The Black Swan Interns
Last week, the New York Times reported: Two men who worked on the hit movie “Black Swan” have mounted an unusual challenge to the film industry’s widely accepted practice of unpaid internships by filing a lawsuit on Wednesday asserting that the production company had violated minimum wage and overtime laws by hiring dozens of such […]
Bad Times
In the last few weeks, I’ve received several emails like this: I was laid off back in July, the 22nd to be exact. I have been out here for 3 years and have worked at 3 networks. One job in which I was a Story Assistant for a show on Nickelodeon(Irrelevant I know). Here I stand […]
To leave or not to leave
Jose writes: I want to be a director and didn’t go to film school. I’ve been working at a small commercial place for 2 years and my boss is a typical hollywood d-bag who does not want to see my advance my career and only wants to use me for his own purposes. The thing […]
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 […]
PA vs. PA
This happens all the time with people new and/or unfamiliar with the industry: they get Production Assistant and Personal Assistant confused. PA vs. PA. Yet there is a distinct difference between these jobs. This should not be an official barometer, but if laundry is in any way involved in your job then you’re the latter PA, […]
What Does Everyone Do?
Here’s a quick plug that nobody’s paying me for. (Unlike The Hollywood Survival Guide, which pays me cold, hard PayPal credits every time one of my readers buys one. So, please do; hosting this website isn’t free!) Alas, no one is paying me to plug Writing Movies for Fun and Profit, by Robert Ben Garant and […]
Foreign Experience
Max writes: I work as an office PA in Malta, which has a small but steadily growing film industry largely based on foreign films shooting here rather than our own local production. We have all manner of shoots here from music videos and small commercials to high-budget, high-profile American films and TV, and everyone pretty […]
The Future is Now
Amy writes: How long do you have to be a private assistant until you get a job in a TV show or a movie ? Do you get to talk or know the actors and actresses ? And how hard is it to get that job?… I am not even done with school yet but […]
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 […]
Stop Calling the Production Company
Matt writes: Hi how are you…i’m in search for over 2 years now for an PA job on a decent TV Drama or Movie but i cant get anywhere… i tried to call some prodcution companys for th shows but i always got slammed from there assistants like we are not hiring right now etc… […]
Comic-con: Not for Comics Alone
It’s Christmas in July in San Diego. That’s because one of the biggest pop culture celebrations in the country is going on: the San Diego Comic Con, nerd heaven, and the film industry’s bucktoothed mistress. The Con began as a regular comic book convention, but since the industry discovered it was one of the best […]
Boss Database
In honor of a movie I have absolutely no intention of seeing, I’d like to create a database of bosses. Similar to RateMyProfessors.com, without the cartoony graphics. Of course, the criteria for a good boss are different than for a good professor. (Except for hotness; we’ll leave that column.) Truth be told, I have a had time […]