Avoid most basic mistakes inexperienced Production Assistants (PA) make on set.
This week, Tanya talks with Jennifer and Monique about their experience as a PA and what they learned to help you become an experienced PA.
Jennifer “Jedon” Hatcher and Monique C. Shaw started out as PA’s and saw a need to help aspiring PA’s prepare for their first opportunity on set. In this episode, they share why they wrote the book Walkie Check? Good Check – The Complete Guide To Being A Production Assistant In The Television & Film Industry, the first thing PA’s should learn, and working non-union.
Listen to be prepared for your next opportunity to become a PA.
Key Points:
1:50 – How they got started
7:28 – Why help PA’s with your book
15:37 – Difference between commercial work and a feature
Skip to: 19:05 First thing for PA’s to learn23:16 – When something goes wrong
28:45 – Working without a Union as a PA
37:40 – What do they want to create
43:40 – Most interesting set location
Links:
Links:
First Team Productions
Walkie Check? Good Check – The Complete Guide To Being A Production Assistant In The Television & Film Industry
Report Abuse on Set
First Team Pros on Instagram
Whitney Lane
Imani Woodard Instagram
Full Transcript:
I bat punched in the stomach by an actor.
Oh my gosh, what?
Yes.
I got punched in the stomach by a child actor.
I was setting background.
And, you know, just a simple scene. They’re just running down the stairs out of the elementary school. But, you know, it’s a lot of chit chat. Okay, everybody get in line and line up. Where up to go? We’re about to roll.
All I hear is.
00, oh my god. Oh my god.
Welcome to the practical filmmaker, an educational podcast brought to you by the Filmmaker Institute and Sonscreen Film Festival, where industry professionals talk nuts and bolts and the steps they took to find their success today. Find the full transcripts and more at the practical filmmaker icon.
I’m your host, Tanya Musgrave, and today we have Jedon Hatcher and Monique Shaw of the Atlanta based first team productions. Together, they authored the book Waukee Check. Good Check. It’s a guide to being the glue that holds every set together PA in the industry.
Together, their experiences span working as a first team, PR, office, PR and base camp pay for Netflix, HBO, Paramount, Betty Tyler, Perry Studios, pretty much all the studios and on productions such as Stranger Things and Coming to America to welcome to the show.
They say Thank you. That’s an amazing introduction.
And it makes me very tired.
And it reminds me of sleepless nights. But thank you.
Schrager. You guys did it, though. You guys made that.
I just compiled it.
You did. Yes.
OK, so let’s dove right in. Like, let’s go back to those triggers. How did you get here, both of you? I know it’s a loaded question, but what was your journey into the industry and to where you are right now?
Um, I’ll take it off first. So for me, like I came from corporate, I have a background in marketing and business management, and so I’ve been doing corporate for quite some time, especially working in marketing and being a marketing director and building companies and being a business developer and all those things, but didn’t have a lot of
passion to keep doing it. And I had always knew that as a child, I wanted to be in the entertainment industry at some Typekit in some capacity. But, you know, through life, hard breakups and relationships and things like that, I decided that, you know, I’m going to take a stab at this industry that I love and I
have a passion for. Because one thing about passion is just burns inside of you until you. And so you see again, so you try to do it is just going to continue to burn inside of you. So I say, you know what?
I’m just going to try it to L.A. and it doesn’t necessarily work, but I knew that this was what I wanted to do. I’ve said, let me just kind of reconfigure how I’m going to get into this industry.
And I moved to L.A. and I moved to L.A. in September, in September, and I was on set in October.
And when I got on set, I said.
This is what I’m supposed to do because I took the initiative. I’ve prepared myself to make that move and I knew that I needed to make that move here. And within a month I was on set, so I knew that this was what I was supposed to do and just continue to educate myself and take classes and
network. It kind of landed me on the set, and I just kind of really just fell into the fold of working in the Abbey Department and just really just working my way, and I navigated my way through this industry.
Mm-Hmm. Mm-Hmm. Beautiful and skills like I was right with you and my.
Journey is actually very similar. I started in marketing and communications, also for Verizon Wireless, in talking head videos and writing scripts for Big PS. And it has to be inside of a box and everybody’s dream.
