Life on the Key PA front

That's me in the green jacket red hat.

It's awesome getting to travel on the road with a crew. I'm working my ass off, but it's totally, utterly awesome. Kansas City was a bit of a low point for us but the week off helped everyone get back in the swing of things. Dover, Delaware is another story. It was 40 degrees outside and it rained THE ENTIRE TIME. I've never been so cold and wet in my life. Fortunately I escaped without getting sick.

Despite the miserable conditions the crew performed very well. Network executives were there and a lot of changes were discussed that has totally changed how we will do the remainder of the season. There was about a day of panic and now, with the dust settling, our game plan is being put into place. When its all said and done this will truly be a testament to how good some of these people are at doing there jobs and getting it all done.

As the key PA on this show I'm here at the center of the this massive storm. Aside from my typical duties I'm having to do a lot more things than just Key PA. Reality shows are run and organized quite differently than films from what I'm beginning to understand. There is some overlap, but I'm having to fill a wide variety of rolls depending on the needs of the production-so my job is really like a "jack of all trades" kind of thing. Like on a film, I help find and select PAs and train them as to how we expect them to help on the show. There's no difference. While I don't do much of the finding (our coordinator in LA does that) I end up calling people on a list she sends me.

So far on this show I've helped boom, operate a camera, AC, coordinate transportation, produce, and most recently help with art/set design. As the only PA who gets to travel I am pretty friggen chill with this. Sometimes you run into people who say that I should get paid more or get more out of what I'm doing but for this sort of industry, there really isn't a premium to be put on someone showing you the ropes on how to do other people's jobs and to get that sort of "on-the-job" training.

For the moment, we are in Dallas. The show has gone through a bit of upheaval with certain last minute changes we are having to make. A very important shoot is coming up next week and the stakes are really high for us to pull this one off successfully.

Until next time, I'm switching back to channel 1.

Peace.