Opinions on ProCrewBook.com?

[Kirk Anderson]

I just moved to LA and I'm trying to get some paying PA gigs on commercials or features.

I've done a two years of national commercial PA work in SF and three weeks on Four Christmases up there as well. What I'm trying to say is I'm an experienced PA looking for paying work in a new city and I'm having some trouble.

 

I don't mind doing DP for free while I build up my reel and learn, but it's hard for me to take a step back and do gopher work for free.

 

I was wondering if I should post up on ProCrewBook and eat the $59?

 

Or should I keep pounding the ground on CL and Mandy?

 

Should i start working for free just to make some connections?

 

Any other work websites I should check out?

 

Thanks in advance!

Kirk

 

www.iamkirk.com

Kirk@iamkirk.com

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

I'm not completely sure how the PA world functions, but most PA's I know get a lot of their gigs through fellow buddy buddies who also PA. The PA world also seems a bit more accepting of cold calls and general resume submissions. So you could probably submit your resume to a whole bunch of production companies, and get your foot in the door that way.

 

Once you've done a good job, are outgoing and optimistic as a PA on one thing, then you show them you can have a good time over a couple beers or something after the shoot, chances are they'll call you back and/or pass your name along to other shows.

[Jose Figueroa Baez]

I just moved to LA and I'm trying to get some paying PA gigs on commercials or features.

I've done a two years of national commercial PA work in SF and three weeks on Four Christmases up there as well. What I'm trying to say is I'm an experienced PA looking for paying work in a new city and I'm having some trouble.

 

I don't mind doing DP for free while I build up my reel and learn, but it's hard for me to take a step back and do gopher work for free.

 

I was wondering if I should post up on ProCrewBook and eat the $59?

 

Or should I keep pounding the ground on CL and Mandy?

 

Should i start working for free just to make some connections?

 

Any other work websites I should check out?

 

Thanks in advance!

Kirk

 

www.iamkirk.com

Kirk@iamkirk.com

 

 

I am in a similar position. I must about 50 to 60 resumes for PA and other entry level positions on sets for different things going from films to tv pilots and others. Things I guess are just slow, I've yet to recieve a single call, even to say no. Just hang in there and keep going at it. I hear from friends in the area that it is hard to get on set, even as a free PA so, if you can afford it, do a couple of free PA gigs in the mean time, maybe you'll find that one connection that will get you the good gigs afterwards.

[Dan Collins]

I would never pay to find a job from any of the online sites. The only kinds of places that I have heard of anyone finding work are from some of the larger staffing agencies, but they only accept very experience crews and usually not PA's. They mostly refer for EPK and local news stories or on-site interviews though.

 

 

Personally, I have found most paid sites to be quite unethical, and I'm not even a member. I know procrewbook posts fake ads on craigslist on a regular basis. I have applied to jobs only to get a reponse basically advertising them but pretending to be a producer. It has to be from their company because they take the time and attention to spell their website ProCrewBook.com with capitals, no one else would bother or care about that. I know others who have gotten the same responses. Other sites, like media-match in particular, they just copy posts off craigslist and other free sites like mandy. I have posted a job recently on craigslist, only to find that media-match copied my ad directly off craigslist (CL anonymous email address and all) and posted it on their site. Why would you pay for what you can already get for free?

[Michele Peterson]

If you are going to work for free, be careful who you work for. Freebies often don't lead to well paying jobs. Sometimes they do, but often producers who have no money this time, often don't the next either. Here's my experiences with different types of people to work for free:

 

Working with students (other than on your own school projects) may be less intimidating, but will they really know much more than you or be in a better position than you are next month to hire you for a paid job? The pros are that you get hands-on time with gear you don't have to pay.

 

The small companies that hire unpaid PA's or any other job unpaid are often exploitive. They don't have a lot of money, and likely won't any time soon or worse do have money and just take advantage of you. Once they know you are willing to work for free, don't expect much more to ever come from it. Those jobs are good for short-term and just to move up to a new position. They can't afford to hire a veteran, so you can get your first credit in the job you want. Often they will give you a higher credit to appease you and get you to take less money. I've never had a freebie from a small company turn into anything more than $50/day.

