The Anonymous Production Assistant

What If the Pilot I Worked on Never Airs?

Pilot Season

Vashti writes in: I was a PA on a pilot last month, but I still haven’t been told if it will become a series. What happens if it doesn’t? Will I get to work on a different series? If not, can I even put it on my resume? There isn’t even an IMDb page for it. Most […]

Should You Leave a Series Mid-Season?

Gary writes in: I’ve been a PA for over a year and thankfully have had some long runs on shows. I recently started a show for a 3 month run, but I was just offered a position on a feature film in another state that I have been trying extremely hard to get on. My […]

So You Have an Idea…

Joe writes in: I’m just a 32 year old boy. And like every 32 year old boy, I have an idea for a TV series. I don’t have any connections, but I do have a show bible and pilot script. Is there any way a regular old boy without any connections can get anyone to […]

Production Meetings

Kara writes in: I have been talking to an AD for a TV show about getting a job as a Set PA for their upcoming season. He has contacted me about setting up an interview, but this happened a couple of weeks ago and I haven’t heard from him since. Thanks to social media, I […]

How to Approach Another Show on the Lot

Ms. Key (a pseudonym, I assume), writes: I intern on a major studio lot, which has been an awesome experience so far. I plan to do everything I can to make this last as long as possible and parlay it into a paying gig. My problem is that I’m interning on a talk show, while my […]

Applying to be a Writer’s PA

J asks: I called up some shows a couple weeks back and asked if they were hiring, and of course they were all staffed up, but said I could fax a resume that they’d “keep on file”. Now I know you’ve written that if you want to be an Office PA you should contact the […]

PA Rate

A reader who didn’t sign her email and has an incomprehensible list of letters and numbers for an address (at netscape.net, of all domain names) asks: I’m currently working as an Office PA on a […] film which I have been told is trying to keep things cheap, and was a little shocked that I […]

Neither a Borrower Nor a Lender Be

This post is really for all my non-PA readers. And by “non-PAs,” I mean “old people.” As an office PA, people often ask to use my computer to look something up, check their email, whatever. And, I admit, I’m probably not doing anything important, or even work related. With a sample size verging on the […]

Single Parents

Ki recently commented on an older post: I know that PA have long work hours. Do you think that it a single parent could handle this job? I’m not sure how to address this question with my usual sardonic wit. Being a single parent is difficult in ways I probably can’t imagine, and there’s nothing really […]

Lunch “Break”

I’m a people pleaser, which is why ordering lunch is very stressful for me. On most shows, the office will eat off the catering truck, like the rest of the crew. But that only works if the company is on stage, and shooting daylight hours. If the crew is shooting a split day, you can’t […]