My Location
You don’t ever want a show filming in your neighborhood, or worse, your own apartment building. You will find out EXACTLY what kind of area you live in. You see, TV shows don’t have time for nuance and subtlety. They need the audience to understand immediately what kind of location they’re at. If a character […]
Be A Morning Person
The production office is one of the few departments that works in shifts. Because we’re one of the few departments that can, and because we kinda have to. On days when the production is shooting late, you still need to open the doors at around 8:00am. Business needs to be taken care of during business […]
Should Wannabe Actors Be PAs?
Over on Facebook{{1}}, Christina asked: Do you have a post on wannabe actors being PAs? No. Because it’s a terrible idea. If you’re serious about acting, you’ll spend your days either attending classes or auditioning. You need a flexible schedule that allows time off when you get a part. This is the exact opposite of […]
Should Wannabe Writers Be PAs?
Corey writes: Due to the nature of production and the long shifts, would you still recommend PA to someone trying to write films? Many writers have told me that it is often best to pick a job that allows you to pay bills and still have time to write. Since you are obviously doing both, […]
Yes, You Should Learn Movie Magic
No, you’ll never use them, but yes, you should learn all of the Movie Magic programs. First of all, it’s another notch in the “skills” section of your resume. Most bosses want to know that you know how these newfangled computer thingies work. Which brings me to my second point– your boss didn’t grow up […]
How to Carry Coffee
Huh. Learn something new every day. Reader Brian writes in– Wouldn’t it be great if you could carry more coffee and carry them with ease? My trick: I call it the Lot of Latte. What I do is I take the lid of a printer paper box and stick two coffee holders inside. Then I […]
Why Are You Anonymous, Anonymous?
Susan (or possibly Jo) commented on an old post: for one who knows as much as you do why are you anonymous? why can’t you tell us who you are and some of your credits. Might give us more trust in you, your advice, your credibility to know maybe of your imdb page or … […]
Should You Intern?
In the past week, many people have been talking about the Black Swan intern lawsuit, including The Business, Scriptnotes, and the Hollywood Reporter. Since I was an intern not terribly long ago, I figured I should weigh in.{{1}} Internships are either a great way to meet people and learn about the business, or the exploitation […]
How Reply All Works (And BCC, Too)
It’s been called to my attention that I left out an important aspect of email yesterday— reply all. Once again, ugh. I can’t believe I have to write this post. There is one, and only one, circumstance in which you should hit the reply all button: if everyone on the CC chain needs to see […]
How To Use Email
Ugh. I can’t believe I have to write this post. A few of my readers are old enough that they needed a Thomas Guide and a roll of quarters in their car when they went on a run, but most of you don’t even remember AOL CDs. Growing up around computers, you should know proper […]
Vacation Plans
Caroline writes: I just got a job as an office PA at a TV show production office. Unfortunately, I had a trip planned for a month into the job that I long before I was hired. Would it be unwise to request a half day on a Friday and offer to work extra other days […]
Things to Inspire You (Plus a Correction)
First of all, if you haven’t read this Cracked article, you should. It is either the most inspiring or most depressing thing you will read all year. * * * Shadya has a response to yesterday’s post, where I advised Alex not to just walk into a production office: Yes, I would say to go […]