Everybody’s dream.
Just nine the five of Robert Brown outs day. And I mean, one day it was just enough was enough. I tried to incorporate a lot of my creative mind into the projects that I was doing in the corporate world.
And it just wasn’t stinking. So, you know, one day I just packed a box and I came home and I said, Hey, husband.
I got my job.
And he said, Hey, why my phone works?
Didn’t you call me over nine words?
However, I know that his kids could play VIDEO.
So, yeah.
When I was 13 years old, I was directing Indiana Jones in my head. That movie I knew, I knew. Since I knew cuts. I knew the dialog. I knew that stuff. So. I went to the University of South Carolina for media arts, and I wanted to be a movie director, but I just went into the world of
corporate and it just pigeonholed me. And again, I am a very impulsive person, so I just jumped in and my first job. I beg just about anyone. Please let me get a start and must start. My first start was Hunger Games.
And wait, wait, right? Your game like your first job out the gate was Hunger Games. So let me just say this is that our watching do not think that when you come out, you’re going to just jump. Once a hunger day.
We say, OK, I don’t know, you.
Got a back up, you got a back up. Sorry, like, how did this happen?
I asked a friend of a friend of a friend, and one day I was in Buckhead, having a meeting with a guy who was at this time he was a UPM unit production manager. Didn’t know what that was.
I just, you know, had a conversation with him. And he said, Have you ever worked on a set before? And I pretty much gave him my whole life story of why you are going to make a great decision by.
Hiring me.
A.
Yes. And after that.
Girl. So off to the races.
Lee, my gosh. The odds were in your favor. Yes, it was like. But its preparation meets opportunity, so there is no way that he would have let you on that set had he not seen.
What you meant. By that saying, I live by that say where preparation meets opportunity. And that’s one of the reasons why we actually wrote the book that we did because we wanted to make sure that people actually had a proper preparation because those opportunities will come.
Yeah. If you if you’re if you’re patient enough, those opportunities will come, but you have to be prepared.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Sorry, I interrupted you.
Keep going. So basically.
What got me here is the impulsiveness. I just jumped. And then I got in front of someone and I jumped again and I told that person, I can do it. But right now, what is really keeping me in this mode is that I’m wanting to direct.
I love this industry. I have a voice and my creativity, and I am, you know, even though that I’ve had a very interesting start to my career. It’s just the beginning, and I am really, really looking forward to what’s going to happen in this.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. OK, so that actually would lead right into one of my questions. You want to direct why rights for AIDS? OK.
I want to direct. If I direct, I need a crew. I need a responsible, reliable crew because the crew in my eyes is like a family. The reason why I say that they are family is because we get paid peanuts.
We get looked at as if we are the problem. Children, just all of us, just all parties. But the thing about it is we are in the front lines and every time the director calls action and cut, we make it happen.
I have gone through a journey in my life where I have gone from the corporate world to being probably the oldest production assistant on set. No one ever told me, You need to do this. You need to make sure that this is set up.
You need to make sure that you know specifics, like when you are the first day on set, introduce yourself to the first lady. Make your presence known. Be reliable. Communicate. There are a.
Whole list.
Of things that you only figure out after you get yelled at. And I think that is very unfortunate. So that’s why I.
Wrote a book. OK.
All right. So let’s talk about this book. It’s titled Waukee Check. Good check. This is a complete guide to being a production assistant for the film and television industry, where we not only get an insider look into those crew roles, but also extremely foundational and hands on info about stuff like set etiquette and unions and important documents
and time cards. We are a fan of brass tacks practicality here, so tell me more about this book.
Waukee Check Good Check is something that is said on set every day. Any time someone gets in walking, someone gets a headsets and the battery. They turn a walkie on whatever. They have some static, they are going to ask for a walkie check if someone on the other end will say good shit.
And so Monique came up with this fabulous idea to make the book that it’s a how to guide. You know, we have the experience that a lot of these CPAs are looking for. And so, you know, like, we really wanted something that’s tangible.
