Production Assistant resume examples by experience level

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A production assistant resume is a one page document that lists credits, not jobs. It names each production, its format, the department you sat in, and who you answered to, and it does that in a layout a line producer can read in about eight seconds between phone calls.

This page sits in the administrative category because that is where job boards file it. The work is not administrative. A production assistant is entry level crew on a film, television or commercial set, hired per production, paid per day, and judged almost entirely on who will vouch for them.

Resume guide for a production assistant resume

This guide and the corresponding production assistant resume example will cover:

• How to write a production assistant resume as a credits list rather than an employment history
• Why the department line matters more than the job title
• Three adaptable summaries: first credits, key PA, and coordinator
• How days accrue toward union eligibility, and where that belongs on the page
• What the freelance day rate reality looks like and what the Bureau of Labor Statistics can and cannot tell you

How to write a production assistant resume

Five blocks: contact header, summary, credits, skills and certifications, and a short references or referrals line. One page, always. A two page PA resume reads as somebody who has not worked enough to know better.

The credit line is the unit of the document. Everything else supports it.

Run the file through the free Rezoom ATS resume checker before you send it. Studio and network productions increasingly recruit through applicant systems even for day player crew.

Choosing the best resume format for a production assistant resume

Reverse chronological by production, grouped by format. That is the only format used in this industry, and departing from it signals that you have not seen many crew resumes.

Group your credits under headings such as Episodic Television, Feature Film, Commercial and Music Video, and Live and Broadcast. Within each group, newest first. If you have two credits in one group, keep the group anyway, because the heading is doing the work of telling the reader what kind of set you are used to.

Functional and skills-first layouts fail badly here. A production manager is checking whether you have survived a real shooting schedule, and a format with no dates reads as somebody who has not.

Include your contact information

Three details belong in the header that would look strange on any other resume. Whether you drive, whether you own a vehicle, and whether you will work as a local hire in another market. Crew calls come at nine at night for a six in the morning start, and the person who can say yes to all three gets called first.

Make use of a summary

Three or four lines: the department you work in, the formats and scale you have handled, the last twelve months of volume, and your certifications or roster status.

Set production assistant with 14 months on episodic television and commercials in the Atlanta market, credited on one network episodic season and nine national spots. Works lockups and background holding for calls of 40 to 120, distributes call sheets and sides to crews of around 90, and drives a 15 passenger van. Holds OSHA 10, a current first aid certificate and a clean driving record, with 41 non union days logged in the last 12 months.

Key set production assistant and assistant production office coordinator with five years across four scripted seasons, two independent features and roughly 40 commercials. Runs a team of three to five PAs on a 12 hour day, owns the walkie channel plan and the lockup map, and builds call sheets, movement orders and daily production reports in Movie Magic Scheduling. Logged 118 qualifying days in the last 12 months, holds OSHA 30, and is on the second assistant director track.

Production coordinator with nine years in the Atlanta market, running the office on three scripted seasons and two features from prep through wrap. Leads a production office of six including two assistant coordinators and three office PAs, handles crew deal memos, travel and accommodation for 140 people, and raises purchase orders against a below the line budget of 14.2 million dollars. Union member since 2023 after meeting the qualifying experience requirement in the classification.

Right vs wrong: the same production assistant summary, twice

The right column has a scale attached to it. The wrong column could be written by somebody who has never been on a set, which is exactly the risk the reader is screening for.

Outline your experience

Every credit gets one line of identification and, if it earns it, one or two lines of detail. Most credits do not earn the detail. A national commercial gets a line. A season you keyed gets three.

Episodic Television
Key Set Production Assistant, Hollow Creek, season 2, one hour scripted drama, Silverpine Television for a national streaming service, Atlanta GA, March 2025 to October 2025, 42 shoot days. Reported to the 2nd AD. Ran a team of four PAs across main and splinter units, owned the walkie plan, and handled background holding for calls of up to 180.
Set Production Assistant, Hollow Creek, season 1, Silverpine Television, Atlanta GA, June 2024 to November 2024, 38 shoot days. Lockups, background wrangling, cast set walks and paperwork distribution.
Feature Film
Office Production Assistant, The Long Field, independent feature, Beacon Ridge Pictures, Savannah GA, February 2024 to April 2024, 24 shoot days. Ran distribution, petty cash reconciliation and crew travel for a 62 person unit.
Commercial and Branded
Set and Office PA, 9 national spots for agency and brand clients, various production companies, Atlanta GA, 2023 to 2025, one to three day shoots.

Two things make that block work. Every credit carries the format, the production company and the number of shoot days. And the role you held is named precisely, because "key" is a title with a meaning and using it when you were not the key is the fastest way to lose a reference.

Track your days, your roster status and your union path

This is the section that only exists on a production assistant resume, and it is the one that decides where your next five years go.

