The Truth about Being a Production Assistant: How Much Money Will I Make?
We all work to earn a living. For most of us that go into the film industry, we have career goals beyond that of simply paying our bills. Either we have those dreams, or we’re just stupid — otherwise, we would’ve found an easier avenue! For the entry-level world of production assistants, the pay is meager compared to the union wages of your fellow crew members. But, as you will find, a lot of it will depend on what time of project you work on. Day Rate vs Weekly Rate For short-term gigs, PAs receive a day rate, with no overtime. For long-term jobs, you will still typically get a day rate, with overtime only kicking in after 14 hours. Occasionally, PAs get weekly rates, and you will get one set amount of money per week, regardless of whether you work a humane 60 hours or an inhumane 91. Music Video Rates for Production Assistants There’s no set rule to music video rates; it will depend on how cheap the production company is that you’re working for. In the beginning, I made $200/day (with no overtime) on music videos, but the majority of music video shoots only lasted a day. Maybe there was a prep day, but usually not. As I worked for more and more companies, the going rate was typically $150-$200 per day, with a few laughable productions offering a meager $125. Towards the end of my PA tenure when I was acting more as a 2nd AD, a few kind-hearted companies offered me $225 per day. Reality TV Rates for Production Assistants I haven’t PA’ed on too many of these, but on the few that I did, the rate stood between $125-$150 per day, $150 per day only coming after serious negotiation. Movies/Scripted Television Rates for Production Assistants One would think that movies with 20 million dollar budgets would find it within their hearts and wallets to offer their production assistants more than just bread crumbs, but that is NEVER the case. Unless you’re working on an indie movie for your friends, I found that the bigger the budget, the smaller my paycheck. On Country Strong, the rate was $130/14 hours. I was raking in about $500/week after taxes, after putting in 70 hour weeks. That breaks down to less than $10/hour. On one television pilot, I was again on the horrible $130/14 hour pay scale, and we worked 91 hours in one week. After taxes were taken out, my paycheck didn’t even total $1,000. I cried. Commercial Rates for Production Assistants COMMERCIALS ARE KING. They are the cash cow of this business, especially for production assistants. Most pay...
Photo of the Week: Griffith Observatory
While I’m based on the Pacific Coast, I’ll try to share a photo in attempt to keep the content on this blog somewhat current! This photo was taken at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles on an absolutely PERFECT Sunday afternoon. Out of respect for all my dear friends who use fancy cameras to earn a living, I’m going to try to avoid touting my Instagram photos on here as photographic works of art! I love the symbolism that was captured in this moment of a little boy looking out onto the giant sprawl of Los Angeles. So many hopes, challenges, failures, and accomplishments live and die on those streets below, all unbeknownst to this little boy who is merely pausing to look at how big this city is; how beautiful it is. This image taken from a child’s perspective feels more personal to me than just a photo of the landscape. Maybe it’s because several times I’ve been the kid in this photo — and many days, I still am. Every morning I’m surprised by how I’m still searching and grappling with uncertainty, and no closer to holding any of the answers. It’s the same symbolism that gave this blog its namesake. I can only pause to give thanks for where I am, and pray for wisdom for what lies...
Film Industry News: UPDATE: Where the Heck is the GoldFold?!
At the end of January, I shared the latest news from Travis Gold, creator of the GoldFold callsheet wallet, on the status of GoldFolds and whether or not they’d be back on the market. The wallets had been revamped, and were set to come out in February. But February came and went, and there was still no sign of the GoldFolds. After getting emails from you guys with questions about the whereabouts of the new GoldFolds, and wondering myself what the status was, I decided to contact Travis again and see if there were any updates. Much to my surprise, within 10 minutes of sending the email, I got a phone call from Travis — and he gave me the scoop! Why the Sabbatical? There are imitations on the market, but GoldFolds are the highest quality, all of them handmade by Travis. He put no marketing into the product, and was thrilled by the success– but needed to take a step back and reevaluate. He wanted to work on branding the product, and make adjustments to the Fold. Improvements to the GoldFold There have been several updates to the product, designed to make it sleeker and able to handle an AD’s demands a bit better. Overall, we can expect a slightly smaller wallet. One of the improvements: the clip is now gone, and has been replaced by strong magnetic strips on the inside to help keep papers in place. The GoldFold will now also come with a band of elastic, making it easier to store more and allowing the Fold to expand and be overstuffed. The “button” is also smaller and a little more ornate. When Will the GoldFold Be Available? If all goes well, Travis hopes to launch the new line of GoldFold callsheet wallets in the next month. He’s a 1st AD by trade, and like all of us that work in this business, has been quite busy with his day job recently. He shared he’d been booked on a two-week job in the Bahamas. “I’m not complaining, but I’m trying to get these things out!” he laughed. FilmTools Travis verified that FilmTools will again be a distributor. A New Website & iPhone App Part of the reason for the sabbatical was to give Travis an opportunity to team up with someone that could help launch a website and iPhone app for GoldFolds. Goldfold.com is the official website, where all information/updates pertaining to the GoldFold callsheet wallet will (eventually) be found. Currently, the website is a placeholder, with a countdown to the product’s launch, which is currently set to April 19th. Can I PreOrder? Not yet! The best way...
