Did You Know That Production Assistants are important Members of a Digital Advertising Crew?
Did you know that producing commercial video ads is really BIG business. But just how big a business are these video ads in the U.S.? According to Ross Benes with eMarketing, “Connected TV and social video are two growing areas within digital video advertising. US marketers will increase their 2020 connected TV ad budgets 28.0% to $8.88 billion. Social network video ad spending by US marketers will grow 23.2% in 2020 to $13.44 billion.” If combined, over $22 billion dollars could be spent on digital video ads this year alone!
Over $22 billion dollars could be spent on digital video ads this year alone!
What does this have to do with Being A Film Production Assistant? A lot!
What does this have to do with being a Film Production Assistant? A lot! When a video is created, a crew is hired to shoot it. Crews are the Directors, Producers, Camera Professionals, Electrical Professionals, Craft Services, Props, Wardrobe, and Production Assistants! If the shoot is complicated, the crew gets bigger— video shoots can have a crew of as little as 3 or more than 150.
Production Assistants do many jobs when shooting a commercial. They are vital to making sure everything runs smoothly. PAs escort talent, take charge of the walkies and hot bricks, help with equipment, stand in for talent to make sure the sound and cameras are in the right place, and have multiple other responsibilities.
Have You Given Any Thought About “How” A Commercial Is Made?
For everyone, it starts with a phone call. I was called by a local production company, 1/29 Films, to be the Location Manager for a Toyota car commercial to be shot in the San Francisco Bay Area. They needed a place where they could place a car alongside a jib-arm and a specialized rig that would suspend talent next to the car, like a genie sitting in the air.
A rig holding “a genie” for a Toyota car commercial.
This was going to be a complicated shoot, with close to 30 crew members including:
Rob Bagot, Director
Christopher Knox, Producer/1st AD
Steven Condiotti, Director of Photography
and myself, Robin Kincade, Location Manager
And a young woman I thoroughly enjoy working with, London Freeman, Production Assistant
Genie next to car in Toyota Commercial 2016
The shot needed to be on a hilltop overlooking the bay area with a fabulous sunset. It needed to be flat, private, and big enough to hold the crew, their vehicles, a bunch of delivery trucks and their drivers, and an area to build the dolly track and the specialized rig setup that holds “the genie.”
Using this production of a Toyota car commercial as an example, the following is an insider look at how a commercial gets made in three basic steps.
three Basic Steps to any Film or Video Shoot
Did you know that there are three basic steps to any film or video shoot? First, is the Pre-pro or pre-production and that happens before any actual filming. Second, there is The Shoot, the actual filming on the day of the shoot. The Third and final step, is Post where all the editing takes place including graphics and voice overs.
1. Pre-pro | Pre-production
As stated earlier, Pre-pro where the planning starts. In this case, Toyota came up with the concept of what they wanted. Then the production company worked with them on the details, including set planning, storyboarding, and the script.
Don’t know what some of the terms mean? Check out my website, Kincade Productions, and The Language of Production for a complete glossary of the terms used on a film set.
My job as the Location Manager comes at the very beginning of Pre-pro. No location, no shoot. I searched my location database and found nothing even close to what they were asking for and I have a huge database with over 500 locations regionally here in California. As I share in my course, How To Be A Successful Film Production Assistant, I started as a Production Assistant before I became a Producer and a Location Manager. Over the years, I had made a lot of professional contacts. So, the next step was to ask around my production community and once again, they saved me. Having a community of folks who you know and work with can really help in instances where you’re looking for special things. Cathyrn Blum, a fellow location management professional here in the Bay Area gave me a great lead. She told me there was a hill overlooking a beautiful view in the North Bay that was large enough, flat and had an access road. The local water company owned it; I called, and they agreed to let us use the spot. I began the permitting process, locked in our location, and the production company picked the day of the shoot.
