Assistant directors create strike fund for production assistants

Katie Hacker and Andrea Block, a pair of former production assistants-turned-assistant directors, created a nonprofit to provide financial aid to PAs who are out of work due to the ongoing strikes.

Per Deadline, PAs already rank as some of the lowest paid crew members on TV and film projects, and the pair state that many PAs don’t qualify for most of the available strike relief. Even when work resumes, the low salary for PAs mean it will be harder for them to recover financially.

Hacker and Block formed the Go for PAs Alliance in July, which has been approved for 501c3 nonprofit status by the USA's IRS. 

"Our entire industry is in this together, and we feel strongly that the little guys should not be ignored in this conversation," the women said in a statement.

The pair cited particularly the difficulty they met trying to find temporary work during the work stoppage.

"We were noticing that our skills don’t seem to be transferable to other industries because no one really quite understands what goes on in the movie industry unless you’re in it,” Hacker told Deadline.

"As assistant directors, we’re basically like project managers and we manage a lot of staff and we run the show and we budget, but none of those things were translating. We couldn’t get jobs, even entry level jobs.

"And so we were thinking, ‘well, if this is the case for us and I have a master’s degree, what does this mean for the PAs who are completely entry level and don’t have more advanced skill sets?"

Deadline previously reported that individual productions are taking PAs needs into consideration; Chicago P.D.'s first AD Richard White organised a campaign to raise funds to give $1,500 (£1,181) each to the 13 PAs on the NBC series.

Stars Patrick John Flueger, Marina Squerciati, Amy Morton and Tracy Spiridakos, executive producer/showrunner Gwen Sigan, writer/executive producer Gavin Harris and writer/co-executive producer Scott Gold among those who have contributed.

Crew internationally also face work shortage, something that SAG-AFTRA's chief negotiate Duncan Crabtree-Ireland addressed.