The Anonymous Production Assistant

No Lunch Break for Office PA’s?

Out to lunch sign

When you work on set, you’re supposed to break for lunch after 6 hours of shooting. Some people break before that, if they got to set particularly early (like the drivers and location manager). Sometimes hair and makeup artists do, too, so they can get the actors camera ready for the first shot after lunch. […]

What a Script Supervisor Does

Shannon writes in about becoming a script supervisor: I love the work you do, just LOVE. Right now I’m a proud PA but like all PAs I want to grow. I work in the office which I quite enjoy but my heart is in scripts. What is the path to go from where I am […]

There’s No One Way to Make It

C.J. tweeted at me: @TheAnonymousPA Hey do film producers require film school? Think Jerry Bruckenheimer. should I go to college? — C.J Davis (@lifeischess027) July 21, 2015 Film school is a topic that comes up often on this blog. There are some good reasons to go to film school,{{1}} but a degree isn’t one of […]

How To Randomize A Crowd

Most of the time, you’re not going to deal with more than a handful of extras in any one scene. That’s because extras are people, too, and people cost a lot of money. Still, every once in a while, you’ll get a crowd scene. The problem with a crowd of extras is that, at a […]

Managing Background Actors

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have heard some of my frustrations with background actors on a small shoot I was helping out on. First of all, bear in mind that I definitely did not say any of these things on set. That would be even less professional than the extras{{1}} I was […]

How to Run a Production Meeting

Dax asks: I’ve experienced several different production meetings. Two seem to be the most common. The first AD reads through the script in scene order and then through the one liner in schedule order. if this is correct? If so, should the AD just read the slug lines for each scene and then summarize the […]

Outliers

Pam commented on yesterday’s post: Eli Roth was a production assistant who made connections and found success as a writer/director/producer. Bill Hader was a production assistant who went on to be a regular on SNL. The list goes on… it all seems so easy. First of all, let’s not use Eli Roth as an example […]

Awkward Conversation

An anonymous reader writes in: Recently, the 2nd AD kinda said something inappropriate and made me feel uncomfortable. I kinda just told him I wasn’t comfortable with what he said, and we moved on. So I thought. After that incident, I haven’t really heard anything from him as far as work was concerned. When I […]

What’s the Biggest Lie on Set?

“One more.” Never, ever, ever believe a director when he says this. It is never, ever, ever true. Usually, he’ll say this when he realizes the cast and crew have run out of patience, when it’s the 9th take on 12th setup of a scene about two people talking at the dinner table. He wants […]