Wednesday, March 18, 2009

First Day As A PA

On Monday (3/16/2009) I was able to experience the life of a Production Assistant (PA) and let me tell you it is not for the weak hearted. My day started at 3:30 AM because I woke up thinking of things I need to take care of before I had to be there, the call time for me was at 6:30 AM. So I mapped out where I was going on my Nav (GPS), what I was going to wear and what I was bringing to set. After taking care of that business 15 min. had passed and I'm thinking, I'm still tired and I have a lot of time before I have to head out to set. So I took the risk of falling back asleep but at the same time I was nervous cause I was thinking, I'm going to oversleep on my first day. Luckily I woke up at 5:00 AM got ready and was out the door at 5:45 AM. I proceed to go to Starbucks cause we were instructed to have breakfast before we arrived. Later to find out they had McDonalds for breakfast! Dang but I'm supposed to be laying low off the fast food anyway. I arrived on set at 6:25 AM and met DC the Asst. Producer Supervisor, you can look at him as one of my bosses. So DC explained to me what my first task which was to direct people into the parking lot and hand them a Call Sheet with the schedule for the day. I take a look at the schedule and I'm going to be there for a good 18 hours. Yes people, I was on set till 12:00 AM and didn't bring my MP3 player, LOL JK.



As folks came in I guided them where to park and gave them a call sheet/schedule. Then my top boss came in. Billy Parks aka the Producer aka comes off as a tough guy but he's really about his business aka the guy who would probably smash you in basketball, LOL. So Billy pulls up and I give him the sheet for the day and tell him where to park and he blows me off. At this time I think he knew who I was and I figured out it was him. So this was expected cause I knew he was going to try to give me a hard time cause of my cousin (no hard feelings) and he always said, "Hardin I'm watching you." As the day went on I started meeting others that I had to report to and or learned some key info from; Reggie the 2nd AD, Robert the Production Supervisor, Jacob the Playback, Rose, Jack, Pedro and Luther- my PA Fam.

One of my many task that I was set to do was to pick up the talent? What?! Pick up the Talent in my 1996 Toyota Avalon, get out of here, right? Billy asked me to pick up Jada (check them out at http://jadamusic.com) from the hotel. I was like there's four (4) of them right, he said yep. So I got the address from DC and went on my way. Turns out they didn't need me to pick them up there was a unnecessary call that was made so then I came back to set. When I got back I was still guiding people into the parking lot. For example the extras, which are the people you see in music videos as background people and some of the extras were cool peeps others were a drama trip. Later I had the task of taking the keys to the motorhome and being in charge of locking it up if nobody was in there, made a couple of more runs to grab some filters for the camera department, handed out smoothie orders and took Starbucks orders for the talent/management. At this point you can clearly see I'm doing random things so think of my position as a printer. Except I'm like an All-In-One version cause I'm doing different stuff. LOL I know that was kind of corney.

So then lunch comes and I meet another PA his name is Pedro, he's a real cool guy probably around the same age as me he gives me some pointers throughout the day along with Jack and Luther. At lunch time Pedro and I switch off on a firewatch, which is you watching the equipment so nobody runs off with it. Lunch is a walk away lunch which I was told this is rare cause they usually provide lunch for you on set. So because Pedro and I are sharing the watch and we only have one hour for lunch I just go the market across the street grab some Pop Tarts and Gatorade for lunch, it was the best lunch I had in years! Anyway when Pedro went to grab his lunch he hooked me up with a slice of Pizza, Pedro if you're reading this RIGHT ON (thanks) again!!!

The day went on and I notice some random guys who come in the crafty (food services) area. I'm thinking great! How do some randoms trying to act like extras get up in here. So I tell Reggie the 2nd AD about it he talks to them and says they can stick around for a bit but have to bounce cause they said they were there to network. Now these randoms were good talkers I'll give them that but they were full of it. So the clock keeps ticking and they are there bothering the talent when they are coming in and out from set, bothering the extras then they bother me. So the head guy of the group approaches me saying, "Hey what's up man my name is Raw." I'm like Raw really, do you have a last name? He's responds, "Naw it's just Raw, R-A-W." I'm Laughing in my head at this time and so he spits all this information to me like I'm the CEO of Raw entertainment I have this and that and blah blah blah...and I think you would be good in my crew. I'm like oh yea really and he ask me what I do. At this time I'm toying with him and I tell him I just network that's my ability. Raw says oh well I don't need you for that that's what I do and I'm like well ok then I'm not you're guy but he was like I think you would be good resource and asked if I had a business card. I said no I don't (which I did) and I told him I would give him my number. Ladies and gentlemen this is where I'm glad I have two (2) phone lines cause I gave him the second one LOL. Ironically towards the end of the night one of the crew ends up finding his phone and I delete my contact out of there. So I told Reggie that these guys were bumming off of the food and bothering people so Reggie kicked them out cause they overstayed their welcome. The only problem was we couldn't kick them out of the parking lot so they stayed in the parking lot area, ugh which made me have to guard the motorhome on a regular basis eventually they left.

So I did more tasks while on set but that was pretty much the exciting parts that I could remember. It was a long day and a lot happened overall, it was a great experience. The only bad thing about the day would be my feet. I mean they were killing me at the end of the day. I have flat feet so my arches are horrible so an investment for supports are definitely needed.

I would like to give Shout Outs to:

IUPUI OTEAM -cause without that experience/training it wouldn't have prepared me for that day.
Billy
Robert
DC
Jack
Pedro
Luther
Jacob
Reggie
Jil
Cindy-she made some good food
Laury- we didn't work together that much cause she was the stylist but she said I was doing awesome job
Jada-they were a great group of women and I wish them the best of luck in their career

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