by Amanda
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I was working on my first show, where the writers drank a lot of coffee. I did my best to make sure there was always coffee on the burner, but occasionally one of the writers would go to get some coffee and discover that we were out. I’d apologize profusely, but still get chewed out, and I spent much of my time on that show in constant fear of an empty coffee pot. When I worked on my next show, I was more confident and set expectations differently. If we ran out of coffee after the morning rush, I’d wait to brew more until someone asked for coffee (usually in the afternoon). Rather than apologizing, I’d say, “Sure, I’ll have a freshly-brewed cup for you in a few minutes.” Because I was positive rather than apologizing, people were happy rather than mad. After all, isn’t a fresh cup of coffee is way better than one that’s been sitting on the burner all day?
From a producer assistant:
Once I sent the DVD of a movie in post by Fedex with only $500 insurance. Thankfully, it didn’t get lost, but my boss said, “You sent a $15m movie with $500 insurance??” I guess I should have used our overnight courier? What my boss should have done is flown one of us with it, since it was going overseas.
Assistants often lie about their fuckups. I’m really effing good at it. Some things you have to own up to, but some things you should just lie about – like if you don’t get your boss when it’s an important call, you just have to lie and say the person called when he was on the phone with someone else really important