I’ve taken like several classes and have paid with two, 200, 300, some dollars to take these classes and know I’m able to gain a certain type of knowledge. There’s only two days. With the class and then there’s nothing that I can really tangibly take away when I lead this class outside of Typekit phone number or someone seeing
how dedicated I am to the industry, there’s nothing tangible that I can personally take away from. And so I really, really wanted a book, a guide, something that people can actually reference. Oh, I’m a walk up to day.
Let me pull this book out to see what I should expect to be a walking pace. You know what? I just got hired as a key step. Let me pull this book out so I know what to expect as a case that I want to get on set.
What’s in this book that can help me get on set? Well, let’s look at what makes a good PR, you know, so you have these fundamental aspects within the book that really help you understand what it takes to do whatever the particular particular role is, so that even if I don’t have the time to tell you how
to be a Bates camper, how to step into a hair and makeup trailer, you at least have a guide that can help you through those moments. Exactly.
Now, each.
Production is different. We’re not saying that this is the Bible, but what we are saying that it is foundational.
Definitely.
Absolutely. So let’s clarify, actually, for some listeners, the differences between these types of days that we’ve been listing because like they don’t they don’t teach this in film school like I never learned.
And that was one of the reasons why we actually wrote the book as well, because they’ll teach you how to write, they’ll teach you how to write a beautiful script.
They don’t let.
You necessarily know that your first job coming out of film school will be.
What it will be production. Yeah, yeah.
Just to answer your question. So when you are a production assistant, the different levels, there are day players, so day players are hired to work on a background day as the first people may need an extra person because they have a lot of principal cast members on set.
There are staff is also staff who have been hired to be on the show run off show. There is a first team pay and the first CPA will take care of principal cast and set players.
While on set while.
On set. These campus are like.
Mobile homes.
For the actors.
OK, luxury mobile home, the baby page.
They get the people through the works and they have to know the the paperwork that’s involved with getting them through the words depending upon what that what area you’re in. Some areas don’t allow the page to touch some of the important documents that is needed when you’re in base camp, but then you definitely will touch.
Some of the players will touch the exhibit GS and sometimes as a base camp pay, sometimes you actually contact cash to let them know their client. Their call times will be for the next day. You know, just various things.
You also have your background. Your background is the one that’s responsible, obviously for background, getting them checked in, making sure that they go through the work, making sure that they get to set, making sure that they keep track of their time.
And and it’s a background page. Honestly, I like baby directors, read them B and because when they go to set with their BG, sometimes you have to actually work with the second thinking on set to help place the background, give them their their movements, help getting them some business business like certain things that they want to do
, like, Oh, look like you’re on your phone or look like you’re drinking the coffee or they’re, yeah, like things like that. So they are really kind of like baby directors in my eyes, especially when it comes to working with them physically on set, you know, then we also have a key participé key.
SEPA is kind of like the legs.
Step.
Before you become a second second ad if you’re really like the supervisor of the entire team. And so you are telling people what they’re going to be doing. You know you, you start who your base camp is, your who your background is.
You’ll have help set up lockups. You’ll manage the their daily out times and things like that and make sure that those get turned into the ad department. So the key piece that he has a lot of responsibilities and they really should have a mindset of being an actual Adobe when they are actually on set, it should be
kind of like it’s a keeper. You should really be a bonus, Abby, but not giving that.
To, you.
Know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
If you’re a production assistant for ten years and you’re comfortable, you’re probably a people person and you love crew and you like to be helpful and that’s fine. If you want to be an aide, then you’re really, really good and keen on logistics.
And if you are a base camp first team or a GPA, then your next step, just a little career advice would be to be a keeper next. You have to really, really be. Responsible in the eyes of an aide to be appointed to be a keeper.
Yes, absolutely. You’re still a production assistant, but you are responsible for communicating as if you are an aide. I need the camera crew to move their gear because a shot is going to be facing this way. They’re going to listen to you because they know that you’re right under the reigns of an aide, and it probably came
from an aide. That’s why you’re telling me to do that.
OK. OK, so let’s expand on that particular. When you when you’re saying like the people, that would be good for these kinds of roles, like you find paid work for a variety of things. You know, it might be a film, it might be a TV show, maybe even commercial or shorts leaning on a feature or an ongoing
show. It seems like a solid goal. Like, I know that it might come down to personal preference, but between the different sets. Could you break down why someone would prefer one over the other.
