The Anonymous Production Assistant

Three Common Resume Mistakes

After cleaning up a couple of hundred resumes, I’ve found some common resume mistakes pop up over and over. These are really easy to fix, and you don’t even need to hire me to correct them yourself. Where are you? Most resume templates have a line for your physical address. I have no idea why […]

What Is a Hollywood Assistant?

Dwight Assistant Regional Manager

I frequently get emails from new readers who are confused about what an assistant in Hollywood actually is.There are a lot of jobs in Hollywood with the word “assistant” in the title, which can be very misleading to someone new to the Industry. These seem like entry-level positions, but many of them are not; in […]

I Got It

People on set are busy. If they’re not trying to get a shot, they’re packing up and moving on, turning around, setting up for the next shot. Everyone’s in a big damn hurry. And that’s fine, because time is money and all that. But sometimes you have to take just a sec to be sure […]

Am I Too Small?

Indy (a college student) writes in: I’m currently in college, and I’m interested in working behind the scenes for film and television. I would love to someday become a cinematographer, but one question that I’ve always wondered is if I’m too small to hold and operate a camera for long periods of time. I’m very […]

Crew Call Episode 001: Camera Assistant Evan Luzi

In the premier episode of Crew Call, TAPA speaks with camera assistant, and creator of The Black and Blue blog, Evan Luzi. He tells about being on the front lines of the set, the 12on12off initiative, and skinny dipping. If you want to learn more about 12on12off, visit Haskell Wexler’s website. To download the episode, […]

You Can’t Beat Stupid

Some days, I’ll read a script that’s inspiringly good. “This is how I want to write,” I think to myself. “This well-crafted story, these original characters, these hilarious jokes.” Other days, the writers will turn in a real stinker, and it’ll inspire me in another way: “Shit, I can write better than this.” And then […]

Don’t Be a Doormat

Something I neglected to mention in yesterday’s post— There must be, unfortunately, a limit to a PA’s kindness. Certain departments (I’m just gonna come right out and say it’s usually costumes) like to take advantage of friendly production assistants, if you’re not careful. For instance, sometimes mail gets delivered to the production office, rather than the department […]

You Outta Be in Pictures

There’s a great big photo hanging in our office of the entire crew, save for two people.  The set photographer (obviously), and me. They gathered everybody on stage, but of course, the producer couldn’t leave the office completely unattended.  What if somebody called to, you know, ask when episode ten starts shooting?  (Agents do this […]

Perfection

Following yesterday’s post, I had a few more thoughts on mistakes. I used to be a personal assistant to a producer. He asked me if I ever wanted to be a director, and I said I did. He told me I could never do that job until I could do this job perfectly. This statement […]

Placement

I was helping a friend with a short film over the weekend. I was the camera assistant, or “AC.” Don’t ask me why the letters get inverted in the acronym. It’s been a while since I’ve ACed, and to tell the truth, I forgot how much influence a camera assistant can have. I knew an […]

The Most Hated Department

The camera department are jerks.  They’re rude, arrogant, self-centered, and self-important. Now, realize that I used to be a loader and a 2nd AC, and I was no exception.  I’m speaking from the inside, here. In the camera department, we always sit by ourselves at lunch; we don’t mingle with the rest of the crew.  […]