The job opening that Wainani Young Tomich advertised a few years ago on Craigslist came with a daunting description: "You will come in before the sun comes up and you will go home after the sun goes down and you will be yelled at by people who have no business yelling at you and they will be yelling at you for things that aren’t your fault and you will have to take it with a smile."
But the job — production assistant — was a rare foot in the door of the Hollywood caste system.
Tomich, an assistant director with two decades of experience in film and television production, posted the ad just before midnight and in the first four hours received 60 responses. "I was getting people from the East Coast responding who said, ‘I will fly there tomorrow,’" she said. "And I didn’t even say I was working on ‘Lost.’"
Production assistants may be the most put-upon people in the industry, but they may also be the most indispensable workers on any film or TV project.
They do everything: fetch equipment and actors, move crowds of extras, halt traffic so as not to interrupt the camera action. The disheveled guy holding an umbrella over actress Grace Park during a bikini scene on "Hawaii Five-0"? A production assistant.
The nonunion job doesn’t pay much, either, typically $120 to $150 for a workday that lasts up to 14 hours.
But working as a production assistant can lead to on-set jobs in a range of departments, from direction and wardrobe to locations and camera, said Tomich, who regularly teaches a survival course for production assistants through the University of Hawaii’s Outreach College.
"You are coming in to be the gofer, to be the schlep of everything," she said. "Unfortunately it is not a job you can do if you are past your prime because you are running all day. It is brutal."
The 42-year-old Tomich, who grew up on Oahu and graduated from Kamehameha Schools, spent much of her career in Los Angeles but came home in 2004. A demanding boss, Tomich said she can’t imagine not having three or four production assistants to send hither and yon.
STOCKTON Porter, who, like Tomich, is working on a TV pilot for ABC called "Last Resort," took one of Tomich’s courses. Porter’s goal is to amass 600 days on set so he will be allowed to join the Directors Guild of America, which will get him a better-paying job and his hands in the day-to-day mix of scheduling decisions. He has about 100 days to go.
The experience exposed him to a lot of on-set jobs — from standing "in the boonies" directing traffic to marshalling 600 extras for a scene in the movie "Battleship." But there’s no escaping the pressure of being a production assistant, said Porter, a 30-year-old Kailua resident with a degree in video production.
"As a production assistant, you try to remember that every day is a job interview," he said. "You can’t just expect to come in and expect to have a job every day. There are people right behind you trying to get in the front door."
For Priscilla Stafford, a 25-year-old Kapahulu production assistant with a degree from the UH Academy for Creative Media, the exposure to the many on-set jobs was priceless. It even outweighed having to work on "Fraturday" — a shift that starts late on a Friday and isn’t done until nearly sunrise Saturday.
Still, it isn’t easy to explain why she does it, said Stafford, who worked on "Lost" and "Hawaii Five-0."
"I’ve been asked this by everyone," she said. "But I love the finished product, seeing it on screen. It takes so much effort by all these minds … to come up with something that people enjoy."
Tomich likes to point out that anyone who is any good won’t be a production assistant for long. The same fate applies to those who don’t pay attention.
"I tell the production assistants who take my class that moviemaking is like a dance," she said. "Being a production assistant is how you learn to make the moves."
AND that’s a wrap …
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Mike Gordon is the Star-Advertiser’s film and television writer. Read his Outtakes Online blog at honolulupulse.com. Reach him at 529-4803 or email mgordon@staradvertiser.com.
