positions. Don’t claim you were a grip when you were an electric. But PA skills are highly transferable. The main difference is who’s yelling at you for letting their coffee get cold.

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Posted in Finding a Job, On the Job

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Working in Another State

Posted on May 8, 2013 by | 1 Comment

Reader Amy writes in:

Do you know anything about working on a show in a different state while maintaining permanent residence in Los Angeles? I see posts about people wanting to hire locals but does that mean I have to have a license/ID from that state or do I just have to physically live there?

It may be both.

The first and most important thing is that they don’t want to pay for your hotel and per diem. That’s for above-the-liners, and possibly department heads. On TV shows, probably not even them.

But there might also be tax credit stuff going on. The way most tax incentives work, a certain percentage of the crew must be from that state. If you’re not a resident, hiring you doesn’t really adding towards that quota. Of course, who knows how the state defines “resident” for the purposes of the tax credit.

That being said, you should still apply if you have a place to stay on location (if they’re shooting in your home town, for instance, and you don’t mind sleeping in your old bedroom again).

image

My mom left it the way it was when I left for college.

And then there’s this guy, from a recent UTA Joblist–

Seeking intelligent, articulate full-time assistant for Tony-winning playwright with projects in Film and Television. A car and valid driver’s license are required, as employer does not drive. The writer travels often to New York — candidates would need to provide own lodgings there for approximately two out of every six weeks (plane fare paid).

Wow. Seriously? Does this guy really think his assistant will be able to afford to have a place on each coast? That’s ridiculous. This job is literally only for people who grew up in New York or Los Angeles, and still talk to their parents. (Good luck finding someone who’s both of those.)

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Posted in On the Job

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Think About It

Posted on April 24, 2013 by | 3 Comments

Just about every time I post a new joblist, someone emails or tweets me, “Hey, TAPA, are all of these jobs for LA?” or something to that effect.

Also on almost every joblist there is a section with the header, “NON-LA POSITIONS (All Locations/All Positions)”. In big, bold font, just like that.

Now, I realize not a lot of people don’t know how to use the phrase “the exception proves the rule” properly,1 but surely people understand the underlying concept. If there’s a section for Non-LA positions, that heavily implies the rest of the jobs are LA-based. Otherwise, why would those four or five jobs be set apart from the main list?

Now, if I was less wordy, I could probably have squeezed this admonition into a tweet. But there’s a larger point to be made here, and the point is this–

THERE REALLY ARE STUPID QUESTIONS.

I don’t care what your kindergarten teacher said. There are some questions you should not ask. “How old is the lead actress?” “Why are the pages late again?” “What’s your real name?”

Those are impolite. Just don’t.

You also probably shouldn’t ask basic questions, like “How do I make sides?” They hired you on the assumption that you actually know how to do the things a PA is supposed to do2

But there’s a third category of questions you shouldn’t ask, which applies to the question at the top of this post. That’s questions with answers that you can figure out for yourself.

If the coordinator sends you on a run to Location Sound, don’t ask her where that is. Just fucking Google it. The UPM wants you to get Nathan from accounting on the line? Don’t ask for his number; look it up in your own crew list.

Hell, sometimes he’ll ask for Nathan, without specifying whether he means Nathan in accounting or Nathan in locations. You should be paying close enough attention to what’s going on that you know which department the UPM needs right at this moment.

I’m not just trying to prevent you from looking dumb (although, yes, that’s part of it); your job is to lighten the burden on those above you. Not just the physical burden of answering the phones, making coffee, doing runs all over town, and stuff like that.

You should be relieving their mental burden. Let them know that when they ask for something, you can take care of it. Think things through, so they don’t have to.

Questions like the one above frustrate me, because it shows the reader is not thinking thoroughly about her problem before coming to me. People also often ask me questions that I’ve answered long ago. I realize this blog has been around awhile, but there is a search function. Most of the time, I respond to these emails by searching my own site and giving them links to old articles, just to prove they could’ve found the answers themselves.

And that’s all I’m telling you to do. Find your own answers. Figure it out. Think about it.

Footnotes    (↩ returns to text)
  1. Every time you use it to simply mean “there is an exception to this rule,” Cicero cries.↩
  2. It’s perfectly okay to ask me basic questions. I write an advice blog, after all.↩

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Posted in On the Job

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Where Do I Go?

Posted on April 23, 2013 by | Leave a comment

[Name Redacted]1 asks:

A question I’m always asking myself when I step on a set as a day player is where do I go? It can be confusing with so many people and so many trailers. And no one wants to be late for call time. So where do you go?

First of all, don’t get there at call time. Get there before call time. You might be tempted to go to the catering for some breakfast. Resist that urge. If you walk into the trailer with a cup of coffee in one hand and a breakfast burrito in the other, the 2nd is going to think you only showed up for the free food.2

If you’re a set PA (we don’t get many day players in the office), go straight for the AD trailer, unless you were instructed otherwise ahead of time.3 There, the 2nd AD or the 2nd 2nd will tell you what to do.