 

Large companies hire interns all the time. They require school credit if they are worth their salt because otherwise it is illegal. You don't get to do a whole lot (like touch equipment), but that is because they have the money to actually pay to fill all the roles. They are the ones that will actually have a fulled paid PA job for you to move up to if timing is right and you are there when a position opens up. I had an opportunity when I interned at a major talk show to move up to a full-time PA job from a connection there, but silly me thought I need to stay in school because that's what my family expected. Hind sight is always 20-20.

Edited March 11, 2009 by Michele Peterson

[Kirk Anderson]

Thanks for the help guys, I guess I'll keep my cash for food and keep send out my resume.

It's not like I've never been on a pro set before, I've been on quite a few, it's just that all my connections are in SF. I might call some of them and ask for numbers of friends down here.

 

I agree with the, no pay jobs don't often lead to pay jobs.

 

I don't want to be the most knowledgeable one on set, I want to be the one struggling to keep up and learning constantly.

 

Like cheech and chong said in their movie Things are tough all over, "Things are tough all over."

[Jonathan Bowerbank]

I know procrewbook posts fake ads on craigslist on a regular basis.

 

Yeah, the ones that say at the end "If you're already on ProCrewBook, no need to reply to this ad." As if they've already emailed other DP's & AC's on there already...I've never gotten any responses to my ProCrewBook listing. ReelDirectory is worth it though. 1 gig from a $15 listing, and it's already paid for itself. And I assume the 411 down in LA is the other one that would be worth it as well.

[Jim Hyslop]

I was wondering if I should post up on ProCrewBook and eat the $59?

I wouldn't. There was a discussion about PCB on RAMPS (Usenet group rec.audio.movies.production.sound) a few weeks back. One person said he'd signed up and came to the conclusion that the PCB people were in it for whatever ad revenue they could generate. Fortunately for him, there was no signup fee at the time.

 

There were two people who claimed to have had great results, but I'm extremely skeptical about them - both of them were anonymous, neither of them had ever posted to the newsgroup before, neither provided any details about the jobs they got (not even any kind of hint), and one of them claimed to have used PCB in both New York and LA, but his email address was from an Ireland domain.

 

So, until I see something from a real person with details about jobs they got - or at the very least, interviewed for - I would stay away from PCB. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a scam, but it certainly doesn't sound like it's worth investing any money into.

Edited March 11, 2009 by Jim Hyslop

[Michele Peterson]

Yeah, the ones that say at the end "If you're already on ProCrewBook, no need to reply to this ad." As if they've already emailed other DP's & AC's on there already...I've never gotten any responses to my ProCrewBook listing. ReelDirectory is worth it though. 1 gig from a $15 listing, and it's already paid for itself. And I assume the 411 down in LA is the other one that would be worth it as well.

 

They now even post ads that don't say anything about that in the ad, but once I applied to what seemed like a real ad, they flat out ask if I'm on procrewbook. No real producer would care about that. They are trying to trick people into thinking that producers really care if they are on there to convince niave people to pay for their service.

Edited March 12, 2009 by Michele Peterson

[David Rosenblum]

I moved to LA back in August and worked as an intern at a commercial production company, while finishing my degree. But they did not require school credit.

 

Starting in January, I had graduated and started working the connections that I made at my internship. Things went pretty well right away. I now am working just about every day on high-budget commercials and music video for $200 a day. I'm typing this from a job.

 

Things slowed up in February for a couple weeks so I joined some of those pay sites: Media-match and entertainmentcareers.net, and stalked other sites: craigslist, mandy, realitycareers.net, etc. From all of the resumes that I sent out, and the 15 bucks I spent on the sites - I got exactly one phone call, just because the lady on the other end had gone to the same school as me. The ironic thing was that I was already booked for the day she wanted me.

 

My point is that I worked for free, made my connections and worked them. And in less than a few months, I'm working every day. I get calls from other PA's now too for jobs.

 

Intern, work for free, call the random person you know from wherever... but don't pay to get listed... I can tell you that commercial production managers (who have the jobs that pay the money you want) never ever look on those sites for PA's.

 

PS - LA411 is a great site, but for informational purposes (i.e. getting numbers of vendors.) I would never get listed on there, either.

 

Cheers,

Dave

[Jamie Metzger]

You moved to LA, correct?

 

Start meeting and making friends with everyone!

 

And also, hit up the schools and try to work on some projects with graduate students, since they will be entering the workforce soon enough and can help introduce you to other working people.