You might meet people to network with to become a PA but that’s all you’d get out of it. Volunteer PA a few times to get the swing of it but please don’t pay to PA. It won’t be much but you should be paid to PA not the other way around. Best of luck to you. Oh and forget what you know. Go in as a sponge and soak up what you can. Your prior experience likely won’t apply much
Getting more opportunity to network was a major plus I've seen as I researched more into it. Luckily this PA program I'm seeing is free, however, you have to essentially have no other work or obligations for a month while you're training. I guess not having income for a month in order to dedicate to a training, that appears not to be paying you either, is something that's holding me back from joining.
A month of unpaid PA training is absurd. I can see the benefit for people with zero industry exposure, but the basics people need to know can be taught in a couple hours tops.
afaik, mny is paid, taught by reputable ADs, and is a great pipeline to that department for ppl w/no experience or cxns. their grads are all over nyc union sets. if you have no idea what you wanna do, but like working on set, it’s great, but getting into one of the locals training programs is better for specific crafts.
Thanks for this! I couldn't find anywhere if they paid during this program. I hear people rave about it but the unknown of one month pay had me hesitant.
Yes it’s a month off and ultimately you’d be networking with other PAs. You want to meet UPMs and producers. Those PAs may move up but not in the immediate
Here is your PA training, don’t fuck up the coffee order, create an organized list and label drinks, same applies lunch/dinner if it’s not being catered. Be observant on set, is crafty low, trash full, small stuff like that. maybe go through with water bottles and offer them to people, but don’t interrupt conversations about the production to do it. Most important be seen and available to help. Check in with your producer/AD to make sure there are no tasks they need you todo. If they have you on a lock off or watching equipment again be observant, stop people with confidence but be respectful and friendly. If you’re fire watching equipment, don’t mess with it or open the cases. Other than that it’s a lot of learning the vibe of the set and inserting yourself where people will be ok with you making yourself useful, not all departs will look at unasked for help with kindness even if they need the help. Get a feel for people and always ask before you start “helping.”
Echoing the benefit of the educational experience aspect of this.
Observing and taking note of technical, interpersonal, and creative choices and patterns on professional sets can open doors to developing your own skills.
If you work hard and make an attempt at being personal when engaging with the rest of the crew, you can ask some esoteric question that can help you build relationships and knowledge.
It was well worth my time PA’ing in that capacity.
Always take the opportunity to PA. Everyone I know who's anybody including myself were PAs starting out. It's on the job training they pay you for. Be quiet and efficient and quick. Volunteer for any job. Soak in the experience and learn everything.
I forgot the part of your question about a "PA Bootcamp" Absolutely do not do that. Ridiculous. I started out as a PA at 16 with no on set experience. I saw a shoot in my city, I knocked on the production office trailer door and said "Hello. I want to work on this and I will do so for free." They couldn't say yes fast enough. But you're not that green and we pay PAs now.
Thank you! Your comment and another users' reaffirm that I can look into PA but not necessarily need to do a training course. Just going right for it. Now a new question is, because I have no PA experience, asking to be one on set, would I be a hindrance because I might not have all the terminology and knowledge down? I guess a fear of mine is asking to be paid with no "real" experience and fucking up. Especially after hearing how brutal being a PA can be.
PAs aren’t generally expected to know much and they don’t usually need to. Certainly not general PAs. Camera PAs? Yeah you should know which end of the lens goes which direction. HMU PAs? Yeah you should have some idea about makeup etc. But just a general PA? Nah. You'll learn. The **Local** crew will make sure of that. The best teachers will be the ones who are hardest on you. Listen to them and do what they tell you. Leave your ego in the car.
Can you give me any advice about finding PA positions? I live in a city with a pretty vibrant film industry, but I've had little luck so far in finding opportunities to start as a PA. It was quite recent that I made the decision to switch careers and try to follow my filmmaking dreams, so I'm struggling to really find how to get my foot in the door. To this point I've mainly been producing my own zero-budget shorts to teach myself as much of the process as I can, but I really crave getting into a proper set environment and start making connections with people. Reaching out to every post I see on local filmmaking Facebook groups has only yielded a few responses that never went anywhere.
