tell us about your job

[CharlieDontSurf]

What do you do?. Assistant to Feature Film Producer.

Do you like it? No...but who would.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I am well-suited because I can write good development notes and have a good eye for scripts. I am unsuited because I am doing a job a semi-retarded monkey could do.

What kind of people do best in your work? Anyone can do well in this job...if your well read, intelligent, well educated, and have lots of creativity then you probably could do something a lot more meaningful with your life.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Be willing to be someone's bitch. Have thick skin. Be so interested in movies and making them that your willing to grind out several years of your life working as an assistant.

What is a typical day like? Get up at 8:00. Sit in traffic for an hour/ hour and 1/2. Get to work at 9:30. Roll calls, go thru messages, things to do etc. Answer phones, create project lists-directors list, actors list, submission lists, read scripts, send out scripts, deal with films going into production, set up lunches/meetings, write development notes, do lots of secretarial [censored]. Do bosses expenses and anything else they want you to do. Read 2+2. Read the net. Work on my scripts if my boss is out of the office. Gossip with other assistants if I'm really [censored] bored. Go to lunch with other assistants. Repeat all this crap till like 7 or 8 pm and then go home. Sit in traffic for an hour. Get home. Wish I had stayed in the Caymans. Watch some TV maybe play some poker. Go to bed.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Stupid people, a$$holes, having to do every little nitty thing for my boss, having to read awful scripts, having to be around people who have no creativity or no real love for movies etc but watched Entourage and thought it would be cool to work in the industry. Having to deal with 40 year old interns who had a mid career crisis and decided to try working in the movie business.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? See above..watching a movie start out as an idea a writer as off the top of his head and seeing it move thru the process and get made into a really good film. Meeting and hanging out with people who love making movies and are incredibly creative...writers/directors/actors/producers/set designers/etc etc. Meeting really hot actresses who act like they like/respect you even if they don't because you work for so and so.

How much do you make? About $35k/yr.

How much can one expect to make in your position? anywhere from $400/450 a week working in the mailroom at aagency to 40/50K working as an executive assistant to a studio VP to 80K+ working as a personal assistant to a A-list actor etc. Average for most assistants is 500-650 a week..but that is usually a 50-55 hour work week.

Depends on where you are working and who you are working for.

But obviously if you move onto to a "real" job in the industry you can make anywhere from 100K to 1 billion.