I have been super MIA lately so I decided to get back into the swing of things with answering Kristi’s reader question:
Hi Rachel,
I just found your blog and I thank you for putting all the information out here. I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask you about becoming a Production Assistant. I have completed several internships within the entertainment industry this past year, and my last internship was with Fox Broadcasting in the department that handles all the reality programming. So I’ve worked on the network side of the business, but I really want to begin working on set, and naturally start at the Production Assistant level.I have names and contact information of people that are in charge of handling all the hiring of crews and PA’s, but I was wondering when the best time to start reaching out to them would be. For example, a couple of shows that I am interested in working on are on hiatus until January. Do I wait to contact the production managers until early January, or do I start contacting them now? My main question is when do shows start hiring PAs for the season? Do they do all the hiring at the beginning/pre-season, or do they also hire during mid-season?Thank you so much for any help you can provide!
From what I have found in the past few years of working is that crew and staff hiring seasons for the entertainment industry varies depending on what type of project it is.
In general the staffing season for scripted tv is May-June. In May is when all of the networks announce their fall schedules of what shows they are picking up and which ones are re-newed or cancelled. During this time is when you should be sending your resume to everyone you know in the industry. Some shows do come on mid-season so in January there is a small window of available work. After that they will only hire when someone either is fired or promoted.
Reality tv works a little differently since they only air for half of a television season. This means throughout the year more reality jobs can be found because they are constantly going into production. There is a down-time though which is generally November to the end of December because of the holidays.
Films I have noticed go into production during seasons like Winter 2011 or Spring 2012. Your best bet for looking for film crew jobs is to start looking in November for the Winter ones and February for the Spring ones. The best places to find out about movies going into production are usually subscription services. My favorite ones I have found are productionweekly.com and mercuryreport.net. You can also buy Variety magazine or The Hollywood Reporter which have a list of things going into production.
As for your contacts I would say that if they are starting production in January then they will probably begin to hire crew sometime in December. I would suggest contacting them mid-December with your resume and let them know that you are available and would love to work with them.
If you are really interested in working for reality tv there are also a few websites that are good to constantly check to see who is hiring. My favorite are realitystaff.com which is free and media-match.com which you have to pay a monthly fee for.
For more advice on finding work check out my older post “Ways To Find Your Next Gig“.
I hope this helps! Happy job-hunting!
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