Like a long term job versus a.
Short term job?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like, I mean, like actually in commercial, you actually want to do commercial if you want to go this direction or if you actually want to, like, be on a film set, but only if you’re this kind of person because you’re away from family.
I don’t know. I don’t know, but I.
Feel that commercial life, you.
Get paid better.
But but you’re.
Constantly looking for work. Now, if you’re in that world and if that’s your industry and that’s your thing in your name, it just rains and it seems to different ads and things like that. That’s your thing you get.
And you can get a lot of money working in the commercial world, but you’re only on a commercial for about a day or two. Same thing with music video. You’ll get more money on the front end, but you don’t necessarily have that level of longevity.
And then also like it just depends on the person. Like sometimes the people like that have a job that is theirs for six months, and they don’t have to worry about that because it’s like, you know, how we are in this in this industry, we’re freelancers.
And so you’re only hired for the job that you’re on and then you’re hired for the next job that you get. You know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah.
And on a different angle, the difference between episodic and features is that episodic switch our TV series, they move fast. So you are shooting an episode in seven days less fast. When you’re working on a feature, you may have 50 22 days, you may have 60 to date.
You know what I’m saying? You are able to stretch out the days when you are deciding whether or not you want to work in features or epix episodic. You have to understand the rhythm and the pulse of a set.
Can you really do I call time of 3:00 a.m. every morning? Now that’s your call time. These different locations that you’re shooting, can you give the Iran time? Because fortunately and unfortunately, I have replaced someone on their job before.
More than once. And I have replaced that person. Weiss Industries. Oh, yeah, yeah.
So if you can’t keep up, just just sit on the.
You know, like for me, I work in base camp a lot and I work for first team a lot when I’m on base and when I’m in base camp, especially when we have a move. I’m super dedicated to what I do, and I go to work 30 minutes.
Early.
Every day to make sure their base camp is open every day. I don’t get paid for that 30 minutes. I cannot be trying to put labels on trailers and contracts and rooms and paper the rooms that they already needs to be done because cars will be landing shortly.
You know what I mean? And so I need to be ready. And it’s all about your level of dedication, and it’s always, I say it all the time. If you are not passionate about this industry, you want to do it on time so that you can get to work where you need to be aware.
Yeah.
So say I am an L.A. freshman or, you know, Atlanta industry. I’m an industry freshman, first day of school. Can you give us one of your practical tips from your book? That can be my very first starting block?
Let me tell you something. For me, the very first thing that I would say to a name, I need to say introduce yourself to the first lady for getting a call sheet and try her best to break your costume down.
If you have questions at a lot of the things that will happen through the course of the day, it’s right there on the call sheet. And Monica and I were just having this conversation yesterday about some of the crazy questions that we get asked on set, and all of the answers are just right there.
So get a call sheet. Such the morning paperwork prepares you for the day. The one thing that. Can shoot yourself in the foot is not understanding the actual what’s going on in that happening? Yes. So get it your call sheet, your call sheet, break your cross sheet down, read your side what’s going on because I can guarantee
you I’m not even going to sugarcoat it. You’re going to get at least at least ten things through the course of the day that is either in your size or your call sheet.
And one of them is going to be what.
Typekit and lunch is already top of the call sheet. Yeah, I think.
That one practical advice that I can give to someone just starting would definitely bounce off of what Jordan just said and to go further and to be proactive. If you know, as a first team pay that your actors need to be wired, tell your aid as you’re landing on set.
If you know that you have 20 background actors that are about to go past their rep reps tell your second second aid. Be proactive because the less that they have to come to you, the more they’re going to ask you to come with them on their next project because you’re low maintenance and you help them make their
day, and you can help the aide help the director make their day. You’re golden.
The one thing that I learned in this industry is that one of your key responsibilities is to make your first A.D. look good. That is the one thing that you can do as an as a make your first a beat look good.
And that’s a collective challenge for everyone that’s in the 80 department pays and all that you’re tasked with. But whatever your role is within that department, it’s your job to make your first baby look good. Yes, it’s my job.
