4thWall

So maybe I went a little over the top with the title of this post, and I don’t exactly have so much experience that I know exactly what it takes to be the best PA ever down to a T, but, I think I have worked enough to give some overall decent advice on being a kick ass PA. I really haven’t ever messed up on any of my jobs (knock on wood) , so you could say my advice is credible. So in no particular order, here are some tips on being a PA.

For starters, as you meet people on set and are introduced to people, actually try to remember their names. There were a few jobs I did where I just didn’t register the persons name as I shook hands with them and then I had to make an effort to listen for when people addressed someone by name so I could learn their name that way. You can always apologize and ask for someones name again, but you’re way better off if you just learn their names in the beginning. Knowing names is important if you have to call someone on walkie, or if you are asked to bring something to someone it is good to know who they are, things like that.

Learn the lingo. Being on set can feel like you’re in another country where you don’t speak the language, kind of. The world of production has its own little language: sticks, stingers, C-47’s, high hat, half apple, greeking, cookie, juicer, day player, hot points, the list goes on and on. There are still plenty of terms that I don’t even know myself, but that’s what google is for, right? Variety has what it calls the slanguage dictionary and mostly covers industry terms. As for set lingo, FilmLand is one of the better ones I have come across. Also, I don’t know what is available for the droid, but the iphone has all sorts of useful production related apps. One of them is the film production terms app. So take some time to educate yourself on production language, and take note of new terms as you hear them around set.

When you are just starting out, it is likely that you will work for only a day or a few days for any given job. But as you should know, any single day of work can lead to more work in the future, so with that in mind, you should go into every job like it is an audition. You are trying out for a position on a crew and since you may only have one day with these people, you have to show that you are the best guy or girl for the part. You have to put on your best performance and impress everyone with your talents. I was talking to one of the production managers on the show I am working on now and when I said a first day of work is like an audition not only did he agree with me, but he said every day of work is like an audition. This takes me to my next point.

Never get too comfortable if you get on a long term gig, just because you were initially hired to work the whole season of a show doesn’t mean they have to keep you there if 4 episodes into the show you start to slack off. PA’s are too easy to come by in this town and whether you aren’t working hard enough, or someone just straight up doesn’t like you, you will be let go. So just because you got the part because you impressed everyone when they called you in for extra help during set up and ended up hiring you for the whole gig, doesn’t mean your job is secure. Don’t slack off, and work just as hard as you did on the first day, everyday.

There are a few places you should avoid lurking in or around or spending unnecessary amounts of time in. The main two are the production office (PO) and video village. On my current job our PO is just a shitty small mobile mini packed with 3 tables, some shelves, a mini fridge, and a lot of random junk. It gets crowded pretty fast and it doesn’t always make the production coordinators and managers too happy if you linger around the PO when you have nothing to do. So you should really avoid the PO for two reasons, first because it is generally not a place where PA’s are allowed to hang out and relax, and second because if you are sitting around the PO doing nothing, the PM’s and PC’s will clearly see you sitting around and doing nothing. The second main place to avoid is video village. Video village is the cluster fuck of monitors where a few selective people sit comfortably in directors chairs and monitor the shots. Crew members welcome at video village include the director, the director of photography, producers, and script supervisors. Crew members typically unwelcome at video village: PA’s, PA’s, PA’s, crafty workers, PA’s,oh and PA’s. As tempting as it is to hang around video village and watch the playback of the most recent take of that really cool scene about something really cool, unless you are brining the director his coffee you have no reason to be there.

Going off of what I just said, you can get fired for being unlikable, now this is something that is a little less out of your control. You can’t necessarily change who you are and not every person you work with is going to like you, but just do your best to not get on anyones nerves. This also doesn’t mean that you should close yourself off and not be yourself in fear that your witty outgoing personality may get you fired. People like working with a fun crew, so don’t be the Debbie downer. I am currently working a night shift and spend any time off set, in an office with just my production manager. Spending long nights together would be rather unbearable if we were both boring people. Easier said than done, but try not to tick people off, but don’t be lame at the same time.

