The Anonymous Production Assistant

“It’s exhausting but fun.”

No, I didn’t say that about being a PA. That’s Jane Espenson, talking about “producing.” I produced a sitcom pilot in film school. I asked my professor what, exactly, was a producer’s job. My professor said, “The producer is the guy who, when something goes wrong, fixes it, even if it means picking up a […]

With No Power Comes No Responsibility

I’ve worked on some horrible shows. (One of the quaint anachronisms from the days when everyone in Hollywood was a former vaudvillian is the fact that everything, be it a movie, a TV series, or even a music video, is called a “show.”) I worked on a horror movie about giant eels. I worked on […]

Why Would Anyone Want To Be A PA?

The hours are lousy, the pay is worse. No one respects you. If anything goes wrong, it’s always your fault. And everyone tells you you’re lucky just to be here. There is one advantage– free time. We’re often busy, it’s true, but a lot of a PA’s job is simply to be ready. While we […]

What The Heck Is A Production Assistant, Anyway?

A PA is all things to all people. By which I mean, any shit job that nobody else wants to do is given to the PAs. Making coffee, making copies, driving all the way across town to drop off a script and thus adding unnecessary greenhouse gases to our environmental crimes. (Seriously, e-mail exists. What’s […]