As she says, the background way of knowing when background as opposed to wrap and letting them know, Hey, we need to make sure that we get this shot down so that we can wrap these guys up. Because guess what, if we got put them over time and that cost more money?
And just to add to that, your job as a production assistant is just to report the news. That’s all you do and you’re not calling the shots. You’re not making decisions. You are reporting the news report to the second A.D. that these 20 background actors are about to shoot over their laptop.
And that’s it. It’s all about communication also. But if you don’t get a response or if it’s not an immediate reaction to what you’ve told me, your hands are clean, you’re free and clean, and you are now labeled as a person who communicates.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So I’m with I mean, that sounds like something going massively wrong, like a bunch of these people. I mean, it’s like it happens on set, right? But I am always a sucker for the juicy stories of when.
We get to that, we try to build more relationships that seem like we can get.
And it’s become a favorite question of mine. I want to know these stories of when something went wrong. And you know, a bonus is either how you fixed it, what you learn from it, all that fun stuff, but it’s time to spill.
I can give you like this crazy story. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that there was an actual fix to this story, but something that was super crazy to me. I think that one of my weird it’s experiences. I was working with this cast member and this cast member clearly was a little bit inebriated.
Is that right? Oh my God.
And mind you, the cast member was inebriated the day before to the point that we actually had to just say, You know what? We’re not going to work today with this cast member. We’re just going to bring them back, come back the next day.
Carson was still clearly just.
Get out there again, just drop. So we’re filming the cast.
Members doing their work, and this time I was in the cast of arrests, so I had to go back to and I was working with our team on set. This my very first time for the first time on set, right?
So the cast character had to go back to base camp to and I had to go back for whatever reason. So the cast member decides to jump in the van with me as I’m heading back to set for me to get dropped off that I had to go straight with a cast member to get dropped off at
the crew party. They had the van driver had to make a left.
We’re in Atlanta.
This university, and so, you know, traffic and stuff, so you got to make sure that she stops so that.
She can make.
The left turn for the cameras, like you can just drop me off on the corner and get across the street. No questions like, Well, no, we can’t do that because of our union. You in the street, you know?
I don’t care. Just I’m out of date.
I’ll be fine. I’m just like, I said, Well, you know what?
Don’t worry about it. We’ll just go ahead.
And take you to your car. So as we’re getting ready to.
Make the last heard the jump start the van know why. It’s great. We work out a full throttle making this left turn and the cat. No, I like the you man. Open the fan zone with the sliding door and got out of a closet, a minivan driver.
We were like, We still got to make a left turn and we have to go. We both.
Looked at each other and we were.
Like.
He was like the.
Righteous with what I witnessed the he.
She listen, let me tell you something.
We were drunk. We were drunk. Nothing happened to you. She said why she did it before my vehicle was that person I happened to have, and she got a card that made you look bad. It was so crazy.
And so I was like, Wow, well, what do you.
Suppose it is supposed to be running after her in the middle of the.
Road because it was safe? Yeah, it was the craziest experience that I’ve.
Ever had on set, and I’ve had a lot of crazy things with that was the craziest experience that I have as a P.A.. And one thing that I had to learn as a P.A. is that you can only do what you can do.
I can make you move to set any faster. I can’t make you move from there any faster. I can’t keep you in a moving vehicle.
I felt.
The little way that she was driving.
Like, Oh my star, she was driving.
She had to drive, Oh.
My stars.
To.
Stop dropping rolled out the van so she can get to her.
Car. I think she was trying.
To get the Krispy Kreme style.
Oh my gosh. All right, Monique.
OK.
Please, please indulge.
I am going to just go right to it. I got punched in the stomach by an actor.
I remember you, so we love it.
Oh my gosh. Why? Yes, I got.
Punched in the stomach by a child actor.
I was setting back grab and the kids just were running out.
Of out of, you know, just a simple scene. They’re just running down the stairs, out of the elementary school. Simple enough, it’s like twelve of them. But you know, it’s a lot of chit-chat. OK, everybody get a line line up.
We’re up to go. We’re about to roll. All I hear is.
