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 Thomas Lennon.
If you’re an aspiring writer, you’ve probably already heard of this book, maybe even read it. But I want to recommend it to everybody who is starting out in the business, for one reason– the glossary.
That’s right, the glossary.
It lists every single crew position you might see in the credits, stuff you may never even have heard of, like a Genny Operator or a Standby Propsman. It even gives helpful hints, like:
If at first you have trouble telling the difference between the surly, tattooed anarchist electricians and the surly, tattooed anarchist grips, just remember: grips don’t get to plug anything in.
100% true. I love the description of PAs:
If you’re a PA and ANYONE on set tells you to do ANYTHING–you have to do it.
Also 100% true.
If you’re new to the Industry, you should buy this book. (Better yet, check it out at the library, and use the money you saved to buy The Hollywood Survival Guide.)
5 Responses
If you’re a PA and ANYONE on set tells you to do ANYTHING–you have to do it.
Except the extras, thank god.
I added Writing Movies for Fun and profit to my library hold list the day you posted it, and now I’ve moved ALL THE WAY up to 112th in the hold line.
I don’t know if this is directly due to the popularity of your blog, or if it’s just an obscenely in-demand book in LA, but you should absolutely claim it’s the former in all your publicity materials.
I downloaded Writing Movies for Fun and Profit to my Kindle, and I finished it hours after I started. Fantastic, fascinating read. Thanks for the rec!
I think Google Calendar is a little better, but not much. Your best bet unfortunately may be to download a calendar template (for example from: http://www.calendarlabs.com/calendars/2012-calendar-templates.php) for Word that you can modify yourself so that everything fits. It’s horrifically manual though. Good luck!
OT question: What calendar program does everyone use to schedule their boss? I need to see a full month view but with Outlook it only lets you see part of one entry unless you click open that day, which is very tedious. Is there any good software that lets you see all the appointments for a month on one screen? Even a full week at a time would be better than this. Thanks very much. (please don’t mention custom-programmed software, I’m looking for something you can buy ready-to-go not hire a programmer.)