Welcome to The Friends In Film Blog

Production assistants are an essential part of every shoot. When you are a PA on set, recognize the value you have to the shoot and be both physically and mentally present. That’s the baseline: being the asset film professionals expect.

We don’t just want to show up, we want to STAND OUT. We want you to go beyond being passably good and become SO good that coordinators and department heads want to see you on every set. Be thinking of little things you can do for them no matter how small you may think those actions are. Remembering the way they like their drink, coming up with a list of places to go for people in from another area. PAs tend to undervalue themselves, even thinking that doing extra tasks like that will brand them as a peon and they’ll get stuck as a PA. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If you want to move up quickly in the industry, you have to walk with confidence. When tasks are being delegated, you don’t want people worrying about whether or not you can accomplish them.

Everyone develops their own method of getting into a confident state, so find one that works for you. You want to be open, friendly, and excited to be on set. Be that kind of person and professionals won’t worry about giving you challenging tasks with more responsibility. If you find yourself with extra time, just go up to people and ask “what do you need?”

You already know what time it is: How do you break into the film industry without film school? That’s what we are all about. There’s no need to get buried in over $100k in debt and taking 4-5 YEARS getting a degree that won’t make the difference between you getting into the industry and getting trapped on the outside.

Here’s a short video on how it’s done. This is how I did it, and this is how you can do it too.

Jen was invited to join the Producer’s Guild of America after working as an associate producer on Top Chef. PGA credits are a big deal; you can only get them by either earning enough credits/hours or being invited.

When she found out that Top Chef was going to be filming in her area, she decided she was going to figure out how to get on that set.

I’ve been getting some questions recently about becoming a director, what niches to get into if someone wants to eventually vector into directing, and how to get noticed. Directing is obviously one of the most challenging (and creatively rewarding) paths in the film industry. Here’s a couple videos to get you started, but keep scrolling down to get some of the fine details ;)

A network and a body of work are important to every position on set from a PA all the way up to a producer, HOWEVER, some kinds of work are more challenging to get. You’ll need a larger body of work and closer relationships with specific people.

Relationships relationships relationships.

If you’ve been with us a while, you know why we’re repeating that word. The film industry runs on relationships. It is very much a who you know industry, and while that might appear on the surface to be a negative, it’s not. We want to use it to our advantage.

The film industry is a creative industry, although many of the departments have a lot of tech and tech oriented people. Having your own equipment will eventually become a great way to increase the amount you can make from each shoot.

When you’re first getting started as a production assistant, a smartphone with unlimited data will be essential and the extent of what tech you’ll need. GPS is going to be your best friend and often you’ll want to be able to look things up for the rest of the crew.

Podcasts are really easy to create and can potentially be a way to earn some extra money while you’re getting established in the film industry. So, how do you start? What are the things you need to be thinking about? (Most of this applies to Youtube/Twitch as well!)

In this video we’ll go over three of the most important things to keep in mind. It’s critical to be strategic when getting into something new if you plan to have it grow into something great.

Currently, Atlanta is the largest film market in the world, focusing on scripted TV as well as feature films. A-list Mentor Patrick is an IATSE 479 union member there and has worked on a number of big shows in the sound department including The Walking Dead (he got to be a zombie 😃) and Stranger Things.

With all the shoots happening, there are always open production jobs in Atlanta. Patrick has taken advantage of this, day playing to get on a lot of shoots and expand his network. This has helped land him work on more shows as well as feature films.

When you become in demand on set, you won’t have to expend a ton of energy looking for jobs. Instead, they’ll come looking for you.

When you first start out, you’ll be getting on as many shoots as possible by any means necessary. Student films and short films will be the bulk of the early shoots you get on. During that time, learn as much as you can about every aspect of the film set from the procedures to the lingo/jargon. This will also be the time for you to start thinking about what department you want to vector toward.