Production assistants explain what it’s really like to work on set of TV shows and movies.
Working as a production assistant is probably not the most glamorous job in Hollywood. However, without production assistants a director’s vision could never turn into a feature film. So what is it like to work as a production assistant? Outside of doing the odd and end jobs for a TV show or movie, it requires long hours, multi-tasking, and working well with other people. “When I first came on, I kind of visualized what a PA was until I got on set and had first-hand experience, and my first experience was actually plunging a toilet. Anything goes, but I guess a lot people won’t know what a PA does unless they do it firsthand,” Will Mahr a former PA told Hollywood.com.
But, there’s a lot more than just throwing out the garbage and managing background extras. It takes making a sure realisitic. One production assistant explained what it was like working on set of a reality TV show. For example, production assistnats are not allowed to talk to reality TV stars.
Butler says when he worked on both Food Network Star and Snooki and JWOWW, he was prevented from speaking with the contestants in most cases as a means of preserving the “reality” of the reality stars’ reactions to the prompts and conflicts laid before them by the producers. “Yeah, it’s hard because [the stars] pass you and they’ll say ‘Hi’ and the professional thing they tell you to do is that you can’t talk to them. So you look like the rude person when they say ‘Hey, what’s going on?’” he explains.
But, at the end of of the day you have to work hard to keep your job in the film industry. “You look around at sets and you see a whole bunch of the same people, but then you see some people that aren’t there from the previous set because obviously they weren’t doing their jobs,” a production assistant told Hollywood.com
Via Hollywood.com
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