Resume Basics
Received a few resumes from some youngsters. (When did I get so old? Oh God, am I The Old PA?! Nooooooo!) They were rife with rookie mistakes. I’ve said all these things on the blog before, but for those of you who might be too busy (i.e. lazy) to go back through the annals, here’s a […]
Not ‘Till You Book It
When I was first starting out, I told my parents about every interview I went on, every potential job offer that came my way, every good parking space I found on lunch runs. Oh, how years in Hollywood have jaded me. Now, my parents know almost nothing about my professional life. Why? Because a PA’s […]
Fred Savage and CBS Can Go to Hell
I know what you guys are thinking. You read the story on Deadline about CBS buying the rights to a blog about life as a Hollywood assistant, with plans to turn it into a pilot. By now, you know that Fred Savage – of Vice Versa fame – is attached to EP and direct. So […]
One Big Happy Family
When you work in a production office, you spend long hours with the same people for months. You get to know each other. You learn their favorite and least favorite foods. You talk about dating and relationships and your families and your sports teams. And when it ends, you get that feeling you got when […]
The N-Word
Maybe it goes without saying, but considering that one of the PAs on my show said it to me last week, I’m going to go ahead and say it explicitly. It is never, ever, EVER okay to say the N-word at work. Never ever. I’m talking, of course, about “networking.” (This goes hand in hand […]
Always Bring Candles
Production offices celebrate more birthday parties than Chuck E. Cheese. And they’re usually spontaneous. Someone notices on Facebook that the creepy girl from accounting is celebrating a birthday. Quick! Send a P.A. to CVS to buy a funny, unoffensive card. Quick! Send another P.A. to get a cake (cost of cake correlates to position in […]
For Those of You With Aspirations
For those of you who dream of getting paid to write (or direct or production design or shoot or whatever else), I highly recommend reading Kelly Oxford’s recent Tumblr post. A little background info: Kelly Oxford is a super-smart writer whose Twitter feed has earned her over a hundred thousand followers. Big whoop, right? Wrong. […]
No Crying in Baseball
You’ve got problems. Your girlfriend dumped you. Your little sister ran away from home. Your parents got a divorce. A family member died. You sliced your finger open. The kitchen ran out of your favorite kind of yogurt. But you know what? Keep that to yourself, nobody cares. (Or whine about it on your stupid […]
Send Button Anxiety
“Hey, TAPA, can you send out tomorrow’s call sheet? The email is already saved in the ‘Drafts’ folder.” That’s how it starts. Pretty soon, you’re drafting the email yourself. After that, the 2nd AD is emailing them to you directly instead of to the secretary (or APOC, in some cases). After you’ve drafted the email […]
It’s Always About the Food
On my new show, I’m responsible for [glossary slug=’craft-service’]crafty[/glossary] in the morning, lunch midday, and coffee in the afternoon. If it’s a late night, I’ve got to cover dinner, as well. It sounds menial and tedious, largely because it is. But that doesn’t make it unimportant. As one coordinator told me (many times), “It’s always about […]
“Just” a PA
When you tell people what you do for a living, there’s a tendency to undersell yourself. You say you’re “just” a PA. Stop doing that. You’re a PA, plain and simple. (Or you can be like everyone else in L.A. and say you’re a producer.)
Whom I Refer
Unemployment 2012 will come to an end on Monday. I finally got a job. In the last few days, I’ve been offered four other jobs. Naturally, I had to pass on all of them, which begs the question… WHERE THE HELL WERE THOSE JOBS WHEN I NEEDED THEM?! The universe works in funny ways. Since I […]