Tag Archives: experience

The Tyranny of Chronology

Posted on March 5, 2012 by | 1 Comment

I agree that a film should have a beginning, a middle and an end but not necessarily in that order.

Yes, I just quoted a French New Wave director. Excuse me a second while I punch myself in the face.

The guy's t-shirt even looks kinda French.

I deserve this.

I’ve been seeing a lot of resumes lately for my cover letter and resume rewriting service. One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of people are listing their education first.

This is a mistake. No one really cares what school you went to. Having a college degree is nice, but for the most part, it’s just a box to check.

I understand the desire to list your university education first; it was your first real accomplishment as an adult. Plus, you spent a TON of money on it. You want to show off your shiny, expensive piece of paper.

But unless you just graduated from film school, and you have no film experience, don’t list your college at the top. It makes it seem like you haven’t done anything important since.

While we’re on the subject, don’t list the dates you worked on a given movie or show. List them in order of importance, with bigger productions at the top. Don’t be really obvious about it,  of course. You shouldn’t put The Matrix at the very top, or again, people will think you haven’t worked on a show in ten years.

Now that I’ve given you some free advice, maybe you ought to try the full resume and cover letter service. That’s what we in the web 2.0 business call “freemium.”1

Footnotes    (↩ returns to text)
  1. See? That’s a third thing you didn’t know I just gave away for free.↩

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No Experience Necessary! (Some Experience Required)

Posted on November 2, 2009 by | 9 Comments

Leala writes:

Ok, I keep reading “no experience” needed to PA. So why it so hard to land a PA job?

I actually have some experience -film school, student projects, independent projects, game show pilot, award shows, major network webisode and even dayplayed in the production office of a network TV show.

I get Production Weekly and PRS, contact the offices and fax/email resume, make sure it’s received and follow up til I get “we’re currently crewed up”. I’ve tried pilots, shows already on air, award shows, films and nothing. I’ve even offered to work for free just for the experience but since I’m currently not a student that doesn’t help.

I’m still working on independent projects but how do you make that leap from those to features/tv? Obviously I’m doing something wrong. Any ideas?

I must admit, I am being a little cheeky when I say things like, “A monkey could do my job.”  PAs get fired all the time, for slacking off, for screwing up, for having the gall to speak to a producer when he’s having a bad day.

There is a certain amount of skill involved, even if the main skill is simply being able to stick to it long enough to get promoted.  Not everyone has that skill.

That being said, a lot of people do have that skill, or at least think they do.  On my show, we get at least three PA resumes a day, and we’re in the middle of the season!  At the beginning of the season, we could fill a binder with resumes.

This is also why, by the way, PAs get paid so little (as I explained in a post a few weeks ago).  While there’s always a demand for a good PA, there is an even greater supply of good PAs.

This encompasses the entirety of my knowledge of economics.

Note the lack of a “Hard Work” curve.

I don’t think you’re actually doing anything wrong.  In fact, it sounds like you’re doing everything right.  There’s no secret or trick that you’re missing. You have to be good and smart and experienced, it’s true.

But you also have to submit your resume at the exact moment that they’re looking for a PA with your exact qualifications.  You have to connect with the AD or coordinator some indefinable way.  You have to be ready when they need you to be ready.

In short, not only do you have to be good, you have to be lucky.

I wish I could be of more help than that, but I can’t.

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