I bet you'd make the perfect filmmaker. You've got all the skills: you can sweep a floor super-well, you can drive a cube truck through a city of narrow streets (make those wide turns really count), you know how to stare at equipment for several hours at a time so no one steals it, telling random people not to enter your shot, working 18 hours straight, and you just love, love, love to be yelled at by people for someone else's mistake. Aren't you so glad you went to film school so you can be awesome at this?! You're a fascinatingly amazing P.A. now! So proud of you! Wait a minute... I didn't go to film school to learn how to tell crowds of people to "shut up." Hold it, I have to buy and set up snacks... all day? I don't remember driver's education in college. Oh, so I MUST have a driver's license to work in film? Um, I could have sworn I never had to learn how to rush the make-up department in film school... okay, I'm confused. Wait, I'm not a bouncer, so why do I have to act like one? Aren't I making a movie?! Don't worry, folks, this isn't the Twilight Zone... it's movie making alright.
Let's get this straight everyone, they don't teach you how to be a production assistant in film school. If they told you about it in detail, you probably wouldn't believe it or try it anyway. You're told how great and fortunate it is to get hired (though not necessarily paid) to be one on a set. Oh, yes, great film student, you'll learn soooo much. Well, the hard truth is you do. You will learn tons and tons about filmmaking, but it's not quite what you may be thinking. It's the stuff no creative mind wants to learn: how a set runs. Then what does a P.A. do? Everything! It's terrible! Here's a scenario: a street scene in New York City is being shot. Every corner in this area has regular people walking back and forth, doing their thing. The director is trying to get a shot of two actors talking in front of a deli. Easy enough, right? No! People just keep getting in the way! Some kid can't stop waving at the camera. I swear, the funniest thing I ever saw stop a crew from shooting was two dogs... well, doing it. Sadly enough, it's a great example of one of the many reasons why we have P.A.s. Okay, stop! Not where I was going with that... PAs don't have it THAT bad. But, I mean, one of a P.A.'s possible jobs on set is to clear the shot. You think the director, the cinematographer, or even the assistant director wants to spend time on that? No way! They've got bigger fish to fry. A production assistant's job is literally to assist the production, but it really means you have to do the jobs no one else wants to do or has any kind of time for. So that's what a P.A. does. Yay, hurray! I'm a P.A.! Awesome, right?
Okay, okay... it's really not that bad. First off, almost everyone on set has been one before, so you've got that going for you. They know what it's like and they worked their tails off to never do it again. Oh, right... I'm trying to explain why it's not so bad. Sorry, I never said it would be easy to do. Seriously, though, a PA is right there in the thick of production. You'll learn about the set lingo, the purpose of every job, set etiquette, the kind of hours it entails to make a movie, and how to use a walkie. And hey, you may get hands on experience with equipment, props, the budget, and even be on set... this is how you learn. You deal with everyone, everywhere! Still not what you're looking for? I hate to say it, but it's kind of too bad. Even if you start in the camera department, grip and electric, or production design, you still have to be a P.A. in that department. It gets fun, though. As a writer/director, my interest was watching action to cut on set and watching the talent prepare, that sort of stuff. If you want to shoot movies, the camera and lighting departments are fun to keep your eye on. If you are into special effects makeup or something like that, the art department, or sound... you can make your way in there by offering to help them out. That's how relationships start; that's how you network. I'm going to state the obvious here: the best way to learn filmmaking is to make films. You may do that in school, but after that, you have to start by working on other people's movies. Well, unless you're a millionaire, of course. But if you're a millionaire and reading this blog, you're wasting your time... buck up and make your movie already!
Okay... I gave you the good and the bad... now for the ugly. I always like to talk about the day I gave up P.A.-ing, so let me tell you a short story. I had been working as a P.A. off and on for about three years. The first year was more on, the second year was more off, and the third was a bit of both. My first experiences were as a P.A. on independent feature films. This is the worst you'll get paid and the hardest you'll work, but if you like making features like I do, it's also the most fun and worthwhile. I had another P.A. friend that used to bail me out of so many things when we worked together. He did two things I couldn't: parallel park a truck and hear a damn thing on the walkie. I wasn't the worst P.A., though. I always showed up, people generally liked me, I did my job, I was enthusiastic, and I didn't complain too much. Anyway, this P.A. really bailed me out sometimes. I'd ask him to go to channel two just so he can repeat for me what the 1st A.D. just said. It's funny and not funny, all rolled into one.
So anyway, this other P.A. went out drinking one night. He decided he was done, right then and there. He turned to me and said, "P.A.-ing is a scam!" I didn't really understand that at first, but then it made sense once it sunk in. P.A.ing isn't a scam like he said, not really. But, he was right in a way. If you don't want to be a P.A. for life, or don't want to climb the producer ladder, you are led to believe that's the road everyone must take to get where they want to go in the film business. The people who tell you this is true, that IS a scam! You can't do it forever if you want to be a director, a cinematographer, or whatever. Make sure you switch to the department you want to have a career in. To me, P.A.-ing was a tough, thankless job. You get that right and you're promoted to a Key P.A., and that's just a much tougher job with more responsibility. Want to be promoted to a 2nd 2nd A.D. then? Are you kidding?! That's even harder! Then it just goes on until you somehow turn into a 1st A.D, and to me, that just may be the hardest job on set!!! It takes a really specific kind of person to be good at that. If you want to be a producer, you're on your way. But for someone like me back then, someone who wanted to be a writer/director, know when to move on. I paid up and did my first independent short film outside of school, and it did wonders for my career.
Financing for my first short wasn't as simple as just paying out of my pocket. I used a lot of resources I gained along the way and did a lot of it for free, or at least a major discount. I'll tell you all about it next time, but for now, my advice to young aspiring directors out there is try being a P.A. for a little while, just don't do it forever. You'll learn the basics of how a set is run, you'll join the majority group of ex-P.A.s, you'll experience things you'll talk about for years (good or bad), and you'll find out exactly how tough you really are. Once you've been there and done that, it's time to try some directing on a much smaller scale, but I'll explain more on that next time...
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