(upbeat music)
- After you watch a movie, do you
stick around for the credits?
Well you should.
If you do, you'll see that it takes
much more than a director,
a camera operator,
and some lousy actors to make a feature.
A small army of laborers behind the scenes
of every production take part.
They're responsible for
the zillions of things
that precede a red carpet premiere.
They work long hours
under hellish deadlines,
and they don't get near the appreciation
that celebrities,
screenwriters, directors,
and the like command.
So what are the most
thankless jobs in film?
- You have no brain.
No judgement calls are necessary.
What you think means nothing.
What you feel means nothing.
You are here for me.
You are here to protect my interests
and to serve my needs.
So while it may look like
a little thing to you,
when I ask for a packet of Sweet and Low,
that's what I want.
- Alright people, let's go ahead
and get this one out of the way first.
Production assistant, I worked as one
for many years so I know
what I'm talking about.
Also called a PA, their work is
widely regarded as one of the most
thankless jobs in the film industry,
and it's true.
It is the entry-level,
foot-in-the-door position
and your responsibilities
are gonna include
things that often have
little, if anything,
to do with filming,
although sometimes they can.
If you're a PA you might
be fetching coffee,
you might be handling time cards,
you might be coordinating script pages
or running errands, personal errands even
for the higher-ups, like the
directors and the producers,
but it's also a crucial job as
a stepping stone in the industry.
Those menial tasks are
also mini tests in a way,
essentially a way to prove your competence
before being given more important tasks,
so it kinda makes sense.
For all their work, a PA in Los Angeles
makes a paltry $27,000 or so per year,
and that's in Los Angeles,
are you kidding me?
Personally, I just
wanna say, it's actually
a pretty cool job and it's a great way to
get your foot in the door and to
decide which department you might be
interested in working in
to make some more cash.
- [Voiceover] And then
I do a straight line
which means that we covered
all of this on camera,
and then I have my small notes,
which are like what hand
she was drinking out of,
and which way she was turning
to and from the camera,
and any other notes like what hand
she was chopping with and
what was going on in the
kitchen, like the stove was on.
- Affectionately known as script-y,
this position call for
noticing and managing
tiny, seemingly
inconsequential set details.
So, for example, did that glass of water
go from half-empty to totally full
in the middle of a scene?
That's not what you want.
Script-y! Where are you?
You can see these errors in movies
like the Shawshank Redemption,
where bullets go from
strewn about on a table
to neatly placed, to
scattered all over again.
Or maybe in the Godfather, where
a car windshield is
shattered in one moment
and then undamaged the next.
Script supervisors take copious notes
on scenes and takes,
and that's pretty much
how they do their job.
Most will supplement their
notes with photos of course,
and no one thanks them for all that,
believe it or not.
Believe me, you don't get
the thanks you deserve
as a script-y, but they will hear about
every single mistake they make,
you can be sure of that.
Although these folks
aren't generally on set,
assistant editors can
pull as many or more hours
as the cast and crew.
So here's how it works.
Once scenes are shot,
they have to be digitized,
organized, and coordinated way before
the Head Editor even arrives.
Detailed logs are also kept to manage
various tiny details like timing sound
and visual effect information.
Some assistant editors are allowed to
pull together rough cuts, but this
depends on their experience
level, pretty much,
and how much of a micro-manager
the lead editor is.
The true challenge of editing is
taking the thousands of frames
and turning the director's
vision into reality.
The whole thing has to
be built from scratch
and it has to be done a couple of weeks
after you finish shooting.
It's a tall order, but it
can eventually, and should,
lead to actually becoming an editor.
- I'm not trying to be cruel,
I'm just trying to help,
because if you do this job right,
if you listen and learn,
then you're gonna be able
to do anything you want,
you can have whatever you want.
I mean, look at Rex
here, a VP at Paramount.
Ha, Rex, what a name, belongs to a mutt,
I mean, if I can get dog-boy here a job,
you're gonna do just fine.
- To the surprise of absolutely nobody
who's ever labored as an
intern in any industry,
this position is probably
the least enjoyable
and least rewarded of all film jobs.
Typically unpaid completely, or maybe
just compensated at
far below minimum wage,
interns are the bottom of
the film industry barrel.
They're given tasks that absolutely no one
else wants to do like
guarding film equipment
or fetching the director's lunch,
they even have to take direction from PAs,
so you know that's pretty bad.
However thankless an
internship might be though,
everybody's gotta start somewhere, right?
Film legends like Steven Spielberg
got their start in this
role, so don't knock it.
Smile, work your butt off, and strive to
replace that PA who finally got promoted.
In an industry as huge and action-packed
as this one, the opportunities
really are limitless,
it's just tough getting
in in the beginning.
And this is just scratching
the surface people.
We could spend all week exploring
the various thankless
jobs in the film industry.
So, what do you think we
should put on this list?
Let me know below in the comments
and for more info you can always
check out our article,
The Ten Most Thankless Jobs
in the Film Industry on
howstuffworks.com.
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