For All Your NY PA Needs: Try A Made In NY PA!

New York – both the state and city – have made great strides in creating production incentives and building a vital industry for film and television professionals. When film incentive structures were still being finalized, the Brooklyn Workforce Innovations (BWI), a non-profit agency specializing in sector-based job training, paid close attention to the potential workforce changes filming would bring. BWI realized the entry level production assistant position – a role that allows for potential growth in a variety of positions in film and television - would be a perfect fit for the unemployed population. When the incentives were launched, BWI combined forces with the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting to launch the "Made in NY" Production Assistant Training Program.

See Also: East Coast Filming Information

In order to qualify for the "Made in NY" PA Training Program, the applicant must be unemployed and have no previous production background, training or connections. They can not be currently enrolled in a school or taking classes. They must be at least 21 years old and have a valid driver’s license. The application process is very rigorous: each applicant is interviewed to determine eligibility. Those who pass the interview process must go through a serious of tryouts. Those who pass the tryouts will be accepted into one of four training programs a year. The training cycles run for four weeks, five days a week from 7:30am-4:00pm. Only 10% of those that apply to each cycle of the program are accepted.

Those students who are accepted enter a program that is designed like a boot camp: they are presented a production atmosphere from the first day of training. They learn about every department involved in a production as well as the specific functions and terminology of those departments. They learn about daily sides, and they participate on mock runs. They are taught production etiquette, and are given mock interviews to help them land jobs. At the end of the program they leave able to call themselves a "General PA", someone who could function in any department on set.

If you are in need of a production assistant, consider hiring a CERTIFIED “Made In NY” PA. Every “Made in NY” PA is a licensed drive who has undergone a rigorous selection process.

Contact the Made In NY Production Assistant Training Program Hotline 24/7:

718-757-5816

To learn more about the program, please visit: www.byiny.org