If you are an office PA (maybe someone is sick, or it’s your first day, or whatever), again, you should report to your immediate supervisor before anything else. This probably means the APOC, but sometimes it’s the coordinator, depending on how the shifts work out.

Basically, the most important thing to do is tell your boss that you’re there and ready to work. If you’re there early enough, they’ll probably tell you to go and grab some breakfast first. See? It all comes full circle.

Just remember to bring them a burrito, too.

Footnotes    (↩ returns to text)
  1. Don’t want to embarrass him/her.↩
  2. Which you totally did, but nevermind that.↩
  3. In which case, why did you send me this email?↩

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Corrections on the ESPN Overtime Issue

Posted on April 15, 2013 by | 4 Comments

I received a lengthy email correcting several points on Thursday’s post. In order to protect the reader’s anonymity (something I’m familiar with), I’ll try to hide any personal details.

First, it turns out Severn Sandt is a woman. I used the masculine pronoun because I was unfamiliar with the name Severn, and a quick google search implied it’s usually a guy’s name. Sorry, Ms. Sandt.

Second, timecards on non-union sports shows work very differently than a union scripted series. They report 30 minute blocks, rather than 6, which seems harsh, but at least explains the 9:00/9:10/9:30 issue Sandt mentioned. Rounding down ten minutes rather than rounding up twenty doesn’t sound quite so bad.

I also received an update– Sandt was fired. And you might be surprised to learn that I think that’s terrible.

Pretty terrible.

Maybe not this terrible, but still.

As I said, I think it’s in poor taste for the higher ups to ask you to not report overtime (or “contribute an hour or two of your OT to the cause” as Sandt put it), but it’s not really the worst thing I’ve heard on a set. Producers, UPMs, etc, are constantly trying to find new, creative ways to cut the budget. Sandt went a little overboard, but not to a fire-worthy degree.

And I sincerely doubt she would have been fired, if this letter hadn’t made the rounds on the internet. If you’re going to fire someone, it shouldn’t matter whether their behavior publicly known or not. And if you wouldn’t fire them until the behavior was publicly known, don’t fire them after.

I’m sure the network was happy Sandt was trying innovative ways of cutting payroll, until this memo embarrassed them. That’s pretty high up there on the list of shitty reasons to fire someone.

I sincerely hope my post did not contribute to Sandt being let go. I don’t know her at all, but if this memo is the worst thing she’s done, she’d still be in the top 10% of people I’ve worked for.

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Posted in About Me, On the Job

Tagged

Clocking Out

Posted on April 12, 2013 by | 4 Comments

Some readers emailed me about my use of the term “clocking out” in yesterday’s post. No, there is no actual clock to punch on my show, or any show I’ve ever been on.

This is all I know about how punch clocks work.

It would be kind of cool, though.

No, nothing cool like that. We actually fill out time cards here in Hollywood. “That just seems really archaic, filling out a time sheet by hand,” you might say.

To which I would respond, “How dare you suggest that Hollywood does something irrationally inefficient!”

Most departments, especially the ones on set, have one person who fills out every department. In grip and electric, this responsibility goes to the best boys, whose experience (and commensurate pay) means they can be trusted with this important task. In the camera department, the fob it off on the most junior loader or camera PA, because the camera department is full of dicks.

In the production office, you’ll fill out your own time card. As noted previously, you have a twelve hour guarantee, and you don’t often go over that, so your time card is mostly a formality. I know PAs who copy their time cards and just write in the new date every week.

I’ve gotten conflicting instructions from payroll accountants on different shows. Some tell you to write out your exact hours, for legal reasons. (If they let you go home an hour early, and you get in a car accident on your way home, you could claim workman’s comp, since the time card reflects you were on the clock at that time.)

Others have told me to fill out the card as if I worked twelve hours, no matter what. The reason is, we don’t have a union, and the network could suddenly decide to not honor the gentleman’s agreement we all have on the twelve hour thing. Personally, I suggest following the latter instructions, even if your accountant tells you to do the former, just in case.

Another thing to keep in mind in the office is lunch. We don’t really get a lunch break. Yes, we get food. (And we get the food, too.) But we’re still expected to sit at our desk, answering calls and stuff. If a run comes up, or some other task needs handling, we office PAs are expected to let their lunch go cold while we take care of it.

So, no lunch break, but California law still requires that the time card says we got lunch. Usually, you just put down a half hour break six hours after call, even if you got lunch fifteen minutes after you walked in the door.

Luckily, most1 coordinators recognize this, and let you go twelve hours after your call, rather than the twelve and a half you’d get if you had a break.