Don’t wait until you are asked to do something that obviously needed to be done. If a trash can is full, take the trash out. If something is messy, clean it up. If something is broken and you are capable of fixing it, fix it. It is really quite simple and again more common sense, if someone is constantly pointing out tasks that you could have easily noticed yourself then you are not taking enough initiative on set to do the mindless PA duties that are expected of you.

It happens to the best of us, but try your hardest not to mess up a lunch order. For all the lunch orders in your future you are bound to mess up one. If you are taking individual orders try to get people to be as specific as possible so that when you are ordering their burger you don’t have to decided for them if they want cheese on it or not. What kind of toppings do they want on their sandwich? What type of bread? Do they want their dressing on the side? If you happen to not get a dressing choice for someone ask for a few different kinds on the side. If you order from a place that has multiple locations make sure you go to the one that you called, websites don’t always have the correct address so confirm what the address is when you order. When you place an order, have the person read back to you everything you ordered to make sure they got everything, then when you go to pick up your order go through everything and make sure it is all there before you leave. If you are ordering a catered style lunch, be sure to get serving utensils if the restaurant normally supplies them. Also in general be sure to get any plates, bowls, utensils, etc that are necessary for the meal if the restaurant normally supplies them as well, sometimes crafty will have everything you need to serve lunch, but it is better to be on the safe side. Also, when picking up lunch, try not to be late bringing it back to set. The crew has to eat after working for 6 hours, so if lunch is at 12:30 you better damn well have lunch ready at 12:30 or the crew can call a meal penalty and this will piss the higher ups off.

Runs, you are likely to be sent on a lot of runs. Whether it be picking up stuff for crafty, a coffee run, getting ice, picking up a permit, if it is needed on set you are most likely to be the one who will have to go and get it. Doing runs isn’t me time, don’t take the scenic route, and don’t slowly wander through Target or the grocery store in an attempt to gain some sanity during this time away from a hectic set. It’s simple, get your shit and get out. Don’t be that PA who is sent around the corner to buy a few bags of ice and you come back 45 minutes later on a run that should have taken you a maximum of 15 minutes. Don’t be stubborn and try to find something yourself, sometimes the quickest way to get what you need is to ask where it is. Shy about asking where something is, well get over it. One thing I have noticed though is that all the Targets in LA seem to seriously lack a helpful number of staff, and when all I want to do is find someone to ask where clothespins are there is not a single useless Target employee in sight, nor are they in the next aisle, or anywhere convenient. So if you are in Target, it might be quicker to just find what it is you need yourself than to try to locate someone to ask where that item may be. If the store you are at doesn’t happen to have what you need find another one that does, but call whoever sent you on the run and let them know so they aren’t wondering what the hell is taking you so long. It is also a good idea to check with them about going to another store. Don’t come back from a run empty handed, you were sent to go get something because it was needed, not just to waste gas and get you off set, so you better find a way to get what you were asked to get. Although if no store seems to have what you need, call someone and let them know and they will probably just tell you to come back. Sometimes whoever sends you on a run will print you out directions, but it is also very helpful if you have a smart phone with a GPS on it or just have a regular GPS.

When you are sent to go out on runs you will be given petty cash (PC). Sometimes when you are given PC whoever gave it to you will write down how much you were given and then you sign or initial by the amount. This is so that when you return from your run, if the change you have doesn’t match your receipts then you are responsible for making up the difference. Sometimes it won’t be written down how much you were given, so make a note of it yourself and remember how much you were given. DONT LOSE ANY RECEIPTS, always ask for one if you aren’t initially given one, even if it has to be reprinted, eventually it will just become a habit and you won’t have to think about asking. If you are getting gas the initial receipt won’t always say how much was paid per gallon. Sometimes you may have to go inside and ask for a reprint of the receipt that has the price per gallon on it, annoying but necessary.

