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 […]
The Green PA
There are lots of jobs in Hollywood that I would rather have than mine. But there is one job that I would never take, no matter how much money you offered me. A Green PA keeps a show green. They make suggestions to improve the environmental efficiency of a show. They keep track of airline […]
The No-Experience Resume
Chris is experiencing a common problem: I’m about to start hunting for PA jobs in NYC after a 4 years as a reporting analyst. After a lot of thought I have decided that I would like to work in film/tv, eventually if I’m lucky and good enough as a writer or director. I have been writing […]
Just tell the whole world why don’t you…
I understand. Humans are forgetful. We get emotional and angry and our heads fill with stormclouds and all we see is red, but please, PLEASE, this is a professional environment. Do not under any circumstances, chide a person over walkie. It happens to us PA’s all the time. We’re human too. We fuck up here and […]
The Decision
Stick with a safe job, or make the jump to something more challenging?
When I grow up I wanna be…
When you first start working in the film industry you realize that it is, well, big. I mean crazy small REALLY big. It employs a lot of people (although never enough it seems…). The term “filmmaker” is kind of a misnomer; everyone who works here actually does something else that they happen to translate to the […]
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 […]