Whether you ultimately want to be a producer, director, grip, or set designer, you’ll have to start your career as a Production Assistant. It’s not the most glamorous job—in fact, it’s the least glamorous job—but if you’re willing to put in some grunt work, it’ll get you where you want to be in production.
I haven’t been in this business for long, but I have been lucky to work on sets that are hugely different from each other, from small projects like MLP’s to a huge network reality TV show. What I’ve found is that, whether there are three people on set or 100, a PA’s duties are pretty similar no matter what.
If you’re a PA for a while, you’ll become an expert at driving. Most job listings you’ll find will require a clean driving record, because one of the things you’ll find yourself doing the most as a PA is driving: driving equipment, driving crew, driving producers, driving talent, driving lunch and coffee—you name it, you’ll be driving it around. And you’ve gotta be ready to go big, too; the smallest thing you’ll drive on set is a minivan, and you could also be driving a cargo van, a 15-passenger van, or even a box truck. Thankfully I’ve never had to drive a box truck. Yet.
Media production, even a small project, uses a lot of equipment. And, as I learned from an internship at a production company that rents out equipment, that stuff is expensive. Because there’s so much of it, not every piece of equipment can be on hand at any given moment. It’s not a great idea to leave cameras or lights or microphones that are more expensive than my car sitting around unattended, so that’s where you, the PA, come in, for what’s called a firewatch. Firewatch is a boring job, but an important one, and pretty much just involves sitting with the equipment to make sure no one takes it. Bring a book, and everything will be great.
In my last post, I mentioned something called a Bogie: a random person on set who shouldn’t be there. Particularly when a shoot is happening in a busy area, or if there’s a celebrity around, keeping bogies out is a big job, and one you’ll do often as a PA. It’s called a lock-up. Lock-ups require a certain level of aggressiveness and confidence that you’ll sometimes have to fake—because PAs aren’t always kept in the loop about what’s going on, and people love to ask questions. Somebody, whether on the walkie or standing nearby, will let you know when people need to be kept clear of the area, and it’ll be your job to keep anyone from getting through. They’ll be annoyed or confused, but that’s not your problem. Depending on the location, lock-ups can be either terribly boring or extremely stressful (or both at different times), and you can’t sit and read like you can on firewatch, but it’s important not to have a bunch of gawkers in the background of every shot. And, hey, I met Gordon Ramsey while on lock-up once, so it’s not all bad.
Of course, chances are you’ll also be lugging things around, whether it’s food and water for crafty or, especially on smaller projects, pieces of equipment. There’ll be a lot of standing, a lot of waiting, and a lot of rushing around. It can be stressful, or boring, or cold, or hot, or raining. And yet, it can also be extremely rewarding to be a production assistant, knowing that you’re playing a part in making something, no matter how small that part may be, and knowing that each uncomfortable or boring PA job is another step toward what you would really like to do.
It’s worth noting that there is also a subset of PA, an office PA, who work (as you might guess) in the office, doing research or paperwork or transcriptions. Having never been an office PA, there’s not much more I can say about it, but being an office PA is great for people who are interested in more office-related production jobs, like producing, production managing, or even scriptwriting.
If you’re interested in more advice on being a production assistant, there’s a great blog called “The Anonymous Production Assistant,” run by a succession of PAs who can answer your questions about what you should and shouldn’t expect when working as a PA and how to get the best start in the business.