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Spiltwordsinabucket t1_ivx73u6 wrote

What was the path you followed to become an assistant director? And what is exactly a background coordinator? What does it do? Was it hard to get into the industry?

Fellow aspirant PA here✋🏻

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ArkGibson OP t1_ivx96sv wrote

Hey spilt!

  1. For me the path was simply approaching a show and asking if they needed any help. I got the job as a PA on sacred lies and about 18 days later I was asked to guide an entertainment news crew coming to interview our cast (Juliette Lewis). Turns out the lady interviewing was good friends with Jason Mamoa and was an actress on See with him, and she told the 1st/2nd I was good at my job. They asked me to trainee assistant direct at the end of the day for a week going forward.

Since that moment I stuck with the same 1st assistant director and went through several shows before stepping back to spend time with my daughter - and now I coordinate the background!

  1. A background coordinator is considered an additional assistant director. We’re there to assist the 1st/2nd/3rd ADs with managing and placing the background in a scene. My biggest one to date was Shogun (post production unreleased yet). I had about 50-200 Japanese people every day for 10 months that I had gotten to know personally like family. We’d show up, do their voucher paperwork, do 2-3 hours of hair makeup and wardrobe, then prop their weapons, and head to set. Once there I work with the other assistant directors and the director him/herself to achieve the placement, life, and ambiance of the scene. Military camp - Japanese fishing village - prison - Osaka Castle.. it was always fun and challenging but very rewarding!

  2. As for if it was hard to get in? I didn’t have any trouble with it but I know for others it can take a long time. The one thing I tell people is don’t be afraid to ask - approach a show and ask to work for them. The worst they’ll do is say no.

Good luck mate and hope to see you in the industry!

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Spiltwordsinabucket t1_ivy60g4 wrote

Thank you so much for your reply! I appreciate it so much!! May I ask you one last thing? Is it common to see foreign people work in the industry? Like, I don’t know, a german working in a US production? Is it an international environment?

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ArkGibson OP t1_ivygo56 wrote

Feel free to ask as many questions as pop into your head - that’s what I’m here for :)

Yes absolutely international. I’ve worked with people from Brazil, Columbia, Japan, China, Korea, Germany, Russia, Italy, France, Australia, New Zealand and the UK as well as Nigeria and Iran. Off the top of my head that is… I may have missed a few countries.

These are all people who’ve either got work visas or permanent residency - but it’s absolutely common for our Canadian film industry to have people from overseas.

The language barrier can be a problem but I myself manage. I learned Korean for Pachinko, Japanese for Shogun, and most recently had a day crash course in Arabic and Farsi (I suck) since we had 150 first time background older Persian and Arab world people for an Algerian airport scene. It makes life tough but exciting and you get to meet so many different cultures and make friends outside your usual bubble.

Hope that helps!

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