Below the line crew work is credentialed by accumulated days, not by qualifications. In the Los Angeles area, Contract Services administers the Industry Experience Roster, which covers more than 125 job classifications represented by IATSE and the Basic Crafts unions, and many of those classifications require 30 days of qualifying work experience within a 365 day period before you can be placed on the roster (Contract Services work experience FAQ, revised 4 March 2026). Other markets work through their local directly and through the Area Standards Agreement rather than through that roster, so the rule you are tracking against depends on where you work.

The assistant director path is counted the same way. The Directors Guild of America Assistant Directors Training Program runs a full two years and requires a minimum of 350 production days worked in that period, and graduates are eligible to join the DGA in the category of 2nd Assistant Director (DGA Assistant Directors Training Program FAQ, accessed September 2026).

Days and eligibility
Non union days worked, last 12 months: 118 across 3 productions
Total days worked since 2023: 287
Markets worked: Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana
Tracking toward: 2nd Assistant Director qualification
Union status: non union, available for union productions as a permit hire

Build a snapshot of your key skills

Eight to twelve entries in three groups: set craft, systems and paperwork, and the practical licenses that make you hireable on short notice.

Set craft: Lockups and crowd control, Background wrangling and holding, Walkie discipline and channel plans, Cast set walks, Basecamp and circus layout, Set etiquette on a hot set
Office and paperwork: Call sheets and movement orders, Daily production reports and exhibit G, Script revision distribution and color order, Petty cash and purchase order reconciliation, Crew travel and accommodation
Systems: Movie Magic Scheduling, StudioBinder, Scenechronize, Google Workspace, Adobe Acrobat, Dropbox
Practical: 15 passenger van, own vehicle and clean license, OSHA 10, first aid and CPR, passport valid for travel

The practical group is not filler. A production coordinator staffing a distant location needs to know before they call you whether you can drive the van, whether you can be on a plane on Tuesday, and whether you will clear a set safety orientation.

List your education and certifications

Education goes near the bottom and stays short. Film school is common enough in this occupation that it is not a differentiator, and the credits above it are what the reader came for.

Certifications: OSHA 10 Hour General Industry, Occupational Safety and Health Administration authorized trainer (2024). Adult First Aid, CPR and AED, American Red Cross (2026). Safety Pass orientation courses completed for set operations.
Bachelor of Arts, Film and Media Studies, Georgia State University, Atlanta GA, 2023
Also: Georgia driver license, clean record, comfortable with a 15 passenger van and a cargo trailer.

If you have no degree, this section becomes two lines of certifications and a driving record, and that costs you nothing. Crew hiring in this occupation genuinely does not screen on degrees.

Choose the right layout and design

Single column, plain type at 10 or 11 point, one page, PDF. No photograph, no reel stills, no color blocks, no logos from the productions you worked on, which is a rights problem as well as a taste problem.

Name the file for yourself and the department: tobias-ferreira-lund-set-pa-resume.pdf. It will be forwarded four times before anyone hires you, and the filename is what survives.

Production assistant job market and outlook

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish a separate production assistant occupation, so the honest framing is to look at the occupation the job leads to and the industries that hire for it.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, producers and directors, May 2025 wage data and 2025-35 projections, published 27 August 2026.

What salary you can expect as a production assistant

Production assistants are paid a day rate, not a salary, and the rate depends on the format, the budget tier, the market and whether the production is union.

The published federal figure covers the occupation this job leads to rather than the job itself. Producers and directors had a median annual wage of $90,360 as of May 2025, with the lowest 10 percent under $45,780 and the highest 10 percent over $198,540 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025). That spread is the career, not the entry point.

Three things move a PA rate, and two of them are things this resume can carry:

1. Format and budget tier. A national commercial day and a low budget independent day are not the same money for the same hours, and your credits block shows which rooms you are already in.
2. Department and title. Keying a set, coordinating an office or running the art department truck all pay above a general set PA day, and each requires you to have been named in that role somewhere.
3. Union status. Once you are working under a collective agreement, the rate, the turnaround, the meal penalties and the overtime structure are negotiated rather than offered, which is why the day count block on this page matters more than any bullet point.

Because you are paid per day, annual earnings in this occupation are a function of days worked as much as rate. Two hundred days at a modest rate beats ninety days at a good one, which is the argument for keeping the day log and for being the person who can travel.

Key takeaways for a production assistant resume

1. Build a credits block, not an employment history, and group it by format.
2. Put the department and the role you reported to inside every credit.
3. Give shoot day counts and production company names; both are how a credit is verified.
4. Keep a running day log and put the current total and your roster or union status on the page.
5. Put driving, vehicle and travel availability in the header, because it decides who gets called first.
6. Never claim a title you did not hold; this industry checks by phone, and quickly.
7. One page, single column, PDF, named for yourself and your department.

Build your production assistant resume in 15 minutes.

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Pair it with a matching production assistant cover letter.