What job should I beg for?
A friend of mine is a writer whose work has been lucky/funny enough to make it to the big screen. The sequel has been greenlit and he just shot me an email letting me know that he’s signed on as the director! I am an aspiring screenwriter and I understand how valuable it is to be on set and get a bird’s eye view of the process. So my question is this:
What job should I beg him for? I’ve got no on-set experience and I’m not sure how much staffing power the director has, or in what areas he has it. I don’t want to ask for something completely unrealistic and appear foolish. I am, however, eager, ambitious and a very hard worker. I’ll carry their luggage, haul equipment or simply make sure the toilet paper is properly stocked — if I can just get a peak at the process, write during my down time and make friends/connections. I’d kill for this opportunity. I just need to know…um…. what opportunity exactly, I’m killing for.
– J.R.
If the budget allows him to have an assistant, that’s the job you want. By shadowing him, you’ll get the broadest perspective of preproduction, production and post.
Maybe he already has an assistant, or the budget won’t allow him to have one. Then it gets a little harder to figure out the right spot for you.
Assuming you can drive a car, answer a phone and work long hours, you can be an office PA. You’ll learn a lot about the logistical side of filmmaking, but won’t have a ton of on set exposure — you’re running back and forth from the office a lot. You’ll be taking orders from a production coordinator, who will generally send you for a pickup in Santa Monica when you just got back from Venice. On the plus side, you’ll get to know your LA geography a lot better, and become familiar with the various vendors and production houses.
While an office PA can learn on the job, an on-set PA actually needs to know what he’s doing. There’s a useful guide you can download, but a large part of the job is simply anticipating what’s going to happen next, and that only comes with experience. But everyone has to start somewhere, so if you can convince the first and second AD’s (who oversee the PA’s) that you’re a quick learner, they might bring you on. But always keep in mind that you’re working for them, not your buddy the director.
If you’re competent with a videocamera, another possibility is to shoot the behind-the-scenes footage. That certainly gives you access. Just make sure not to step on the toes of the actual filmmakers.
If it’s not possible to get a real job on the movie, it’s absolutely worth asking your friend if you can visit set a few times during production. Just make sure that when you do, you make yourself a ghost. The best set visitors aren’t just invisible — they’re almost immaterial, and never in the way when you turn the set around. The safest place to hover is generally near craft service; they pick that location to be close to the set but never in the way.
Update:
Alex Epstein answered the identical question, with almost the same advice. Which just goes to show we’re both geniuses.
Articles
October 9th, 2006 at 1:11 pm
Or “peek”, I think.
Sorry to correct someone else’s typo.
October 9th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
As a script girl you get to see it all…..but it is a painstakingly accurate job….catering is also close but then you´d better know how to cook and that right good!
October 9th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
You need to be a script supervisor. Being a writer is a good start. This is the only way you’ll get to learn about filmmaking and watch the whole thing. As an assistant or PA you may be dispatched several times during the course of a shoot day for various errands.
If you want to be able to observe the whole thing and be right in the thick of the action, be a script supervisor.
Directors always need one…as a director I have trouble keeping / finding these people so I know your friend will need one.
October 9th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
what are you people talking about? unless this is a no budget student production, you can’t just take the job of a script supervisor - and no one will give it to you either. being a script supervisor on a professional production takes a lot of practice, focus, and skill. and the only thing it has in common with writing is that you’re holding a screenplay. geez…
October 9th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
You know, the only people I get those types of repsonses from are….script supervisors. Like their job is unlearnable by the common man.
If the guy can drive himself to the set, he can be trained to be a script supervisor. I’ve trained many a hapless PA. Simply take the script. Write at the beginning of each take, write down the scene number the 2nd ac calls out. I’ll tell you if I liked the take or not. Oh, and be my continuity eyes for me. Was Keanu holding the cup in his left or right hand last take…..things like that.
Oh, and FYI, last movie I made the editor had no use for the (brilliantly well done) script supervisor notes, and they were relegated to ass wipe.
So jump in with both feet and do it.
October 9th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
strange repsonse. a director should have a little more respect for the profession of those around him… especially for the script super.
October 9th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
Next week, on Adam’s crash course for filmmakers, the craft of the screenwriter: Simply buy final draft. Start typing. Stop when you reach circa 100 pages. Oh, and make it a dramatic masterpiece that entertains the masses.
October 9th, 2006 at 9:15 pm
‘course I respect everyone else’s job. I just don’t subscribe to the notion that a job is conveyed by a birthright akin to an Aaronic priesthood. Anyone can learn any job on set including the job of director with enough patient training. And script super is simply not that hard of a job when compared to something like DP, Gaffer, or 1st AD.
Essential - yes. Difficult - no.
It would be the perfect job for a young, sharp writer on his toes wanting to be on set.
End hijack.
October 9th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
Who proposed the notion that the job of script supervisor is conveyed by a birthright akin to an Aaronic priesthood…?! (sorry John, didn’t mean to hog the blog, but I think you can see what bugs me).
