A Concise Explanation of How To Make It in Hollywood
I woke up the other day with the most amazing comment on the UTA joblist page. It’s short, but amazingly helpful. I’m a little mad I didn’t write it myself. As someone who moved to LA in 2010 from another state who has: 1) No film or entertainment related degree (BA in Political Science) No […]
As If PAs Didn’t Have Enough Problems, Now Scammers Are Targeting Us
Ugh. Some people are just assholes. A few weeks ago, I answered a question from reader Brian about per diem. Something that stood out to several readers was the phrase “$500 per diem.” That’s a ridiculously high per diem, so I assumed either the job posting in question was ambiguously worded, or the PA misunderstood […]
Peak Job Opportunities
If you hadn’t heard the good news, I’m happy to be the first to tell you. In 2015, there were 409 scripted television series. That’s not reality, news, MOWs, specials, soaps, or kids shows. John Landgraf calls this “peak TV,” and seems to think it’s a bad thing, for some reason? For people who watch […]
The Name That Goes on Your Resume
What name should you put at the top of your resume? You’d think the answer would be obvious, but it does come up from time to time in my resume service, so I thought it bore writing about. The name you put on your resume is the name you go by. If the name on […]
Can a Writer Help a PA?
Felecia writes in: So there are some people that I’ve worked with before who now write on other shows. I was wondering if I sent them my resume and they forward it to whoever does the hiring on their show, does the fact that it came from one of the writers matter? Or would it […]
Work for Who You Want to Be
David writes in: I am interested in post-productions more specifically a video editor. I thought about starting out as an assistant editor, but almost all these job advertisements require 2 years of experience. Would you have any recommendations on where to get qualified experience in Los Angeles? I heard from one person that some editors […]
When To Follow Up
Jane writes in: I sent in a resume to a job posting and was emailed by a First AD thanking me for my interest in the shoot and told me “to expect an email in 3 weeks.” Should I send a follow-up e-mail/call in two weeks (etc)? What’s protocol to following up a job possibility […]
Take a (Paragraph) Break
When writing a cover letter, or even your resume, you should remember that text is, surprisingly, a visual medium. It’s not as mimetic as, say, film, television, or painting, that’s true. But you still glean information from text just by looking at it, not reading it at all. Here’s what Stephen King says in his […]
Truck Drivin’ PA
Woody writes in: Hi TAPA, I’ve been cruising job boards lately and one thing I occasionally see is some production listing that, as a PA, one of my skills should be the ability to drive a 24′ cube truck. I haven’t work on the biggest of shows (or barely many moderately-sized ones) but the 24′ […]
How To Stand Out From the Crowd
Max writes in: First off thanks for your the wonderful blog! As a student reading the “What to do with your student experience” gives me some confidence as I make the leap to LA. In the post you mentioned that if you were lucky you’d learn set etiquette and maybe how to set up a […]
What to Do With Your Student Experience
I’ve said on numerous occasions that student film experience doesn’t count. That’s actually only half true. Unless you’re a savant, your directing experience isn’t likely to get you a job as a director.{{1}} It’s also unlikely to get you a production assistant job, either. If you put writer/director/producer on your PA resume, you’ll look like […]
How Far Would You Go For a Job?
Hoosier PA writes in– I love the blog. I am a P.A working almost exclusively on reality tv shows. I started my first gig in February and have now worked on 7 shows since then. Recently I applied for a 3 month gig that is taking place in Orlando. I was asked by the coordinator […]