Production Assistant Article

In the feature film that my school created, I was the PA, or Production Assistant, on set. The role was a little tough because I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing on set. My teacher gave us this assignment where we go to the website No Film School and study our role to learn how we could successfully act out our jobs and use them in the future. The article I found talks about the ins and outs of being a Production Assistant on any set; whether it be a Hollywood movie or an indie film. The role of a PA is "more than just dolling out water. You're there to help the 1st Assistant Director make sure that the production has everything it needs" (Renée). The author talks about several specific ideas that a PA needs to know: communicate clearly and promptly, be present on your walkie, always have "hot bricks" on hand, think ahead, make sure set is clean, don't be shy to lock up the set, and find ways to speed up production.

He states that communication is key between the PA and the 1st AD, or Assistant Director. The 1st AD is practically your boss and you need to let them know "[if] there's a problem with getting [a] task done—bad news is better than no news" (Renée). This is pretty significant on set because I was asked to do several tasks, luckily none of those were unable to be done. The second thing the author talks about is being present on your walkie, which is incredibly important because you need to be able to communicate whether someone has something on set or where someone is and such. We didn't have walkies on set; although, we had phones, which worked just as well. Another thing the author talks about is having "hot bricks" on you at all times, which I read later that "hot bricks" are batteries. I believe this is a little less significant though due to the batteries being used for mainly walkies; although, I could see it being used for other set items, maybe props and such. He also talks about thinking ahead, this includes "anticipating what people on set are going to need, whether that's a pen/pencil/sharpie, fresh battery, or shoulder rub", which I believe is essential to being a PA because it will make everything go faster on set (Renée). When talking about keeping the set clean, it's the PA's job to make sure everything is neat and clean for the set to either reset or for the actors' safety. The author has a nice line in the article where he says "don't let it fall by the wayside, because when your 1st AD has to remind you to pick up the messes, that means they've taken their focus off of the project and put it on something silly like garbage" which I believe is important because it shows the significance of the PA in making sure distractions are set to minimum on set (Renée). He then talks about how "locking up set" means that when you hear over the walkie that cameras are rolling then you need to tell the people around you that they have called action and need to be quiet. This is incredibly important because the background noise could completely ruin a shot or mess up the audio in post. The author also shares that it's needed to be kind when telling them to be quiet, don't snap at them. As for speeding up production, the author talks of how the PA is used to pick up the slack in hopes of helping "the cast and crew...really focus on making the project the best it can be" (Renée). 

The author uses evidence from personal experience to create this article and uses it effectively to teach others how to help a production run smoothly. I believe that this article holds all strengths due to it being helpful to those who are needing help on what their role is and how to efficiently use their new-found knowledge on set. I believe that there are some points on this that may not be too important for small indie sets like the one I was on; for instance, the tip about keeping the batteries on your person at all times seems to be a little excessive, but we also don't have walkies so I'm sure if a set used walkies then it would be more important. There was really no argument in this article other than it talking about how important PAs are to film sets. I believe that this article uses the information to successfully teach those who read it about the jobs of a Production Assistant and how they should behave on set. I understand all the article and I had no trouble absorbing the knowledge that Renée had shared with me. Overall, I thought this article was helpful in teaching me how much more I need to do the next time I'm a PA on a movie set. I would definitely recommend this to someone who would like to know more about being a PA or what they do. You can read the article here.