Now the real work of Pre-Pro began. There was a lot that had to be put together on this commercial, so that meant a few weeks working in the office. For any large or complicated commercial, office production assistants are typically hired. That was the case with this commercial shoot because there were a million details that wemt into making sure the day of the shoot ran smoothly.
Production Assistant, London Breed on Toyota Commercial Set, August 2016
Here’s a partial list of those details:
The full crew had to be identified, called for availability (Avails), and hired.
Vendors had to be called to secure everything (lights, cameras, generators, rigs, talent, catering, props, etc.).
Call sheets had to be created.
Maps had to be created.
(I worked with Knox to make sure all the maps were accurate, and that people knew their GPS might not work. As it turns out, this is one of times where actually having a map in the car and knowing how to read it could literally save your job. In other words, this place was remote!)
Pre-production in general is a lot of work because that’s where the details of the shoot gets hammered out. The planning of how a commercial gets shot takes time and must be absolutely accurate. Mistakes on the day of the shoot cost time and time wasted on a shoot is a loss of big money!
The Director, Producer, and I met multiple times to chart out how the rig was going to hold the talent, how the car was going to be positioned, and just how many lights, reflectors, and cameras were going to be needed.
2. The Shoot
The day arrived and everyone loaded in starting at noon.
Camera dolly, reflectors, lights, and crew— Toyota care commercial, August 2016
There were step-by-step challenges for this shoot. As Location Manager, one of my jobs was to set up the parking. As cars and trucks arrived, I lined them up according to how close they needed to be to the set. A Production Assistant was right there with me, learning what goes into a shoot right from the very beginning! There were personal trucks and cars, camera trucks, grip and lighting trucks, a medical truck, a craft services truck, a prop and art truck, and don’t forget the portable bathrooms. It took the PA and I over an hour just to get everyone parked. The Production Assistant was also learning one of the responsibilities of a location scout—the Load-In (aka, parking). Everyone on a crew has their specific jobs and responsibilities. The load-in is important, and if it’s delayed it can delay the shoot. For this shoot, a delay would mean not getting the sunset shot. Everything done on a set is important, even if it doesn’t initially look like it would be.
The Production Assistants helped everywhere!
It then took hours to unload the equipment including lights, generators, cameras, camera dolly track, and the specialized rig. The Production Assistants helped everywhere! The big challenge for the Director of Photography was that this was a sunset shot. Even though we arrived at noon to set up, we weren’t going to start shooting until around 8:30 that night. There was only a window of about 20 minutes when the light would be perfect. That’s a lot of pressure!
Multi-kilowatt HMI lights, Toyota commercial, 2016
We also had huge lights called HMIs or Hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide which is the trademark name of Osram's brand of lights. Multi-kilowatt HMI lights are used in the film industry and for large-screen slide projection because of their daylight-balanced light output. They are big, pull a lot of power and needed generators to power them. Then there was the camera dolly track. All of this equipment had to be unloaded, moved, and set up. We had the dolly track to build, There were a lot of moving parts and we had to get them all working together to get the shot.
The day wouldn’t be done until after 9:30pm, but when we arrived it was hot. By the time we were done, it was cold. The crew is always expected to be prepared with whatever they need to do their job. For a production assistant, that means they need to wear layers and bring a jacket/gloves/scarf, a flashlight, snacks in your pocket along with a bottle of water handy. Sure, there is food and drinks on a set, but a PA might be standing in for talent for a long time and they'll need to stay alert.
Watch this video of Beverly Lewis of Placer- Lake Tahoe County Film Commissioner talking about the Toolkit and some of what PAs need to bring to a set.
The commercial involved having a floating genie in front of a car and that’s what we did. It took some time to coordinate the camera move with the dolly and the specialized rig holding the talent, but in the end they got a fantastic shot of two different genie’s selling the magical features of Toyota with an incredible sunset as the backdrop. We started the wrap at 9:30pm and had taillights by 10:15pm.
Don’t know what taillights means?
Check out this video by Chris Knox, Director, Have Crew Will Travel