It’s been a loooong time since I’ve been a PA. I got my first spot by knocking on a trailer door on a set and saying I’d work for free. I know it’s different now but the basics should be similar. Keep networking and try to get to in-person events like happy hours and meetups. Try to get on a commercial shoot. They’re usually smaller affairs (compared to a film or a series set) and they’re usually more frequent. If you’re just starting out try to snag the jobs more established PAs are passing on. The low to no pay end of things. Check local production job boards and even Craigslist. Volunteer for student films. That sort of thing.
Be a PA. If you are any good you will get more on set opportunities. You will meet professionals with years of experience and wisdom that will help you down the line. If joining a union is something you want to do, PA’ing can provide a path to whatever union you wish to pursue. The biggest benefit of doing PA work is seeing how an actual professional set works, what departments actually do what jobs and becoming familiar and comfortable on set it’s so important for the rest of your career.
It sounds like you're a videographer right now. You can definitely turn that into a career, just look at /r/videography
If you want to work in The Movies™ then you need to get on-set experience. And you're right, the best way is to work as a PA. But you don't have to "go down the route of becoming a PA," since PA is an entry-level job. There's NO training required. There are absolutely best practices and tips you can learn to make your first day as a PA easier, but a 4-week long boot camp is ridiculous.
Best advice I can give:
1. Listen.
* Write stuff down if you can't remember it. Keep a notepad, pen, and sharpie with you.
* Stay out of the way, but be present.
* You know nothing. No one cares what your opinion is.
* Be valuable and reliable.
* If you don't know, ask.
Regarding #3: Don't be in the way of other departments, but be on set and ready to help if needed. DON'T help if you aren't asked. Don't touch gear or equipment unless someone from that department asks directly. Handing out waters is always welcome, but moving sandbags and C-stands is not.
Regarding #6: If the APOC asks you to collect start work from the grips and you don't know what start work is or who/where/what grips are, ask. It's better to say "Where are the grips right now?" than to wander set for 2 hours and come back empty handed when your boss was expecting you to return with everyone's W-2s and singed NDAs.
Thank you for this thorough comment! Like you and others have said, I think it's better to look for PA jobs rather than do a grueling 4 week course. Your advice was noted and I will be coming back to it. Thanks!
Agreed with what people are saying, I want to add one thing. Rather than 1 fixed intern position for a few weeks, I think it’s more valuable to PA on 4/5 different small shoots. You’ll learn more and you’ll meet far more people.
If you’re friendly, genuinely interested and willing to put some effort in, nobody in their right mind will turn you down. Good luck
Now I’m not sure if this applies to you and wherever you may live, and I will also note I found out about this website well after I had got my foot in the door some, so I haven’t really used it to find work. That being said I really wish I had known about it when I was first starting out. Not sure if I can post links but just Google StaffMeUp. Set up an account and you will find loads of PA work as well as more job postings for positions later in your career whether you stay in the production side or move to the more technical side like AC or Gripping etc. Also it costs like $20 a month if you want to apply for more than 5 or so jobs per month ( if I’m remembering correctly) but the first 5 are free. Hope this helps some.
Oh okay! This sounds great and helps a lot! I'm assuming you would possibly say it's worth to sign up for $20/month based on the opportunity it'll bring?
I guess it depends on the amount of things you apply for. I say just try it out for free before paying, you should still be able to see most listings for PA positions in your area, and if the time comes where you need to pay to submit more applications for a given month, then maybe go from there. Best way to go about it is to have your profile/ resume/ credentials readily updated and to turn on email notifications for specific job listings related to pa work. Being one of the first to apply to a new job listing definitely increases the odds that your hired, especially for entry level positions like pa where most applications will have similar amounts of experience. Hope that helps! And just remember that once you land that first gig, hustle hard, observe and soak in all that you can. Make yourself an asset and more work will come from there
There are P.A. boot camps? Haha. That’s like a boot camp for being an Extra. I suspect those are for diversity trainees, for people with no industry experience at all.
I mean, there are literally videos on YouTube (Film Riot, I think) that will teach you probably everything you would need to know to get started as a P.A.
You’d probably have much better success seeing if you could land a gig at a camera rental house or maybe even a starter gig at a post-production facility. (Don’t overlook trailer houses.)
I like this suggestion, thanks! Post production gigs is definitely something I would love to look more into but don't have as much knowledge on how to start.