Stranded and Freezing in Minneapolis (in the name of free travel)
What have you done for free travel? Friday afternoon, while debating if I really wanted to shell out another $200 to rent a car for the week, I decided to take a gamble and see if I could get lucky on a discounted last-minute flight. The lowest fare I could find for roundtrip tickets from Los Angeles to New Orleans was $700. What if I could find a ticket for half as much? SUCCESS! My price was accepted. It was with Delta. It had a layover at their Minneapolis hub. That was a letdown. It was the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day, and I flew to Minneapolis. Once I arrived, I was greeted with snow and a crowded gate. There had been a cancellation of an earlier flight, passengers were annoyed, and the agents were in a frenzy. “This flight has been oversold. If there’s anyone out there with any flexibility, we need four volunteers,” one of the agents was saying. “You’ll get a four hundred dollar travel voucher, we’ll put you in a hotel, and you’ll get to New Orleans by 10:30am tomorrow.” In past experience, those travel vouchers go quickly, usually before I have time to process what’s happening. Today, no one was making a move. Everybody just wanted to get the heck out of Minnesota. I wasn’t keen on hanging out in the arctic tundra either, but I began thinking of all the ways I could utilize a $400 travel credit. A few minutes passed, and they made the announcement once more. Again, no one volunteered. After consulting Gunner, we decided it was too good of an opportunity to pass up, since it would cover the cost of my impulsive flight. I volunteered to get bumped to the following morning. Then reality settled in. It was eight o’clock at night, it was 20 degrees outside, and ten inches of snow from yesterday’s blizzard was still on the ground. I’d been expecting to fly from one palm tree destination to another palm tree destination, and did I have a jacket? No. I’d spent so much of the last two months in warm climates that I’d forgotten winter was still going on in most of the country. But I had the prized $400 voucher, $22 in meal tickets, and a hotel room. No luggage, but that was only a minor inconvenience. “You’ll be OK,” the attendant assured me, as he handed me a little overnight kit. “We’re on the warm side of winter now.” I laughed at him. “It’s twenty degrees here!” “Yeah, but you won’t die if you’re outside for a minute or more,” he stated plainly. He wasn’t making fun of me for being...
Revisiting Places You Once Adored
When you’re a teenager, you have preconceived notions of what you want out of adulthood. You want to drive a Ford Explorer and live in Southern California. That’s not what you wanted? Maybe it was just me. (And let’s be honest, that’s a pretty ridiculous combination: a gas guzzling automobile in the land of the environmentally conscious? That never would have worked.) I’ve been to Southern California a fair amount for someone who has no family here or real reason to come here. Each time I’ve ventured West, it excited me to come out here, and I mourned the day when I’d have to head back East. It was thrilling to see stores and restaurants we didn’t have back home. People here spoke Spanish, ate sushi, and were crazy about avocados. There were palm trees and more than three lanes of traffic. Visiting Los Angeles was as big of an adventure as you could have when you’re from a small town in Virginia. It’s been a few years since I’ve been to LA. In that time, I’ve fallen pretty hard for New Orleans, a boy from New Orleans, and the swamp. I love southern hospitality, warm summer nights, soul food, an affordable cost of living, and saying “y’all”. It took me awhile to accept that I’m from the South, but now I’m proud of it. It’s a lifestyle that I’m fond of, and I never want to leave. Working in tv/film, I’ve definitely embraced the change of pace and opportunity to get out of Nashville for a bit and learn from some great Los Angeles producers. But, it’s the first time I’ve been to California and been completely indifferent about it. It’s the first time I’ve been able to look at it from an unbiased perspective. I see the beauty here, but I also see the flaws. It’s the first time I’ve been here where I realized this isn’t the life I want. I’ve grown up. Have you recently visited a place you once had blind adoration for? How have you changed?...
Exploring Manly by Bicycle
It was the second day of my excursion Down Under, and I was ready to delve into on-the-ground exploration: going on a self-guided tour of Manly by bicycle. I’d gotten my obligatory photos with the Sydney Opera House the day before; I’d traipsed around downtown with my 5lb Lonely Planet Guide in tow. It was time for something a bit more challenging. Pamphlets had been floating around the hostel for Manly Bike Hire, which offered self-guided bike tours. Immediately, I had visions of riding around the rugged terrain, discovering hidden coves with the warm spring breeze blowing in my hair. I was sold. Getting to Manly One of the perks in going to Manly is taking the ferry, which gives you the opportunity to take even more photos of the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, and the Sydney skyline — without spending a fortune on a “harbour tour”. Getting to Manly, Renting the Bike and Choosing the Self-Guided Tour Located just a few blocks from where we disembarked is Manly Bike Tours & Bike Hire. Since I was on an adventure (and adventurous people are naturally in good shape), I opted for their “intermediate” route that had the most impressive pictures in the pamphlet: The Sydney Harbour National Park Explorer. I paid the $28 for the hybrid bike, signed a scary waiver that said something about potentially owing hundreds of dollars if I broke or stole the bike, and I was on my way. Dodging Traffic and Getting Lost I don’t know the traffic patterns of Manly, but I can’t imagine it gets a lot busier than on a beautiful, sunny and warm Good Friday afternoon. Between an endless line of parked cars on my left and bustling Easter weekend traffic on my right was a generous twelve inches of open pavement for my wobbly bike tires to straddle. As I desperately tried to keep my bike tires within the twelve inch gap, I remembered I hadn’t ridden a bike in over 10 years, and I’d never ridden in traffic of any kind, much less traffic flowing in the complete wrong direction. I teetered along uneasily for a couple of blocks, dodging mirrors on parked cars while trying not to swerve into traffic. This wasn’t an adventure. This was suicide. With my pride slightly bruised, I hopped off the bike and tried to look as cool as possible as I pushed it along through crowded intersections, until I found a quieter street in a residential area. I consulted the map, and realized that in my quest for survival I’d gone in the wrong direction. I tried to make sense of the roads within that orange square,...
About
I'm Laryssa, and when I'm not working in film or television, I'm attempting to travel -- or I'm here, providing resources for working in film or travel. Read more Elsewhere on the internets
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