1) Peter: Here’s one example of why you must be diligent in your prep work, spend the proper time on location scouts and Tech Surveys and discuss everything during the Production Meeting.

It’s called CYA! (Cover Your Ass!)

I was the First Assistant Director on a very big 3 week commercial shoot.

The director was a feature director. He was very creative but not that interested in the logistics and other non-creative details of making a film.

This made my job even harder.

We were going to shoot at a soccer field. We only needed to shoot in two directions so on our Tech Scout we confirmed with the Director and the DOP where the work trucks would park. I even reconfirmed this in the Production Meeting.

On the day of shooting, I arrived at the soccer field and all the work trucks were parked were we had decided. But when the Director arrived, he decided to change his mind and shoot 180 degrees in the other direction.

There were a few moments of silence among the Producers, DOP and

myself. We all knew we didn’t have time to move all these trucks. First of all, we didn’t have permits to park them anywhere else and secondly, we had a company move to another location after lunch.

So I held up my hands and framed the scene for him. I said (as tactfully and as calmly as I could) “So…you want to start on the Wardrobe truck and pan to the Grip truck?”

There was another moment of awkward silence. He finally understood. This was not a big feature. The trucks stayed (and we made our day.)

And here’s something that I know any film school graduate or anyone working in the industry will want to read about.

2) PETER: I’ve been working in the film and TV industry for over 35 years and during that time I’ve had many young filmmakers ask me these same five questions:

1. How do I get into the film and television business?

2. How do I get people to notice my “obvious talents”?

3. How do I become a 3AD, 2AD, 1AD, PM, Director?

4. What are the tricks to getting work and surviving in this business?

5. How do I become successful?

You’ll have to read the book to learn these 10 factors.

Oh and here’s a nice little excerpt of Peter on working as a 1st AD on “Happy Gilmore” that I thought you might enjoy.

3)PETER: “Happy Gilmore” for instance. I call this my “100%  show” because every single member of the cast & crew showed up to do their jobs – and have fun..

The interesting thing about this movie, was that some days it was a little harder for me to do my job. Everybody was laughing and joking but someone (me of course) had to get everybody back to work. I like to have fun like everyone else, but alas, someone had to crack the whip!