True Hollywood Story: The Production Assistant
The Beginning...
So I’ve tried the blog thing before and I’ve gotten very bored with it VERY quickly. Mostly, I get bored with whatever I write because I don’t feel like it is A) very insightful, or B) interesting to anyone but myself (and I even debate that one once in awhile).
That being said, I have gotten myself into the career I’ve always wanted, and Jonathan has prodded me into believing that two people might read this if I keep it up to date. So I’ll give it a try, and if it gets too boring then just let me know (both of you) and I’ll disable the boring blog.
“The Untitled Project”
At the beginning of September I began work on my first feature film. As I’m sure most people reading this will know, I worked solely on commercials before, so this would be a different experience than what I was used to. First, we have the money factor. Commercial production companies are given so much money to produce :30 and :60 second spots it is ridiculous. Ergo the pay is better, and more people are on the job. Second, the level of productivity is high. Due to the short nature of most commercial shoots, and the large bags of money (with big dollar signs on them) being thrown around, things need to get done quickly, efficiently, and without complaint. For the most part, I have worked with exceptional production assistants who do their job, they don’t complain, and most important, they are smart people. They do what needs to be done.
With my limited experience to the film world encompassing a smaller budget film, the things I experienced previously are not quite the same. With much less money than most of the commercials I worked on, we didn’t have the same amount of staff as well as the same kind of quality coming out of the PA department. Granted, everyone worked hard at some point or another. Some worked harder than others and some just bitched all the time. Like I said before, if something needs to be done in the commercial world, it gets done, no questions asked. For the film I just finished, a request was usually met by phrases like “That’s not my job,” “I can’t leave THIS spot,” or this one (which I love the best) “I should be entitled to the full hour for lunch.” Basically, lots of excuses, lots of complaining. The amount of bitching that continuously came out of the PA’s was AMAZING. Seriously, these people need to find another job route because I know I would never recommend them to another film or commercial.
Alright, that was enough informative bitching to start off my new blog career.
Next up…I’ll have some stories about the new film and other little good pieces of gossip.
Cheers
The Beginning...
So I’ve tried the blog thing before and I’ve gotten very bored with it VERY quickly. Mostly, I get bored with whatever I write because I don’t feel like it is A) very insightful, or B) interesting to anyone but myself (and I even debate that one once in awhile).
That being said, I have gotten myself into the career I’ve always wanted, and Jonathan has prodded me into believing that two people might read this if I keep it up to date. So I’ll give it a try, and if it gets too boring then just let me know (both of you) and I’ll disable the boring blog.
“The Untitled Project”
At the beginning of September I began work on my first feature film. As I’m sure most people reading this will know, I worked solely on commercials before, so this would be a different experience than what I was used to. First, we have the money factor. Commercial production companies are given so much money to produce :30 and :60 second spots it is ridiculous. Ergo the pay is better, and more people are on the job. Second, the level of productivity is high. Due to the short nature of most commercial shoots, and the large bags of money (with big dollar signs on them) being thrown around, things need to get done quickly, efficiently, and without complaint. For the most part, I have worked with exceptional production assistants who do their job, they don’t complain, and most important, they are smart people. They do what needs to be done.
With my limited experience to the film world encompassing a smaller budget film, the things I experienced previously are not quite the same. With much less money than most of the commercials I worked on, we didn’t have the same amount of staff as well as the same kind of quality coming out of the PA department. Granted, everyone worked hard at some point or another. Some worked harder than others and some just bitched all the time. Like I said before, if something needs to be done in the commercial world, it gets done, no questions asked. For the film I just finished, a request was usually met by phrases like “That’s not my job,” “I can’t leave THIS spot,” or this one (which I love the best) “I should be entitled to the full hour for lunch.” Basically, lots of excuses, lots of complaining. The amount of bitching that continuously came out of the PA’s was AMAZING. Seriously, these people need to find another job route because I know I would never recommend them to another film or commercial.
Alright, that was enough informative bitching to start off my new blog career.
Next up…I’ll have some stories about the new film and other little good pieces of gossip.
Cheers
posted by The PA @ 12:30 PM
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