the first Hollywood PA job: part 1

I mentioned before that I scored a paying (pretty rare for a film student fresh out of college, I'm told) PA job for a commercial.

I signed a confidentiality agreement saying that I won't disclose information about the company or its product, but that doesn't mean I can't talk about my experience as a production assistant/gopher!

We filmed at a studio in Hollywood. The crew was pretty small, about 30 people. A good percentage of the crew was Asian, which was really cool and unexpected. A lot of them were Japanese or Korean and spoke their native languages.

I got there super early, around 6:30 am. Call time was at 7am, but it's always good to get there early. It's a good first impression. The production manager, Andy, showed me around the studio and where to find everything. I helped Hannah, in crafts services (or where you'll find the food), set up her table of yummy breakfast foods. Fruits, Starbucks coffee and pastries, breakfast burritos, and McDonald's breakfast sandwiches. On a student shoot, you're lucky to get any sort of snack or pizza at the end of the day, but these professionals don't mess around. You have to keep your crew happy if you want them to work hard, and sometimes all you need to keep them happy is great crafts services.

I went on my first "run" to buy 60 pounds of ice. I went to the nearest gas station, and the fellows there were so nice, they even helped me to my car with the ice. They asked me if I was throwing a party so early in the morning, and I said no, "We're filming a commercial down the street." To be able to say that gave me a huge sense of pride, not to mention a real ego boost.

Came back with the ice, filled the coolers, and went to the production suite with Andy to help fill out paperwork. I spent the next 30 minutes or so making copies of things, filling out paperwork for all of the crew. I met Yoshi, one of the production managers for the Japanese clients. He was nice. We had a safety meeting with the whole crew and then I had to make everyone sign a confidentiality report. Adam, one of the higher up PAs, gave me my own walkie-talkie. Pretty neat.I spent the rest of the day doing more runs and hanging out with Hannah at crafts services. There was a lot of downtime during filming for me, so I got to hang out with the other PAs, Adam and Aaron, who were really cool guys and very friendly and funny. I honestly didn't expect some of the people to be so nice. There were some older people there who were nice and smiley to me, I guess it's because I was a new face, not to mention I was the only other girl on set other than Hannah. Everyone pretty much knew each other from other projects.

I got to hear a lot of interesting stories from PAs and grips on their first jobs or some disaster of a production they worked on as well as some great advice from the older, more experienced PAs. Adam, who looked like he was my age, but was probably in his late 20s told me not get disheartened by the film people who will try to get me down. He said that there are a lot of people out there who no longer find passion in their work so all they do is try to alienate the newbies, tell them to find work in something else.

They were really psyched that I got this PA job only two weeks out of college. What scared me though is that Adam has been a PA for four years now. That's a really long time. And he's missed rent for the past 2 months. Aaron, another grip, was super nice. He's a huge guy, like a football player, and he was really funny. While they were setting up for another shot, he said to me, "Don't just stand there watching! Just follow my lead. You’re learning nothing out here [outside the set]. You won’t be in the way. You’ll never learn anything if you’re outside." I told him that I didn't want to step on any toes, but he insisted that I help. He was real nice.

One of the aspects I learned that I must possess in this industry is the ability to flirt. Maybe there's a better term for it, but my vocabulary isn't stellar. I think "schmooze" is also an associated term, but is sounds really asinine and Hollywood, but flirting covers a bunch of bases that "schmoozing" doesn't. Basically, you have to know how to make other people feel good about themselves, to know how to joke around not to mention who to joke around with and who to be serious with. And it ranges from varying degrees, so it could be something small just like looking the person in the eye, smiling, and being very personable to poking fun at a person in a nice way. Either way, you have to be LIKEABLE and presentable, approachable and open, and sometimes the way to be likeable is to flirt, whether it's with guys or girls. It also means being genuinely interested in the other person by asking questions about them, really listening to their stories.

I'm average at this, but I think I can really hone this in as I start working more.

Okay, Part 2 in a bit.