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. […]

On the 6th Day…

Stella sent me a Twitter{{1}} DM, asking about lying on the time card. Hi, fellow PA, follow your blog, curious, have you ever written an article about changing your time card? I work as commercial PA, where over time & 6th day pay are given, but often get asked by PMs to change TC or […]

Is It Okay to Call a Stranger?

Beth writes in about calling a complete stranger: I’ve recently moved to LA and while I have been networking I don’t want to wait around for that to be the only way to get a job lead. I found the phone number of the AD on a tv show called [redacted]. I found it using […]

Share Your Ice Cream Sandwich

When you’re a PA, it can be easy to feel separate from the higher ups. They’re older, more experienced, higher paid. It’s understandable that you might think of them as different or somehow special. While respecting aged wisdom is a good idea, don’t forget that producers, directors, and star are still people. Case in point: […]

To Whom It May Concern

Laura writes in about the proper salutation for a cover letter: One quick question: Should I address the letter to the person who is collecting the resumes or the person hiring? This is an easy one: the person who’s hiring. That’s who you’re trying to impress with your experience and accomplishments. For most readers of […]

How Prevalent is Sexual Harassment in Hollywood?

Reader Jess wrote in response to this blog post on sexual harassment: Obviously each department is its own animal, but having worked the majority of my life on skeleton crew indies (with the exception of one major TV show when I was in school) I’m worried that getting any deeper into things is going to […]

How to Order Lunch for the Production Office

Chester writes in: I have my first PA gig next week, and I’m super nervous. I wanna come off looking like I know what I’m doing and not an amateur. One of my duties is handling lunch for the days I’m working. How do you go about taking lunch orders? Do you hand out menus […]

First Shot, Lunch, and Wrap Reports

If you’re working on a network show or studio film, there are three reports that are almost always the purview of the office PA. They are: the first shot, the lunch report, and the wrap report. This is one of those times where the little details matter a lot.{{1}} Everyone does them a little differently, […]

Fired for Doing the Right Thing

I had planned to write an entirely different post today, until I saw this comment from Pete on an old post: I was just fired from a shoot after the AD’s placed me in back-to-back dangerous situations. The UPM declared that a PA is easier to replace than an AD, so they fired me. Oh, […]

You Don’t Have to be a Jerk

I’m traveling today (long story), so I don’t have time to write a post. Instead, here’s a copypasta from a comment left on a really old post yesterday: So, as a production manager and line producer, I can say, from personal experience, being an asshole is simply a crap choice the ADs, Producers, or UPMs  […]

One Subject Per Email

The One Subject Email You probably noticed people are busy. Like, all the time. Even when they have a moment to relax, they’ll probably spend that moment whipping out their cell phone and checking Reddit. I’m not criticizing or praising this trend. It’s simply the way life is now. You need to deal with this […]