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Most people start working with us as a PA, or Production Assistant. The Production Assistant job is for someone who is either new, looking to have fun and not necessarily work hard, or both.
Basically, a Production Assistant is an all-around hand with whatever needs helping with. This can mean gathering gear, fetching an obscure prop or tech item, helping build something or decorate something, or most often, just getting someone’s attention or conveying a message. Generally one does a few shoots as a Production Assistant and we see how smoothly you work with everybody, whether you end up being a help or an asset, and then give you a bigger job. Most often Design PA or Grip, but sometimes AD! At first as a PA, you might be talking with the director only a little bit, and mostly be working with the ADs, and then later, the DP or Production Designer
The AD, or Assistant Director, has a more trusted role in helping out the director. This can have many forms, here are the main ones I use on a Warren Lynch production, and we have between 1 and 4 at a time:
-Enforcer AD: You are good at getting groups of people to line up and move to different places, and also good at motivating and reminding individual people to do their job on time, correctly, and happily. Somebody who’s ready to be the bad guy in a gentle way. This often involves being some of all three of the other kinds of AD at the same time. Stee and Scott have been great at this, and Parama and Noelle are quite good. Sometimes this person can double as a producer, or becomes one.
-Organizational AD aka Production Manager: You are good at handling the massive paperwork, charts, forms and schedules. A very good organizational AD would be able to keep the director themselves on schedule, but having almost as clear an idea as the director as to what’s going on and how it’s happening, and being able to answer people’s pressing questions when the director has 5 people lined up to ask them questions, is pretty clutch in itself. Stee, Tamarleigh and Carlo have been great at this job! This person usually goes on to direct their own stuff.
-Morale AD aka “Happiness Officer”: You are a good listener and good at cheering people up. Filmmaking can cause inhuman levels of stress, and just being able to understand people, help them get their needs met and cheer them up, and spreading a naturally cheery vibe, is a very valuable skill. Tom, Parama, Chris, Noelle and Liz have been great at this! This person may move on to a whole host of different film jobs, but always ends up very popular and well-liked anywhere they go 🙂
-Creative AD aka “Faerie Officer”: You understand Warren aesthetically enough to get what the heck he is trying to say artistically when no one else does. This mostly either involves knowing Warren really well or just having super the same views about the individual project. When crewmembers or press or even actors ask what the movie is about, you will be able to happily, excitedly explain. This may or may not be limited to being Stee, Carolyn, Tay, Damien, Garabed or Amy. Who knows.
The DP, or Director of Photography, is higher up than all the ADs and PAs, and is the only person whom you will regularly see contradicting the director. The Director of Photography is in charge of the technical, scientific execution of getting all the director’s ideas into the camera and making it look a certain way using science. They are in charge of the camera people, the lighting people, the grips and the sound people. The DP’s job is often even harder than the directors’, because their job is the most limited by hard facts. They might often appear to be the “bad guy” or the “wet blanket” or the “nay sayer”, but their well-being is the bellwether of the entire shoot. You must keep them happy above all souls, and when they frown, folks must pay close attention! Not listening to them can cause damage, an accident or lost time and footage! I have had excellent DPs before in Erik Angra, Jeremy Traub and Greyson Welch, but my current rave DP is Stee McMorris and I swear by her.
The Production Designer is also senior staff. They run the departments of costumes, props, hair, makeup, sets and special effects. As a Design PA you will end up working with them! Usually between shoots but also on shoots. Juliet Schneider and Sandri Valente, Desiree Rodriguez and Garabed Setrakian have done this job most excellently! Some shoots have a production designer, some simpler ones do without, it depends!
Listen to these 2-6 people (especially the DP Stee), and we’ll have a fun and harmonious shoot, and you’ll move on to bigger things! Thanks for joining on!
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