03. Art Department Assistant

The Real (2017-2020)

Art Department PA

As soon as The Real got the budget to hire an art PA, they knew I would be the perfect one for the job! I was thrilled to finally be in the art department and gained so much from this position. I ended up being tasked with creating many of our graphics for the show and taught myself how to use Illustrator and create vectored illustrations. I also handled communication and ordering with studio graphic shops and learned so much from visiting these shops and chatting with the pros.

After experiencing more facets of the department, I realized that props was where I wanted to end up. During our team meeting one week, I announced to my department that I’ve realized this interest and they were incredibly supportive of me. My art director allowed me to fulfill my tasks for him during non-shooting time and shadow our prop team while the show was taping. I picked it up quickly, and learned how to organize the props needed for show, how to mark each prop for each act and where it needed to end up. In our final season, we had a reoccurring segment where the hosts made a cocktail on camera, and I became integral in prepping these cocktails behind the scenes.

I learned so much at The Real, but knew that I needed to move on in order to join the union…