00, oh my god, oh my God. Where is the child’s parents?
So I immediately talked to the first lady and I talked to the director, but it was just the simple fact of our production assistant. I already have some parameters that happen in my job environment. That’s not cool. And now I’m getting punched in the stomach by.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, I got some comments like, Oh, he’s just a kid. Didn’t care. It’s not.
Acceptable. Not professional.
No, absolutely. And I actually that leads me to another question because, OK, so I guess people are aware that there’s no union for pays, you know, like what happens if you get injured? Are you like technically under their name?
Like what if like, is there workman’s comp for people who are like.
Oh hey, you would have.
To do? You wouldn’t have to handle it personally, and you would have to that I literally just got news that one of the guys that I was working with, I just found out that she actually got hit by a car while on set Saturday, just Friday, and is as a P.A. when people that are not in the
industry see all the lights and all of these things that are happening. Of course, they raised starry-eyed and things like that. And so they start to not pay attention. This individual actually back into the party.
Oh my gosh.
So the pay, they would have to handle it on a personal note, like you would obviously have a situation with that person in that person’s insurance. Company, but then you would also take a suit with the production itself.
Yeah. You know, because regardless of whether you are injured, you can you could be physically injured. You can be mentally injured. So you know, you can take sue however you want to take seriously. You don’t have the representation, you have the seat representation.
I think that production assistants need a union. I think that the things that we have to deal with is not by far my news. It is very, very large. But you have to respect yourself and everything that you do has to be done with integrity.
There is not one iota that allowed me to wake up that morning and wanted someone to physically put their hands on me.
Mm-Hmm.
No, no. And you know, that’s that’s kind of a culture that is hopefully on its way out with the almost strike. I guess that happened number one. But also, I mean, there is I mean, unfortunately, I know somebody who was on a certain set with a certain director and he got socked in the face as well.
He was not he was not a P.A. He was actually he was one of the other. The crew members was underneath the second. And I was shocked because he did climb the ladder and he was just like, Hey, this just happened.
The second ad punched me in the face. So what do I do? And they were like, What did you expect?
You know, that’s the thing that you.
Brings out and you put Vaseline on your face and square up. No, you don’t do that, but you definitely talk to the powers that be. But that is not. It’s my culture that’s not OK.
No, no, no, no. So I’m like and hopefully that that kind of industry is on its way out because people are a whole lot more vocal about what they have to face.
So, you know, working with me.
I am a very, very vocal person, and I feel like sometimes, especially with some of the younger days when things happen to them, they’re not vocal about how it affects them, how they feel. If you talk to me in a disrespectful manner, treat me in a disrespectful way.
I’m definitely going to bring it to your attention that I don’t appreciate that.
Mm-Hmm. And I think it’s important that people realize just how much that says, I mean, when you speak up for yourself, the amount of respect that you give yourself, it actually, there’s a trickle effect that happens. I mean, they know that that is not something that they can do anymore, at the very least.
So, you know, like.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, to you. But I mean, once I was shocked when I learned this that once you actually did confront people, you know, in a respectful manner, of course. But I was actually shocked at how many times they backed off because they weren’t expecting somebody to actually speak up about it.
That actually happened to me on this production that I just got off. This gentleman was very adamant about where he wanted me to park my car in the public safe. He didn’t want me to park my car by the scruff where his his working truck.
And he started to play games and left the note on my car. And then I took the note off and I put it back on his car and he knew who I was because he had approached me about it before he knew where, where I would be.
And so instead of you put in a note on my car, you could have easily had a conversation with me. So then that the straw that broke the camel’s back was that he pushed my side view mirror in and I was really, really irritated at that point because not only are you leaving notes on my car, but
now you could potentially put me in harm’s way. Had I had gone on a highway not being able to see out of my side view mirror because you, unbeknownst to me, pushed my mirror in. Mm hmm. And so I actually stepped to the gentlemen the next day and I said something to him about that because my thing
is I had to let him know that one of these young girls that you see walking around said that don’t know my ass from my face. I said, If you had a problem with me parking there, then you could have had a conversation.
