Reader Advice
Some of my oldish posts have been getting comments, recently. Not really sure why this is happening now, but they do bring up interesting points. Sarah replied to my post “No, You Don’t Need to Go to Film School”: You don’t need to go to any school, but film school is one of the few […]
Lucky Friday the 13th List
Maybe you can find a job as Kevin Bacon‘s Assistant.
Comment Corner
Mae commented on last week’s post about the Bitch Pack. She’s in a difficult situation, and I thought it would be worth posting on the main page: As a female assistant to a female CEO, your interview with LA Women touched on so many issues that arise in the workplace every day. It is virtually […]
Flat Rate
Jillian writes: I recently went on an interview for a production assistant position. I had been responding to an ad that had very little useful information on it, besides the shoot dates. During the interview, I asked what the production was and the rate. They told me they could not reveal any information about the […]
Meisner
If you hang around base camp long enough, you’ll start to hear actors talking about the Meisner technique. It seems to have replaced Method acting as the go-to acting fad. Near as I can tell, Meisner is a series of rehearsal practices designed to make the performer look like as big of an ass as […]
The Tyranny of Chronology
I agree that a film should have a beginning, a middle and an end but not necessarily in that order. Yes, I just quoted a French New Wave director. Excuse me a second while I punch myself in the face. I’ve been seeing a lot of resumes lately for my cover letter and resume rewriting […]
New Layout
If you go to the main TAPA site, you’ll see I’ve changed the layout. I felt like the column on the right was getting unwieldy, and people weren’t seeing all of it. I thought splitting the information might help. Let me know if you like the new look, or if you you think it’s too cluttered […]
The Bitch List
I was recently interviewed for LA Women. There’s quite a lot about how women are treated in the Industry, a subject that doesn’t come up on TAPA as much as it should. Here’s a quick snippet: You work for a guy and he doesn’t take you seriously, you work for a girl and she sees […]
It’s Good to Be the Coordinator
Here are some important facts about the SSC Ultimate Aero: it costs $654,400. With a top speed of 257mph, it was the fastest street legal car for three years in a row. Only twenty-five have even been made. Why am I telling you all this? Because it made a very special guest appearance on my […]
Computer Advice
You spend a lot of time at your computer, right? Here’s the thing– people who weren’t raised with computers (i.e. anyone over the age of 30) don’t see sitting at a computer as work. They think you’re goofing off, playing on Facebook or something. Here’s what you need to do, instead– do. not. sit. at. […]
Revisions, Or: When Five Figures Isn’t Enough To Do It Right the First Time
Paul writes: When the hell are the pages going to come?!! A very valid question. The answer is, as always, they’ll get here when they get here. If you’ve never been the late shift PA, it’s hard to appreciate the agony of waiting for scripts to come out. This may come as a shock to […]
Interview Advice
Since I’m looking for a new job right now, a former boss gave me some advice about interviewing: “Don’t want the job too badly.” People don’t like to see desperation. They want to see calm and confident. Someone who’s desperate for a job will say anything to get it; it’s impossible to judge if they’ll actually […]