From the course: Virtual Apprentice: Being a Great Production Assistant (PA)

Being dressed appropriately for a video shoot

From the course: Virtual Apprentice: Being a Great Production Assistant (PA)

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Being dressed appropriately for a video shoot

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- Like with every other line of work, you need to wear the appropriate clothes on set. However, this can sometimes change. What are the most important things you need to know about clothes? The default for production attire is crew blacks. What this means is you need to wear a dark shirt, dark pants, and a dark hat if you like hats. Some additional things to wear with crew blacks are close-toed shoes and a hair tie like this if you like to wear your hair long. Crew blacks give a cohesive look for the crew and minimize distractions. Bright colors can draw someone's eye away and break their eye line. The more you can blend in, the better. Also, darker colors minimize reflections in reflective surfaces. Something I found is that wearing darker colors can help minimize the effects of stains. It's production. You're handling gear that might be dirty or greasy. Blacks and dark grays help minimize the impact of those stains and keep you looking professional. For some shoots, crew blacks might not actually be appropriate. For example, you might find yourself on a corporate shoot where the CEO of a company is being interviewed, or you're in a fancy location. These instances are ones where you need to dress up a little bit so that you're respectful of your surroundings. So what does this mean? What it means is nice dress slacks, a button-up shirt or a nice sweater, close-toed dress shoes, and maybe a jacket and tie. You might find yourself on an outdoor shoot when it's warmer. Crew blacks might not even cut it here because they may get in the way and make you hot. Here are some options for you to wear: lighter colors or shades of gray, appropriate-length shorts, close-toed shoes, hat, and sunglasses. These next two items aren't clothing-related, but they will come in handy. They are bug spray and sun screen. These are two things that are easily forgotten. Bring and share them. It might actually help you network because you impressed someone on set. One thing that you may have noticed in the past few scenarios is that no matter what, you need to wear close-toed shoes. You will be around heavy equipment and heavy machinery and need to keep your feet safe. It's easy for something to fall and smash your feet. Since you'll be standing and running around for most of the day, having feet that hurt can put you right out of commission. If you have a broken foot, that can keep you from lining up gigs for awhile. Above all, if you have any questions about clothing, ask your producer or point of contact. They have all the institutional knowledge about the project you'll be working on and are a great resource for questions about dress and anything else you're wondering.

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