So, after a lengthy recovery (about a day and a half and 20 hours worth of sleep), I am officially recovered enough to write about my recent exeperience as a Producation Assistant (PA) on the set of "Crooked Arrows."
This past thursday, my good friend Casey McDougal contacted me and said that she was recruited by a friend of hers to be a Production Assistant on the set of a movie, and that she had permission to bring people on board. Before I go on, I'd just like to say that she and I are both actors. Usually, we're not paid to direct people or to enforce the rules. As actors, we're paid to say our lines, and be pretty. So to work on set grunting and sweating was something that interested me. Needless to say, I was in.
Now first, let me explain what a "Production Assistant" is. They show up before the cast, direct people (usually extras) where to go, make sure that other people don't walk into a shot, get people coffee...basically gopher work. It ain't exactly the most glamorous job, but payment is payment.
First thing was first though: I had to wake up at 2:00 am to get down there for a 5:30 call. Needless to say, I was running on little sleep. I ended up meeting my friend Casey as well as our new work buddies and learned the truth of what we were getting into: 9 PAs to deal with potentially 2,000 people. Holy sh*t.
We dealt with checking in people (which wasn't too bad, conidering that Casey and I dealt with 200+ people), then we checked in more people (another 150 or so people) with help from two other women. Then we just made sure that people didn't walk into the shot.
Then I got to go to lunch. This is where being crew as opposed to an actor really began to shine for me. We were brought to the other side of the school where we were filming, and were given a feast. There was a salad bar, scallops, Roast Beef cut fresh for you, chocolate cake. And the extras just got a bag lunch. During the walk over, my new friend/boss Cam filled me in a bit more on what it really meant to be a PA. I told him that I was having fun with it, and I wanted to learn more.
Me and my big mouth.
Right after lunch, Cam decided to put me as a "real PA," which meant I was down where the shooting was. During this time, I got to make sure people didn't walk into the shot, got some of the investors and producers water and soda, talked with some of the actors (including the female lead of the picture), and met and got to know a lot of the crew. I don't care what you say Cam, I still had fun, even though I got a massive sunburn on my neck! I even got to teach someone about fitness a little bit by showing him my awesome "shift pushup" and "proper pushup position."
After a long day (14ish hours to be exact), we all met in the parking lot, where Stu (my boss remember) told me that we recieved a compliment that were all very efficient and no one had to wait on us. Then Cam congradulated us all by buying us a round. Huzzah! After a two hour drive home, I got back around 10 pm; an 18 hour work day.
All in all, I got a free hat and t-shirt, got to make many great contacts, made some new friends, and even finished it off with a free beer. Overall, I'd say it was a pretty fun day. I would be open to working as a PA again.
Next in the works; working on a new short film and filming my first ever web series. Should be a real treat.
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