Q: What don’t they teach you in film school about crewing on a production?Ī: I can’t believe film schools don’t offer classes about freelancing, which is a time-consuming lifestyle. They schedule the entire production and hire PAs, so they’re good people to know as you start out. These crew members are second-in-command under the director and production manager. “AD” stands for assistant director, the next rank up for many set PAs. Staff PAs are hired for full-time positions and follow a chain of command that looks something like this: Image source: Daniel Scarpati Showcase your efforts to enough people and it doesn’t take long to be offered a staff position. The average length of a workday is 12 hours. Knowing someone’s title, rank in their department and personality type can make all the difference when hours grow long-and they will.
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If you’re like I was and have trouble memorizing people’s names, you learn very quickly how to do that well! There were weeks when I worked on a different set every day. They are needed on set, in the production office, and sometimes in specific departments (camera, wardrobe, etc.). Image source: Daniel Scarpati Q: What’s a typical career path – how does a Production Assistant get started in the business?Ī: In the beginning, PAs generally work as an “additional,” or on a daily basis.
So I decided to write the book I wish existed back when I was starting out. No book I knew of at the time covered all the industries of single-camera and multi-camera film/TV, commercials, and new media/streaming. I repeated the same answers enough times that I thought it’d be infinitely more helpful if I could point people to one definitive well of knowledge. As I found my first jobs and began sharing stories from set with classmates and at college open houses, I kept hearing the same questions: “What does a PA do?” “How do you start out, and what’s it like going from gig to gig?” “What are the best and worst things that have happened to you on set?” Image source: Daniel Scarpati Q: What inspired you to write Gofers?Ī: I was a connection-less kid from Queens, New York with no knowledge of how to break into the industry before I began PA’ing. These are interchangeable terms: PAs and gofers both refer to the people, oftentimes the youngest and lowest paid crew members, who are sent on an endless variety of errands for those higher up in the film set hierarchy. Interview with Daniel Scarpati about “Gofers: On the Front Lines of Film and Television” Q: What’s a Gofer?Ī: My favorite definition has always been the Oxford English Dictionary’s: “A person who runs errands, especially on a film set or in an office.” It really shines the spotlight at those breaking into showbiz!įor about six years, I worked as a film/TV production assistant, or “PA” for short.
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