You might meet people to network with to become a PA but that’s all you’d get out of it. Volunteer PA a few times to get the swing of it but please don’t pay to PA. It won’t be much but you should be paid to PA not the other way around. Best of luck to you. Oh and forget what you know. Go in as a sponge and soak up what you can. Your prior experience likely won’t apply much
Getting more opportunity to network was a major plus I've seen as I researched more into it. Luckily this PA program I'm seeing is free, however, you have to essentially have no other work or obligations for a month while you're training. I guess not having income for a month in order to dedicate to a training, that appears not to be paying you either, is something that's holding me back from joining.
A month of unpaid PA training is absurd. I can see the benefit for people with zero industry exposure, but the basics people need to know can be taught in a couple hours tops.
afaik, mny is paid, taught by reputable ADs, and is a great pipeline to that department for ppl w/no experience or cxns. their grads are all over nyc union sets. if you have no idea what you wanna do, but like working on set, it’s great, but getting into one of the locals training programs is better for specific crafts.
Thanks for this! I couldn't find anywhere if they paid during this program. I hear people rave about it but the unknown of one month pay had me hesitant.
Yes it’s a month off and ultimately you’d be networking with other PAs. You want to meet UPMs and producers. Those PAs may move up but not in the immediate
Here is your PA training, don’t fuck up the coffee order, create an organized list and label drinks, same applies lunch/dinner if it’s not being catered. Be observant on set, is crafty low, trash full, small stuff like that. maybe go through with water bottles and offer them to people, but don’t interrupt conversations about the production to do it. Most important be seen and available to help. Check in with your producer/AD to make sure there are no tasks they need you todo. If they have you on a lock off or watching equipment again be observant, stop people with confidence but be respectful and friendly. If you’re fire watching equipment, don’t mess with it or open the cases. Other than that it’s a lot of learning the vibe of the set and inserting yourself where people will be ok with you making yourself useful, not all departs will look at unasked for help with kindness even if they need the help. Get a feel for people and always ask before you start “helping.”
Echoing the benefit of the educational experience aspect of this. Observing and taking note of technical, interpersonal, and creative choices and patterns on professional sets can open doors to developing your own skills. If you work hard and make an attempt at being personal when engaging with the rest of the crew, you can ask some esoteric question that can help you build relationships and knowledge. It was well worth my time PA’ing in that capacity.
Always take the opportunity to PA. Everyone I know who's anybody including myself were PAs starting out. It's on the job training they pay you for. Be quiet and efficient and quick. Volunteer for any job. Soak in the experience and learn everything.
I forgot the part of your question about a "PA Bootcamp" Absolutely do not do that. Ridiculous. I started out as a PA at 16 with no on set experience. I saw a shoot in my city, I knocked on the production office trailer door and said "Hello. I want to work on this and I will do so for free." They couldn't say yes fast enough. But you're not that green and we pay PAs now.
Thank you! Your comment and another users' reaffirm that I can look into PA but not necessarily need to do a training course. Just going right for it. Now a new question is, because I have no PA experience, asking to be one on set, would I be a hindrance because I might not have all the terminology and knowledge down? I guess a fear of mine is asking to be paid with no "real" experience and fucking up. Especially after hearing how brutal being a PA can be.
PAs aren’t generally expected to know much and they don’t usually need to. Certainly not general PAs. Camera PAs? Yeah you should know which end of the lens goes which direction. HMU PAs? Yeah you should have some idea about makeup etc. But just a general PA? Nah. You'll learn. The **Local** crew will make sure of that. The best teachers will be the ones who are hardest on you. Listen to them and do what they tell you. Leave your ego in the car.
Thank you so much. You've been very helpful!
Can you give me any advice about finding PA positions? I live in a city with a pretty vibrant film industry, but I've had little luck so far in finding opportunities to start as a PA. It was quite recent that I made the decision to switch careers and try to follow my filmmaking dreams, so I'm struggling to really find how to get my foot in the door. To this point I've mainly been producing my own zero-budget shorts to teach myself as much of the process as I can, but I really crave getting into a proper set environment and start making connections with people. Reaching out to every post I see on local filmmaking Facebook groups has only yielded a few responses that never went anywhere.