More on runs, you may be asked to drive your own car (this is why a lot of job postings for PAs require you have a reliable car), or you may be given a production vehicle to drive. This may just be a minivan, or it might be a cargo van, 15 passenger van or a cube truck. This is pretty obvious, but be careful when driving production vehicles. I know a PA who ripped the whole back off of a mini cooper as he was maneuvering a cube truck out of the production parking lot, and I know another PA who simply just cracked the mirror on a 15 passenger van when she hit a AAA truck that was double parked. Both these PAs still have their jobs. Regardless,  just try not to crash production vehicles because you never know how forgiving your boss may be. Drive safe and drive smart. Now, if you are not given a production vehicle to drive and you are asked to take your own car, you will most likely be paid for your mileage. So keep track of where you have gone and how many miles each trip took. You don’t have to be exact on your miles, typically they don’t look too closely at them, but for your benefit don’t put down less miles than you actually went; I always round up, even if I am rounding up from .3. If you don’t do a good job of keeping track of your miles, you are only hurting yourself, they could care less if you forgot to write down that 25 mile trip to Home Depot. Lastly, don’t go home with keys to a production vehicle. Even if no one will need the cargo van until the next day, you will still need to bring them back. It happens, I’ve seen it happen, but try to avoid it, mainly to save yourself from having to go back to work to bring the keys back.

Ask questions, but try to avoid asking questions. This one is kind of tricky. You are always encouraged to ask questions when you don’t know how to do something, don’t know where something is, etc. Obviously if you really have no clue how to do something, or someone asks you to go get something from somewhere and you don’t know what or where it is, you should ask. Asking someone to take the time to explain something to you in the end will probably waste less time than you trying to figure it out yourself, possibly messing something up, and then needing an additional person to correct what you messed up. Then again, if you really could figure it out yourself, take an extra second to do that. On my current job I have asked my boss a question, and from time to time the response I get is “you’re smart, figure it out yourself.” Just use your best judgement, don’t be afraid to ask questions because in the end everyone would prefer you ask then do it wrong. In general everyone on set is busy doing something, so if you can figure it out yourself, go ahead and figure it out. But really, just to finish up this topic, people do prefer if you ask, they understand you’re not going to know everything, you’re just a PA, don’t be afraid to ask stupid questions because messing something up because you didn’t ask how to do it could cost you your job.

It doesn’t hurt to be in shape, even if you are just moderately to the slightest bit fit. If you are working as a set PA there is a good chance you will spend most of your 12 hour shift standing. Some of this standing is likely to be spent running (and no, not the running as in you are going on a coffee run but literally running), or moving around very quickly. While you are doing this exhausting constant standing and moving around very quickly thing, you will also likely be doing some heavy lifting. This doesn’t mean you have to go to the gym and bulk up so you can carry 3 cases of water at a time instead of 2, but if you are in general good health this will make your job easier and far less exhausting, it is as simple as that. On the subject of lifting, you know the saying “lift with your legs, not with your back.” Take care of your body, back injuries are a common problem in production work so take caution when you are doing all the running and lifting.  Also, try to stay healthy, calling in sick doesn’t really exist in production unless you like, wake up for work and can’t move or breath or see or smell or whatever. On a long term gig you will spend a lot of time around a lot of people exposing yourself to germs, you will work long hours and sleep little, have weird eating habits, probably eat a lot of crap supplied by crafty and likely live an unhealthy lifestyle brought on by production work. So, try to sleep, wash your hands often, use hand sanitizer, take your vitamins, and stock up on emergen-C. You might be able to find emergen-C at crafty, so take advantage of that. Do what you can to stay healthy so you aren’t in a position where you have to call in sick.

