Julie the Production Assistant

Any wannabe filmmaker pre-YouTube knows the obvious first step to breaking into the industry is production assistant work. I had two experiences being a PA on actual real life sets.

Sometime around 2005 I got a tiny gig as a production assistant for a TV shoot. It was some sort of Tim the Toolman Taylor’s Tool Time handyman show on the DIY network in DC. My mom knew the director of photography, who had previously worked at C-SPAN as a cameraman. So I spent the day doing various tasks, like helping the sound guy with his equipment, and covering the logos on table saws with black tape. Then I had to sort of re-cover them in sawdust so it looked natural….At one point I took a lunch order and spent what felt like a decade trying to figure out how to get to the nearest Subway. By the time I got back, everyone, including myself, was STARVING. I do have a distinct memory of eating the best tasting subway cookie I had ever had. (??? TBH this sounds like me.) It was a long, fairly simple day. There were six people there. I was paid, but I don’t remember how much.

The only other real PA chance I had was while I was in college. A friend told me the show Nanny 911 was shooting locally and they were looking for film students to come do PA work for one day. I rushed to the shoot, signed some sort of production…agreement…?? Then found myself not quite knowing what to do. It seemed like I wasn’t going to be very helpful….but I eventually jumped into the fray and made myself useful. I was stunned and amused to see the crew had placed giant lights all over the family’s house, just out of the camera’s frame. They had even matched the paint in each room so viewers couldn’t tell there were extra light cords climbing the walls. The crew was told not to speak to the Nanny 911 family, as it was the last day of shooting and they needed to stay somber to say goodbye to Nanny. Do you remember Nanny 911?? You’re essentially encouraged to judge these helpless, desperate parents and the brats they're raising. A nanny would swoop to their rescue and teach everyone how to ackrite. It’s of the subgenre I call ’At Least It’s Not Me - Reality TV’. (Hahahaha boy was I wrong about that one. There should be an actual Nanny 911 hotline… ) ANYWAY, I met some LA producers who were excited to show a young college coed the various spreadsheets required to have everything run smoothly. One of them gave me his card. I think I still have it! That evening I had to assist in driving a giant van back to a lot. On the way back the director was asking me about my future and what I wanted to do in life. I told him about how thrilling I find the industry, how exciting working in TV could be, how badly I wanted to be a director. But first and foremost, “I want to be a mom.” He was like LOL DID U NOT JUST SEE THOSE WILD KIDS WE FILMED?? No, he didn't say that. But he was surprised by what I said. 

I’m glad I got those two days to learn about set life, since I have yet to do professional PA work again…