Production: Life of an Office PA

On a run in my car Holly. I spend a lot of time with my Holly.

I am an office PA. At least, at the moment I am. Being freelance my job title is subject to change on a regular basis. For example, on my last job I was the Production Secretary.

But here, now, at this moment, I am a PA. PA. What does that even mean?

Production Assistant.

Office Production Assistant. To be precise. There's a difference between an Office PA and a Set PA. Or any other type of PA for that matter.

PAs are at the bottom of the food chain in the world of production (or almost, there are always interns after all). We basically do whatever needs to be done. Depending on the project and the department and a million other variables, our job can entail a wide variety of responsibilities. Or lack there of.

That's all generally speaking. I want to go a little more specific than that. Dive a little deeper if you will. Tell you what it's like being an Office PA. Not any other kind.

In film and television production, jobs differ greatly from department to department. Each has it's own responsibilities, requires its own skill sets, basically has its own things going on.

And the Production Office is where it all comes together. Every other department comes to us for their needs, we solve their problems, we make sure everything that needs doing gets done. We order equipment, we distribute paperwork, we handle insurance and travel and housing. All of the little details, they come to us.

As an Office PA, I'm part of the production team. I'm here to do whatever random thing may need doing. What kind of things are those? Let's make a list, shall we?

1) Runs - I drive around, I pick stuff up, I drop things off. I get the actor from his hotel and bring him to set. I take him back to his hotel. I drive sixty miles to deliver scripts to Executives homes. Runs kind of suck.

2) Phones - Answering them. Fast. On the first ring. Everytime. And taking good, detailed messages. Every time.

3) Copies - Scripts, call sheets, crew lists, travel movements, deal memos, petty cash reciepts, production reports, etc. The list goes on forever. I fight with copy machines, a lot. I also get to know the service guys very well. And how many times have I found myself covered in toner? Too many.

4) Distribution - Everybody needs to get everything. Or maybe not exactly, but it is incredibly important that people get all of the things that need to get to them. It can be a pain in the ass, but bad distro creates havoc. Better to just get it right the first time.

5) General office duties - these vary by office but can include things like keeping office supplies well stocked, shopping for craft service, making coffee, taking out trash, whatever else needs to be done.

6) Whatever else. There are so many random things that come up on a day to day basis. I can't even begin to cover it all.

And on that note, I need to go. Things in the office just got busy.

On the agenda for tonight:
-make copies of the script
-make sides
-distro the script

Only three things and yet. It's going to be a long night.