Avoid the PA huddle. Often times there won’t be much to do around set especially if shooting is in progress ,then they just want everyone to stand still and be quite and not do any noisy work. During these moments of nothingness PAs tend to stand around in a little huddle and quietly chat. Then when someone important notices a group of PAs standing around doing nothing, this obviously does not look good, even if there is absolutely nothing that you could possibly be doing. So try to avoid standing around with all the PAs doing nothing. So what do you do instead? Invent a job for yourself, or at least hover around the crafty table and rearrange the bags of corn nuts, for some reason there are always corn nuts at crafty. Can’t think of something to make yourself look busy? Try hiding. I haven’t had to do much hiding on my current job, because I am the only PA on the night shift, so there is no PA huddle to avoid. But my good friend who works the day shift has a few hiding places that she goes to when nothing is going on and she doesn’t want to be seen doing nothing. These hiding places may be dependent on how well you get along with other crew members. She spends a lot of time hiding out in the audio booth because she has befriend our audio guys. Other times she just walks to the dumpster, not the most pleasant escape from set, but its better than being caught standing around with other PAs looking useless. You don’t want to put the idea in peoples heads that they could manage with less PAs than they currently have. As a show progresses the higher ups begin to see where they can cut crew, it happens on every show. As things get going and everyone gets into a rhythm they will begin to trim the fat. Usually this starts with PA’s, so work hard and look as busy as possible all the time so that when these cuts are made, you hopefully aren’t let go.

Carry the right tools. There are a few things that are useful to always have on you, for one because they are commonly used around set, but also because you can impress people when someone quickly needs something and you are the one who has it. I suggest always having a permanent marker and a utility knife or a leatherman on you. Keep them in your pocket, strap em’ to your belt or hold them your little PA fanny pack pouch thing, just always have them accessible. A pair of gloves is also a useful thing to have. You can go ahead and be fancy and get a pair made specifically for production work from a company like setwear or a regular old pair of basic gloves will do the job. After your first few days you will figure out what you need to have on you. On my current job there is one PA who comes in wearing his little PA pouch and he happens to have every color of permanent marker that has ever been created. He typically works cleanup night where we clean up the set, and it is entirely unnecessary to have a sharpie rainbow at your side, if anything only a black sharpie is occasionally needed. Why he continues to bring his sharpie collection to every clean up night I do not know, but to each his own. My point, take a few days to figure out what will be handy to have on you, and then lighten your load by only carrying around what you need.

