“Hey… Guy!”
His name isn’t “Guy,” is it?
It’s Like Herding Cats. Confused, Obtuse, Narcissistic Cats.
(So, basically, like normal cats.) Dealing with actors is one of the least pleasant tasks of a PA. Just shuttling them from one end of the studio to the other can be a sisyphean task. They want to stop at [glossary slug=’craft-service’]crafty[/glossary], they want to swing by the production office, they have to talk to […]
How To Succeed in Hollywood by Really, Really Trying
If, by “succeed,” you mean get a job as a PA. Beyond that, I can’t really help you. Lisa Klink had a post yesterday about what us assistants look like when you’re a big time TV writer. (Okay, she’s not J.J. Abrams-type big time, but she’s certainly more impressive than me.) She wrote that she […]
Not In The Budget?
The agency I once worked for was across the street from a high school. My boss said he liked the location because it reminded him of the old saying, “Hollywood is just high school with money.” (His other favorite saying was, “Farmers farm, plumbers plumb, and agents lie.” I learned more from him than he […]
A Clarification
Yesterday, I said writing is not producing. I didn’t mean that as an insult. When I came to LA to attend film school, I thought the writer was in charge of the filmmaking process. It turns out, I was wrong. People usually laugh at me when I relate that bit of youthful naiveté. Or they […]
“It’s exhausting but fun.”
No, I didn’t say that about being a PA. That’s Jane Espenson, talking about “producing.” I produced a sitcom pilot in film school. I asked my professor what, exactly, was a producer’s job. My professor said, “The producer is the guy who, when something goes wrong, fixes it, even if it means picking up a […]
Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee, A PA’s Life For Me!
First, Amanda the Aspiring TV Writer has an inspiring post. If you’re interested in writing, you should check it out. In that vein, I’d like to write my own heartwarming blog post. My wife told me that these posts have been really negative. That’s unfortunate, because I really do like my job. It’s certainly better […]
With No Power Comes No Responsibility
I’ve worked on some horrible shows. (One of the quaint anachronisms from the days when everyone in Hollywood was a former vaudvillian is the fact that everything, be it a movie, a TV series, or even a music video, is called a “show.”) I worked on a horror movie about giant eels. I worked on […]
Why Would Anyone Want To Be A PA?
The hours are lousy, the pay is worse. No one respects you. If anything goes wrong, it’s always your fault. And everyone tells you you’re lucky just to be here. There is one advantage– free time. We’re often busy, it’s true, but a lot of a PA’s job is simply to be ready. While we […]
What The Heck Is A Production Assistant, Anyway?
A PA is all things to all people. By which I mean, any shit job that nobody else wants to do is given to the PAs. Making coffee, making copies, driving all the way across town to drop off a script and thus adding unnecessary greenhouse gases to our environmental crimes. (Seriously, e-mail exists. What’s […]