Hello, aspiring Director/Screenwriter here looking wondering how I would go about getting on-set experience as a PA. I do not care about pay, and am more looking for real-life exposure to the industry, as a way to disperse any fantasies I may have about how a set works.
Filmmaking / Directing : Looking for experience by Kieran C. Herman
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Hey, Kieran! Have you posted in other lounges?
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First, live in a city where there's active production work. Then use a job board like Mandy.com or Below The Line Magazine to find out what's shooting in your area. Then you can try to reach out via email or phone to the Key P.A. or Production manager or UPM but unless they know you and or you have experience, it's unlikely this will work. However, when I posed this question to Christine Vachon years ago when I was in film school, she glibly told me to show up on set and find someone with a radio and see if they need help. So uhm, that could work too. Maybe. Though I doubt it. "Additional" P.A.'s do really boring tasks like traffic lockups. It's not necessarily set work. So don't be surprised if it sucks for a long while. Just don't expect to move up into actual working departments like camera/grip/sound etc. P.A.'s go up the production ladder which is a path into the DGA or PGA. But not even necessarily an easy path to actual directing. Good luck.