I knew one PA who resented not getting his half hour, and actually added a half hour to the end of every twelve hour day. Again, as I mentioned yesterday, this is just begging for trouble.

No one ever called him out on it, though. He just got an extra two and a half hours of overtime every week for eating lunch at his desk.

…Maybe he was onto something.

Footnotes    (↩ returns to text)
  1. Sadly, not all.↩

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Posted in On the Job

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Reporting Overtime

Posted on April 11, 2013 by | 3 Comments

Reader Joe called my attention to this article on Deadspin, about a leaked memo to the crew of the X-Games in Brazil. In it, Severn Sandt, senior TV operations person for the X-Games Remote,1 tells the crew to dress appropriately, don’t make fun of the locals (who he all but calls “lazy”), and remember that the budget is tight. Pretty standard stuff.

What makes this memo news worthy is the following passage:

Hourly folks – don’t push the OT. If it’s 9:10, take the 9:00 out – don’t push for 9:30. Heck, maybe you’d like to actually contribute an hour or two of your OT to the cause and take a 7:00 out. Trust me – no one’s going to the bank on this one. If this idea appeals to anyone, we can start an honorary wall of contributors in the office.

Yeahhhhhh… no.

First of all, no one clocks out at 9:10. You clock out at 9:06 or 9:12. Your time card is always in six minute intervals, so it’s easier for the payroll accountant to do the math.2

Setting aside that minor quibble, I actually think the first part of this is a good policy for you, the PA, to adopt. I get out an hour, or even two hours, early, but as an office PA, I’m still paid my guaranteed twelve hours. So, if I go over twelve hours by a few minutes, I don’t begrudge the production; it all evens out in the end.

(Actually, if I go over twelve, it’s usually because I’ve been fucking around on Facebook and Twitter all day, only to realize, fifteen minutes before I’m supposed to go home, that there’s something I have to get done today or else. At that point, it’s really my fault that I’m going into overtime.)

Also keep in mind, every bit of overtime has to be approved by your supervisor (the coordinator or APOC) and the UPM. If your name keeps popping up in the weekly payroll meetings with the accountants, you’re going to look like a dick over, what, three dollars? Not worth it.

That being said, it is rather gauche of Sandt to tell his crew that they have to do this.

Now, I’ve been talking about going ten or fifteen minutes over your usual twelve hours. If you go a half hour, much less the two hours Sandt mentioned, into over time, for God’s sake, report it. As the Deadpsin columnist pointed out, ESPN is worth $40,000,000,000. They don’t need your charity.

Or maybe this is why they’re worth forty billion.

- – -

CORRECTION: This article is not 100% correct. Please read Monday’s post for more information.

Footnotes    (↩ returns to text)
  1. Not a title I’ve ever heard before, but non-scripted stuff is weird.↩
  2. Because we use a base-10 number system. This is one of the many problems a base-12 system would solve.↩

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Posted in On the Job

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The Wrong Department

Posted on April 9, 2013 by | 2 Comments

Sasha writes:

My first job on a show was in the construction office, which was great in a bunch of ways. As someone who’d like to end up somewhere on the producer/UPM spectrum eventually, I got a really great understanding of how budgeting for that department works, which I think is an area where a lot of UPMs are totally clueless. I do want/need to be in the production office, though.

I’m now being offered more construction office PA positions by other construction coordinators; apparently I’ve built a rep as a great construction PA. I fear not taking the construction stuff because, well, a) I need to pay my bills, and b) wouldn’t I rather work on a David O’Russell movie than not? If I don’t take the job, I risk not getting a production job this season. I have sent out my resume to incoming shows in hopes of landing something in the production office, but no luck so far, although it’s not out of the question until probably mid-April. I don’t want to get pigeon holed as the construction girl.

Also, what do you think about leaving a show early? I think I already know the answer, very frowned upon, but a girl’s gotta get a second opinion!

For the most part, I think you need to take the first job you’re offered. Unless it’s something horrible, like porn.1 As I’ve said before, Don’t turn down a job because you hope you’ll find a better job later.

Most people don’t take the career path they intended. The fact that you’re in demand by somebody is great. Maybe construction isn’t want you intended to do, but you could possibly make a career out of it. Maybe you’ll grow to love it.

That being said, you should make your desire to move into the production office known to your construction coordinator, if the two of you are on a friendly basis. He knows UPMs and production coordinators, and he might hook you up, if not on this show, then perhaps in the future.

Leaving in the middle of a show is generally a bad idea. If an incredible opportunity pops up, talk to your boss. There might be some way to work it out. But even if your he let’s you leave, you will almost certainly never work for that person ever again.

Oh, boy, do I regret doing that.

“THAT’S for employing me for eight years!”

Basically, my advice is to stop asking me questions, but ask the people you work for, instead. :)

Footnotes    (↩ returns to text)
  1. Or maybe you want to work in porn, I dunno. Who am I to judge?↩

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