Let’s just have a dialog. Let’s not touch each other, each other’s property, right? Let’s keep the dialog open.
And keep in mind that this is a working truck. Then it belongs to the production and it’s not your personal truck. And therefore you touch my personal car. You should call me go.
Oh no, I oh no. Listen.
I went up one side his tail and down the other way.
To be honest.
The one thing that I feel like Apple’s lack is our. Voice, you feel like we are supposed to take things and we do not out, as I said the other day and I tell them. They treated those us so disrespectfully they had those working for almost twelve hours without a lunch break, white without a lunch break, over
eleven hours. And in the aid department, the No. one in the department gets no.
Penalties, and that’s immense. And if there’s a walking lunch or a French lunch, the people are actually making boxed lunches for the group.
Disrespectful?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. And that’s not OK. Then again, how you are gathering this is important as your work as a producer in a way that you would run a set like myself. Absolutely not.
Not. And I’ve worked with some. Tyler Perry in particular, where Mr. Perry does not go for people not eating. Even background like he will stop production and that witness say, Oh, you didn’t eat because he will. He will recognize the Why are you still lethargic?
What’s going on that it added it up? I haven’t. You haven’t eaten. Why haven’t you eaten? No one told me that I could go and take a lunch break. Let’s stop production. Everyone needs to eat everyone, I don’t care who you are, and that’s the one thing that I can respect about that man in the way that
he works. He treats everyone like family and he makes sure that you are taken care of.
Well, yeah, I mean, it’s kind of like that. You know, that culture that we had been talking about of, you know, the straight up abuse of nature that it can it can have. And this is an industry, this is a workplace and you are able to actually speak up for yourself.
There is such a thing as positive confrontation. It’s not all bad. Like it’s communication exactly what you were saying before you are allowed to communicate.
Yeah. And then reach out to your production office. There are safety hotlines, there are hotlines and H.R.. There should be a hotline that is on your call sheet. There should be someone that you can contact anonymously if you are working for a production company, a Netflix or Paramount.
They definitely have hotlines. As a production assistant. You can definitely face to face have those conversations, but if you don’t feel confident and comfortable, they are anonymous ways. But abuse is not acceptable, and it doesn’t matter if you report it to someone on a set and you feel like, Oh, I’ll never get hired again.
Is this just the firewall that you should not be treated that way, then there shouldn’t be any issue.
If we continue to sweep these things under the rug, then they will continue to happen.
So you want to be a producer, you want to be a director. What is your hope? What do you want to create?
Oh, my goodness.
So, like, I’ve always felt like I’m a messenger and a message will always be follow your dreams, follow your goals, follow your passion, find what that is and walk in that. Never know where it will lead you and who it will lead you to, but that’s your duty as a human being to follow your passion, passion.
Does it serve you passion, service or community? It serve the people that surround him because this is something that has been put in you for a reason. Me being a being a producer, I want to produce thought provoking content.
Content that makes you feel a certain type of way makes you think a certain type of way make you. It really makes you say, You know what? I never looked at certain things from this perspective. And so I don’t want to do anything that degrades the African-American community.
I don’t want to do anything that degrades African-American women and women in general, and I feel like there’s enough content out there that’s doing that. And I want to change that narrative.
Amazing. Mo’Nique.
Me, my eyes is a little bit more practical. I want to direct and I want to blow stuff up.
I want to flip it. See what it’s been my producer money. OK?
I am an action junkie. My mind is so active. When I watch action movies, I can watch John Wick. I’m just like, Wow, wow, wow. first of all, my mind is like, How do you write for that? And then after you write for that, how do you shoot that?
So I want to direct action to my first action film was Indiana Jones and where he was. I think it’s like the last crusade with his father and you know them riding around in that little two passenger buggy.
That kind of action was just the beginning for me. But now these movies have so much action in them. I don’t know whether or not African-American directors actually do that. I don’t, I’m not, you know, standing on a pedestal and saying that I want to be the first, but I am very, very interested and I’m tapping my
toe into that that puddle. I want to. I want to be Michael Mann.
Well, I was going to say like they do now. I mean, like, you don’t know what they do. They do now. Like, it’s.
