The best job I ever had lasted barely a month. The working conditions were terrible – the pay, a joke. But in the end, this one job would alter the course of my life.
Decisions
I was 12 when I decided I wanted to make movies for a living. Needless to say, that’s not the kind of career choice that goes over well with parents. Dad wanted me to go to college, be an engineer, make a good living, have a nice life – and he was right. Statistically his arguments made perfect sense. Mom wanted me to be happy but wasn’t entirely sure about the whole ‘movie thing.’ My career choice was risky at best – very few people make it in the movie business. My parents were paying for my college education and their arguments were persuasive. In college I chose the safer, easier path, majoring in exercise physiology – a major that combined my interest in science with my interest in athletics. The only problem was that it wasn’t movies.
I graduated college, entered the work force, but I wasn’t happy. As much as I tried, I couldn’t get rid of this desire to be a part of the movie industry. Something had to be done.
No Turning Back
I decided to leave my job and go to film school – this time on my dime. It wasn’t an easy decision, but I was single with no debts, no responsibilities outside of myself. It wasn’t easy getting used to having very little money again, but the tradeoff was happiness. I was finally on the road to doing what I set out to do all those years ago, and just walking down that path filled me with a joy that money didn’t. I always said that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. It is true.
Film school was the first time that I ever felt like I was a part of a campus community. Instead of being the oddball, I was surrounded by oddballs, and I loved it. The experience and the education were among the happiest experiences in my life.
My first year out of film school, I landed my first job in the movie business. I got the job as a result of a connection I made in film school. I was now an Office Production Assistant, the absolute lowest rung on the ladder, on a low budget independent film, but I was in the door.
Be Careful What You Wish For
There was no learning curve other than a quick introduction to everyone in the office – whose names and titles I was expected to remember instantly. I was expected to know how to operate the phone system, know what needed to be done, know who was who, office protocol, and how everything in the office functioned. And I was expected to know these things immediately. Fortunately I was a quick study. And I was the only one who could get our finicky copier to work.
Working in the office was a great introduction to how a movie is really made. Every day in the office was like a month’s worth of film school education. Every day was something different. I was working about 70 hours a week for a flat rate salary of $300 a week. People flipping burgers at McDonalds made more than I did – but the pay didn’t matter. I was happy. Every day was something different. One day I’m fetching take out for a meeting of production heads; the next day I’m fielding a call from Jamie Lee Curtis. You just never knew. But as much as I was enjoying the office, I wanted more. I wanted to be on the set.
No, I’m Serious – Be Careful What You Wish For
I got to know the First A.D., and he saw how hard I worked. So I decided to talk to him about becoming a Set Production Assistant. He talked to the APOC (kind of like the assistant office manager for a movie). I got my wish. I would be working on the set.
My first day on set we had a 4:30 AM set call. Production Assistants usually arrive before anyone else and leave after everyone else. On a low budget, non-union movie, P.A.’s may find themselves working in a variety of capacities, which often meant even longer hours. The pace was hectic. My responsibilities varied from traffic control to lugging equipment to setting little bowls of grapes in the actors’ trailers.
I worked harder on this job than any other. The actual shoot was 18 days long, which comprised half of the movies shooting schedule. The other half of the movie had already been shot. During those 18 days I lost 15 pounds. I still refer to it as my movie diet plan. We had food provided for us, but there simply wasn’t time to eat. I was going on pure adrenaline, determined that this was my shot and I was going to outwork everyone else on the set. I’d be the first person there, and the last person to leave. As a result my workweek increased from around 70 hours a week to over 100. Eighteen hour days were the norm, six days a week.
When most people think of working in movies, they picture the red carpet, the glitz and glamour, flashbulbs going off like fireworks on the fourth of July. Well, working in movies is just like that – without the red carpet, the glitz and the flashbulbs. It is a grueling assault on your mind and body. It is a high-pressure, six-days-a-week war that will test your limits and still demand more. A few weeks into a shoot you forget the rest of the world even exists – it’s simply you and whatever it is that you were told to do. During the course of this movie I fell through metal grating, slicing open my leg in the process, with a deep tissue bruise that required six months to heal. I limped around the set for the remainder of the shoot. But I tried not to let it slow me down — I would limp faster than the other P.A.’s would walk.
While being a P.A. wasn’t the reason I wanted to get into movies – I wanted to create the things that people would see on screen, but it was still the best job I ever had. As a result of that movie, I had a career. I would go on to work on a dozen or so more movies, TV series, and hundreds of commercials. Within two years of falling through that grating, I was art directing multi-million dollar movies, with my own legions of P.A.’s working under me. Within six years I would produce my first movie and hire some of the people who worked over me on that first job. As satisfying as that was, I still recall with fondness that first job in movies – the best job I ever had.