It’s been a loooong time since I’ve been a PA. I got my first spot by knocking on a trailer door on a set and saying I’d work for free. I know it’s different now but the basics should be similar. Keep networking and try to get to in-person events like happy hours and meetups. Try to get on a commercial shoot. They’re usually smaller affairs (compared to a film or a series set) and they’re usually more frequent. If you’re just starting out try to snag the jobs more established PAs are passing on. The low to no pay end of things. Check local production job boards and even Craigslist. Volunteer for student films. That sort of thing.
Be a PA. If you are any good you will get more on set opportunities. You will meet professionals with years of experience and wisdom that will help you down the line. If joining a union is something you want to do, PA’ing can provide a path to whatever union you wish to pursue. The biggest benefit of doing PA work is seeing how an actual professional set works, what departments actually do what jobs and becoming familiar and comfortable on set it’s so important for the rest of your career.
It sounds like you're a videographer right now. You can definitely turn that into a career, just look at /r/videography If you want to work in The Movies™ then you need to get on-set experience. And you're right, the best way is to work as a PA. But you don't have to "go down the route of becoming a PA," since PA is an entry-level job. There's NO training required. There are absolutely best practices and tips you can learn to make your first day as a PA easier, but a 4-week long boot camp is ridiculous. Best advice I can give: 1. Listen. * Write stuff down if you can't remember it. Keep a notepad, pen, and sharpie with you. * Stay out of the way, but be present. * You know nothing. No one cares what your opinion is. * Be valuable and reliable. * If you don't know, ask. Regarding #3: Don't be in the way of other departments, but be on set and ready to help if needed. DON'T help if you aren't asked. Don't touch gear or equipment unless someone from that department asks directly. Handing out waters is always welcome, but moving sandbags and C-stands is not. Regarding #6: If the APOC asks you to collect start work from the grips and you don't know what start work is or who/where/what grips are, ask. It's better to say "Where are the grips right now?" than to wander set for 2 hours and come back empty handed when your boss was expecting you to return with everyone's W-2s and singed NDAs.
Thank you for this thorough comment! Like you and others have said, I think it's better to look for PA jobs rather than do a grueling 4 week course. Your advice was noted and I will be coming back to it. Thanks!
Agreed with what people are saying, I want to add one thing. Rather than 1 fixed intern position for a few weeks, I think it’s more valuable to PA on 4/5 different small shoots. You’ll learn more and you’ll meet far more people. If you’re friendly, genuinely interested and willing to put some effort in, nobody in their right mind will turn you down. Good luck
Ah, thanks. That's a very practical idea. I'll definitely look into that now. Thank you!
Now I’m not sure if this applies to you and wherever you may live, and I will also note I found out about this website well after I had got my foot in the door some, so I haven’t really used it to find work. That being said I really wish I had known about it when I was first starting out. Not sure if I can post links but just Google StaffMeUp. Set up an account and you will find loads of PA work as well as more job postings for positions later in your career whether you stay in the production side or move to the more technical side like AC or Gripping etc. Also it costs like $20 a month if you want to apply for more than 5 or so jobs per month ( if I’m remembering correctly) but the first 5 are free. Hope this helps some.
Oh okay! This sounds great and helps a lot! I'm assuming you would possibly say it's worth to sign up for $20/month based on the opportunity it'll bring?
I guess it depends on the amount of things you apply for. I say just try it out for free before paying, you should still be able to see most listings for PA positions in your area, and if the time comes where you need to pay to submit more applications for a given month, then maybe go from there. Best way to go about it is to have your profile/ resume/ credentials readily updated and to turn on email notifications for specific job listings related to pa work. Being one of the first to apply to a new job listing definitely increases the odds that your hired, especially for entry level positions like pa where most applications will have similar amounts of experience. Hope that helps! And just remember that once you land that first gig, hustle hard, observe and soak in all that you can. Make yourself an asset and more work will come from there
There are P.A. boot camps? Haha. That’s like a boot camp for being an Extra. I suspect those are for diversity trainees, for people with no industry experience at all. I mean, there are literally videos on YouTube (Film Riot, I think) that will teach you probably everything you would need to know to get started as a P.A. You’d probably have much better success seeing if you could land a gig at a camera rental house or maybe even a starter gig at a post-production facility. (Don’t overlook trailer houses.)
I like this suggestion, thanks! Post production gigs is definitely something I would love to look more into but don't have as much knowledge on how to start.
Start with your city, county and state film commissions. They’ll know who’s in your area. Their websites sometimes have directories.
Yeah its like going to Dishwasher school. 🤔