TAPA On Set
An Office PA’s place is in the office. (Any loyal readers want to embroider that on a pillow for me?) So when an Office PA ventures on set, it creates a classic fish-out-of-water scenario. On my last show, I had to accompany the supervisor’s seventeen-year-old neighbor to set. She sat there, starry-eyed, watching take after […]
Do I Stand a Chance?
Miruna writes: In november I’ve quit my job… The main reason I’ve quit my last job is that I desperately want to go back and work in the movie industry, it’s the perfect work place for me, I love it, I love everything about it. The thing is, I would love to work for real movies, […]
Get Your Head in the Game, Rook
One of the PAs in the office is on the chopping block. Every day, he’s working to keep his job – fighting to keep his spot on “the team.” He doesn’t know it, but I hope he senses it. Over the last few weeks, I hope he’s noticed that the office has grown more frustrated […]
Day Player: A Way In
A day player is a PA who works on a show sporadically. He or she doesn’t have the luxury of a regular Monday through Friday prison sentence work schedule. They could work two days one week, three days the next, five days the next, and then not at all for four weeks. It all depends […]
Script Coordinator: A Way Out of The PA Doldrums
I have no intention of being a PA forever. As I’ve said before, I’d ultimately like to write and direct. Every path out of PA-hood is unique, but one way out that doesn’t get enough attention is the PA –> Script Coordinator route. A Script Coordinator is the keeper of the script. He or she […]
The Similarities Between My Job and ‘The Wire’
I wrote on Twitter that I’ve been using this lull in the pre-production schedule to make my way through Season 3 of THE WIRE. For those uninitiated to one of the greatest shows ever, THE WIRE follows a police unit’s investigations of the criminal underworld in Baltimore, Maryland. In the show, the police commanders have […]
The Goldilocks Problem
In case you don’t know the story of Goldilocks, it’s a nineteenth century fairy tale about a girl who discovers the home of three porridge-loving bears. She has some of their porridge – a spoonful from each bowl. One is too hot, one is too cold, and one is just right. The story doesn’t say […]
Your Car, The Mobile Office
As a PA, you’ll spend 95% of your time between two places – your desk and your car. I try to keep my desk as clean as possible. My car is a different story. Until very recently, my car was a danger zone. Receipts, fast food bags, empty water bottles (don’t tell the Green PA) littered the […]
Act Like A Professional
The last few weeks have been pretty tough for me, personally. My family has decided to turn my life into a sick Edward Albee play, and, needless to say, it’s put me under a considerable amount of unneeded stress. It came out in my work last week. I made dumb mistakes. Rookie mistakes. In one […]
Getting Chummy With The Bosses
Last week, the Other PA asked me, “Hey. Joe Buck the EP doesn’t seem to talk to me very much. You think he doesn’t like me?” Here’s what I wanted to say back: “No. He’s the EP. You’re a PA. You two could not be on further ends of the production spectrum. Your day-to-day job […]
Get Your Goddamn Hands Off Her
I have four little sisters, and if any one of them told me that they wanted to work on a film set, I would try my best to dissuade them from entering such a filthy pit of depravity. It’s not that I don’t think they could cut it in the dog-eat-dog world of film and […]
Old People Stand In The Way of the Future
If you were born in a decade that starts with the number 7, then you are old. Don’t be offended. Let me be the first to welcome you to your golden years. That being said, stop standing in the way of the future! I’m almost positive that I could write an entire blog about old […]