Definitely want to direct action movies, but I want it to have substance and content, and I want it to be emotional. I definitely want to direct projects that I’ve never seen before. I am just a geek and a nerd about movies and television in this industry.
Well, we want to follow you. So how do people find and follow your work? This is your shame.
first, we wanted to make sure that you guys out there understood that we actually have an amazing team of young ladies that work with these young ladies that have started with us as interns and lived and slept and bled the blood just as much as we have.
And we wanted to make sure that we gave them the their just.
Due and let them know.
That we really, really appreciate their work and we really appreciate all the efforts that they put in for first time production. first and foremost, we wanted to make sure that we gave this Brooklyn based amazing shout out Brooklyn man.
We also want to give a shout out to Imani Woodard, who is our assistant. She is an extraordinaire. We forget everything and we probably would have got that this internet behind it.
Make sure you.
Follow Imani at Tattered Exclusive. She’s our iJie. That’s tattered exclusive. Brooklyn Bates is a Brooklyn based on age and then won another amazing young lady that works with and her name is Whitney Lane. To follow her ex Whitney, the writer on IG as well.
That’s how you can follow our team.
And you can follow us at first team pros and it’s the number one pros on Instagram and Facebook. Our website, where you hopefully will be purchasing the book is W W W that first.
Team pros that.
And first team on the website is the word yes, the word artist.
OK, all right. All right. We will be linking all of those in our on our actual blog post, on our website. So anybody who goes and listens to this on our website will have all of those lists of links listed below.
So you don’t have to worry about that. one last question that I always ask everybody What questions should I have asked you?
What questions should you have? I think the one question that you should have access would be how much do pays make?
Only $10 17.
14 $0.03 is usually the base, the minimum.
You go into overtime, usually after two and a half days because you’re still working your 40 hours once you get 40 hours a week, which is really easy to do as a pay because you’re always working. But usually two and a half days, you go into overtime.
But yes, $10.
Sometimes stretches, depending.
Upon the production. But that is the base rate.
Yeah, and it’s a twelve hour guarantee. So you get $10 point, whatever. I just said for working twelve hours, anything after twelve hours. Then you go into overtime.
I think.
one question.
That I think that you should have asked me is the best or the most interesting either set location that you filmed.
In.
Or area that you worked in, meaning that I work in Atlanta. So Atlanta’s very southern. But when I worked in L.A., oh my God. Every time we turn base camp was sitting on top of a hill which is rolling like, roll this here and you could see the skyline and the city lights in at night, 3:00 in
the morning. It’s just still beautiful because you’re like in downtown L.A. I love.
L.A. So I think.
Location will really put in the production of the people’s minds. You know, yeah, you get paid peanuts. And yeah, some days are really, really rough.
But when the lights go up.
That’s what you’re there for it.
We’ve got our production and we were working in this beautiful area and it was southern, so it was cotton fields galore. Like, just amazing. Yeah. And it was really powerful and meaningful to work in this area because you know that your ancestors and I have a tree down here in Georgia, you didn’t know that your ancestors were
here picking this beautiful crop, and this beautiful crop had had such a meaning. A story to story. Yeah. And so just being able to film in some amazing places, it’s always like.
I’ve worked on the Underground Railroad and with that show with Barry Jenkins, the way that his cinematography is is just so beautiful. So my call times were always 3:00 a.m. But when he called action, I was in front of a monitor and I was looking at everything just before.
She tries to be in front of the monitor. I knew, and that’s hold this. Like we said, I.
Love the cast because all say I.
Want to be somewhere like, you know, we look like you would direct the first team as.
A wrap up sweep person doesn’t.
Matter. It’s no big. OK, guys don’t do that. Now listen to me.
Oh my gosh. Yes. But listen to her. Listen to both of you guys. Thank you so much for being on the show. You guys have dropped a wealth of information. And also in your book, please, please check it out.
It is an amazing book full of all of the practical things that you need to know.
Rocky Chuck Good chat, Waukee Check.
Good check if you enjoyed this interview, follow us right here and on Instagram. Ask us questions and check out more episodes at the practical filmmaking icon. Be well and God bless. We’ll see you next time on The Practical Filmmaker.