The Anonymous Production Assistant

Good Enough

On my first show, I was copying blue crew lists, and the corner of page two kept curling in the copier, resulting in a tiny black smudge appeared on everybody’s crew lists. The secretary flipped through a handful of them, then gave them all back to me. “Do them again,” he said. “Figure out a […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Too Early To Think About Lunch

This week, we had a lot of new crew members starting in the office, so we switched from individual lunch orders to family-style catering. Before the switch, lunch went as follows: I printed out a menu and a spreadsheet with everyone’s name on it. The menu and order form passed around the office like a […]

The “Strong” Pot of Coffee

As the “early PA,” I’m the first one in the office each morning. Like the class president of Mrs. Jewls’ class, it’s my job to turn the lights on. (Important job! No one else is capable or qualified!) It also means that I have to brew the first pot of coffee. This has transformed me […]

The Name Game

Last week, I started working in a new production office, which means lots of new show anxiety. New show anxiety means frantically digging through my room, looking for my social security card in order to prove my identity for my I-9, telling myself over and over, “I should really invest in a filing cabinet.” New […]

What TV Does Best

Last night, I watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother called, “The Wedding Bride.”  If you don’t watch the show, that title is probably meaningless to you.  It may be meaningless even if you do watch the show. See, “The Wedding Bride” was a throw-away joke from an episode last year, “As Fast […]