The least important and most important position on set is the Production Assistant, often considered the coffee gopher and delivery service of the set.
Set P.A.s don’t usually have any set skills, and that’s why they are P.A.s. This isn’t as true on feature films where there are many PAs that are recent graduates from film school, and so they have formal knowledge of a set, but don’t have experience so they end up as television and film PAs to get experience. And if they’re good, they climb the professional ladder quite quickly to more prestigious positions.
PAs carry heavy things, drive things to and from set (like coffee, lunch, notes for the editor, etc), make copies of forms, releases, scripts and whatever else needs copying.
I find that on my sets, PAs don’t need to do much, and that’s just fine with me. If they’re not getting in the way, it’s nice to have them here and I hope they have fun. It’s just really good to have a PA or two around, INCASE you do need them, because when you do, they will be invaluable.
Be kind to your PAs and treat them well.
