I was thinking back to when I was on the Burn Notice set. I was already working most of the day, and they were running late and shooting until midnight. When we finally wrapped, one of the Assistant Director’s, thinking the late shoot must have been a shock, asked, “You still want to do this?”
I just got home and it’s 2 AM. I have to get up at 7:30. Yep, I’ll still do this.
BTW - Today went a lot smoother than the past two days. But again, it’s 2 AM. More TK.
This post is part of the Moviccino, taking you through the production of a movie from start to finish.
While doing some film book browsing on Amazon, I caught the release of The Hollywood Assistants Handbook and ordered myself a copy. It wasn’t long before everyone in school was reading a copy. After all, we’re filled with FHPPs (that’s Future Hollywood Power Players for you film muggles).
If you want to work in the entertainment industry, especially the business side, this should be in the top 5 books to read. It’s quick, entertaining, and pretty informative. Like everything you read, you’ll need to filter out the eyebrow raisers from the head-nodders, but this has more good tips than bad. Here are 5 to get you going on your path to a HPP.
10-20-10 Rule - One popular entry level job is a Script Reader, where you read through the piles of scripts producers receive and decide if it’s worth their time to read. I’ve always wondered how anyone could go through piles of scripts (most of which are terrible) and no go insane. Here’s how. Read the first 10 pages, skim for 20, and read the last 10. Brilliant.
Write thank you letters after you interview, and especially after someone does something for you. No email, a handwritten note.
You’re not curing cancer. If a job nightmare occurs, just repeat that to yourself.
If you get some crazy request from your boss, the hotel concierge is your friend. Just tell them your boss is a guest and hand over the task.
Intentionally mess up. Yes, screw something up. Nothing big or disastrous. Why? To move up. You want to be a little forgetful or undependable so you don’t become indispensable to your boss, because then you’re stuck forever. Your boss will want you to move on to bigger and better things so they can replace you.
Like I said, not everything in the book might be a great idea. I’m even cautious of some of the things I mentioned above. But it’s definitely worth a read.
As I said in summation, driving Geoffrey around brought me a lot closer to Paul Cohen, an independent distributor1 who is the business side of show business in one man.
I guess I did a good job with Geoffrey because Paul really seemed to like me. Over the next few months (the Geoffrey chauffeuring was back in February), we met and had coffee a few times and finally had a ‘thank you’ dinner.
Paul moved to Tallahassee not to leave the business but to move to a less expensive town, so he’s starting up a new distribution company in conjunction with the school to serve as a learning environment for the business side of filmmaking.
He asked if I wanted to intern and work on distributing and marketing real movies. How about ‘yes.’
So to skip a bit, and because we’re under non-disclosure agreements so I can’t talk about it much, there’s about eight of us interning, working in a separate building virally marketing the Germs biopic What We Do Is Secret.
You can see some of my handy work if you search for the What We Do Is Secret group on Facebook (over 400 members) as well as some write-ups on music blogs.
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