Know and use walkie etiquette. This takes all but 5 minutes to learn, and once you learn it and use it you will never forget it but production does have its own little walkie talkie language that you will need to know. Before I even get into walkie etiquette I will tell you this, DON”T LOSE YOUR WALKIE. Walkies are like $250-$300 and if you lose yours, there is a good chance you will have to pay for it yourself. Walkies have a little number on them and it is someones job, usually the key set PAs, to keep track of who has what walkie based on these numbers. But if you lose your walkie, it is your fault. So here is some walkie language for you: At the beginning of the day when you get your walkie you should do a walkie check, simply just say into your walkie “walkie check,” and if someone heard you they will respond by saying “good check.” When you need to contact someone over your walkie you say your name to whoever your callings name. So it would be something like “George to John.” Then John would say “Go for John,” then you would proceed to tell John whatever it is you need to tell him. The same goes for if someone calls for you, you say “go for” followed by your name. Some people say “go for me,” others say “go ahead” and some people just say “go.” When someone asks you to do something or just tells you something via walkie you should respond “copy that,” “copy,” or “copy you,” to let the person know you got what they said and you understand it. If you don’t understand what someone is saying asking them to “go again on that” or “repeat that” will do the trick.When someone calls for you and then they say “what’s your 20?” they are asking you where you are. If you call for someone or someone calls for you and you are not available you say “standby,” then when you are ready you say “go for (your name).”  If someone asks you your 20 when your in the bathroom you can say “10-1” and that means you going number 1, and “10-2” means your going number 2. I just usually don’t respond until I am out of the bathroom. On a set each department has its own channel. Channel 1 is almost always production, then 2 is typically open, 3 is often camera, and the others vary. Usually every other channel is an open channel, this is so that if you need to tell someone something that is longer than like 2 sentences, you switch to an open channel so that you don’t clog a used channel with your extensive conversation and you save everyone from having to listen to the back and forth between you and someone else. You can also switch to an open channel to talk about something a little more private, but there is no guarantee that some curious people won’t switch along with you. So when you want someone to switch to an open channel so you can hold a little conversation with them, do the standard “George to John” then ask John to switch to 2 or whatever channel, they will say “switching” or “switching to 2” then you switch to 2 as well, confirm they are there when you get there, and then go ahead and chat it up. Then when you are done say “switching back to (whatever channel you are normally on). Anther common walkie term is “flying in.” If someone asks you to bring something to them you say something like “flying it in”  or if someone asks you to come see them you say “flying in.” Those are the basics, avoid using your walkie to talk about unnecessary things it pisses people off and is generally not welcomed. If you are on a long term gig the crew will get comfortable and will start messing around saying useless things over the walkie, but just be cautious before you hold your walkie up to your phone and play some annoying song for all of channel 1. Knowing walkie etiquette will help you look like you know what you’re doing even if you really don’t. Another tip, don’t take off your headset or take out your ear piece, I’ve seen people get yelled at because they didn’t have their ear piece in when someone was trying to get a hold of them. Ok, I have more, be careful of keying, this means accidentally pressing your talk button when you don’t mean to, this can result in just a lot of annoying fuzzy scratchy noise going on for however long you are keying, or it can result in everyone on your channel hearing whatever it is you may be talking about. You will likely be given a head set or what we call a surveillance kit (surv). The head set is less common, and is just your typical headset with one external headphone and a mic, the surv is an earpiece with a small mic you clip onto the front of your shirt. Make sure your walkie is off when you plug in your headset/surv or it will make an unpleasant noise for everyone on your channel. People have their own preference for how they wire themselves up, it is most common to run your wires down the back of your shirt and plug them into your walkie which you keep on your belt or your pocket. Then if you have a surv the ear piece part clips to the back of your collar and then the rest loops over your ear, then you can run the mic over your shoulder and clip it to the front of your shirt, this helps keeps your wires out of your way. Knowing how to wire yourself up will also help you from looking like a noob. OK, that was way too much on walkies, that could have been its own blog post.

Walk fast and with purpose. This is not necessarily general PA knowledge, but something I made up while working on my most recent job. This is somewhat similar to the part about hiding, but is useful if you have nowhere to hide when you have nothing to do. The idea of walking fast and with purpose is useful in two ways. The first is that if you have nothing to do and you can’t find anything to invent for yourself to do, and you are kind of just aimlessly walking around, as long as you just walk quickly and somehow look like you are on your way to do something very important, or like you are in the middle of something important, you can actually appear to be doing something important. A brisk pace and a determined look on your face often does the trick. Its second use is to just avoid doing some stupid task that you really would rather not do. Now I am not saying you should be lazy and avoid all the shit jobs, but if you have cleaned out the cast bathroom 4 times and you really feel it is some other PAs turn to do it, then by all means, go ahead and try to avoid doing this. So how do you avoid being asked to do a task when you are doing nothing, you walk fast and with purpose. You hear 2 people talking about how the cast bathroom needs to be cleaned again, and you notice that Tina, who is busy doing nothing but chatting up the crafty lady is well, not busy, AND she has never cleaned the cast bathroom. To avoid being asked to clean the bathroom you need to vacate the crafty area, but you have to pass the 2 people that you overheard discussing the need for the bathroom to be cleaned. So what do you do? Quickly walk away, and as you pass these 2 people, put on your best “I have something really important to do” look. They may stop you anyways, or they may just ask Tina to do it.

It may seem like a lot, but the majority of it all is just common sense. PA work is not a learn from your mistakes kind of job, if you do make a mistake, learn from it, but it’s best you just don’t make a mistake. Well, I think that is all I have to say about being a good PA, check back, maybe I will add some stuff.