October 9th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
Johnny you just said “hog the blog.”
Look I just came here for the juice.
October 9th, 2006 at 9:56 pm
Alex Epstein answered this exact same question today, with a radically different answer.
http://complicationsensue.blogspot.com/2006/10/fly-on-wall.html
October 9th, 2006 at 9:57 pm
Well, maybe “radically” isn’t the right word. It’s the same in one particular place. But also different.
October 10th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
I have worked as the Office PA on the last two projects I was on. While I also did a lot of errand runs, I also got to the producers very well. On my last project I even got to know the screenwriter pretty well since I was the one with a printer and he was in the office right next to my desk/table. I have also had the opportunity to drive execs around and end up eating lunch or dinner with the director and department heads. So, Office PA can be a really good gig.
Also, I worked my way up to production coordinator for a show which was interrupted by Katirna. When they came back to finish in January, I was the coordinator.
I am currently on Benjamin Buttons working as the accounting dept PA, which while not exciting is certainly eye opening seeing what goes into a major Hollywood film.
So my advice is just echoing what John said. Director’s Assistant is great, if you get to shadow him. Although, I have know director’s and producer’s assistants who spent a lot of time doing personal runs for the person they were working for.
October 11th, 2006 at 11:26 am
The scripty suggestion is absurd. I’m a produced screenwriter and have directed a handfull of films, and have been a producer that’s hired the entire crew. The scripty is vital and demands someone with experience to multitask and think on their toes. This job should be as a PA, hands down. And not an office PA as suggested, as they have a crappy, boring, uneventful job. I worked my way from the bottom. I set PA’d the biggest shows, and the smallest. It’s a brainless job. You have 1-3 AD’s telling you exactly what to do and when, and trust me, it’s every two minutes so you’ll be working hands on, with everything and with little ‘need to know’. For the most part you’ll be chasing down the talent and running lunch bags around. To say your friend cant pull this off is an insult to him. Just my 2 cents.
November 1st, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Adam,
You clearly have little or no “real” set experience. Sure, it’s easy to be a scripty on a student film, anyone could do it. Anyone who has been on the set and understands the complexity of the job knows how difficult it is to be a good script supervisor. There’s a reason this person sits right next to the director! It’s more than remembering what hand Joe held his coffee cup in. Most Script Supervisors are an integral part of story continuity and dialogue, not to mention shot selection. A goos scripty will often remind the directot and DP of scene coverage that is needed to be shot. I am a DGA Assistand Director, my knowlegde comes from years of experience on real sets, making real movies. Adam, your ignorant comments scream nothing but “I have no experience on the set”. Keep watching movies bro.
March 15th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Sorry to have found this conversation so late, but I was surfing around the web and found you. As a Union Script Supervisor for 17 years, I can tell you this is not a job for the faint of heart. I don’t know “Adam” and his bona fides, but in Tinsletown, EVERYONE thinks they can write and direct. On every film set I have worked, I ALWAYS have one or more or many fellow crew members and actors tell me they could NEVER do the job of Script Supervisor. In fact, I have known many people who have spend thousands of dollars studying for the job (including the wife of a director I worked for), only to find once they get on set that they couldn’t handle it and quit after only one day!! Sure, the job of directing, AD & DP are hard jobs. But they all have STAFF too!! The job of Script Supervisor is the most difficult job on the set and you are a department of ONE. You oversee ALL aspects of continuity of all departments (hair, make-up, wardrobe, set-dressing, props, sound, camera, actors) as well as handle the volumes of intricate, minute detail of the story, coverage & notes. You can’t take a PA and have him do Script on a $100 million dollar feature!! A mistake on the part of a Script Supervisor could cost a production company tens even hundreds of thousands of dollars in re-shoots to correct a continuity error!! If I screw up on the set, my mistake will live on forever on film barring re-shoots to correct it. The irony of the job of Script Supervisor is that, if we do our jobs correctly and well, no one will ever know that we were ever there. But one mistake, and EVERYONE notices and your reputation could be shot to hell!! That’s a lot of responsibility. The written word on a webpage may tend to sound belligerant, so forgive me if this sounds so. But I can point to many occasions where I have (happily!) saved the butt of many a writer, director, DP, camera operator, costumer and actor due to the dilligence of my attention to detail, memory and notes. I may be the only one on a film set who have any idea what coverage is still needed and how to shoot it - who looks to whom in what screen direction, and so forth. Ordinarily, if I have done my job well on the set, the editor will have no problem and the film will cut itself. I would not trust that responsibility to someone with no training or skills. Also, most people simply do not have the temperment to be a Script Supervisor. On the set, ALL of your attention is devoted to performing your job! Forget idle chit-chat. And to end our day, we have reams of paperwork to submit daily to production and the editors. Not a job for the faint of heart. Try it sometime! But well before your 100 million dollar feature or television series. Trust those only to seasoned, trained professionals.
September 30th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
I want to be a blogger now. But i still havent earn much money yet. Thanks for your job guide