Production Assistants

Production assistants in China come out of a deep film-school pipeline: BFA (Beijing Film Academy), Central Academy of Drama, Shanghai Theatre Academy, Communication University of China, and China Academy of Art Hangzhou. These are the same schools that feed the AD, line producer, and director ladders at Huayi Brothers, Bona Film Group, Wanda Pictures, Alibaba Pictures, Tencent Pictures, iQIYI Pictures, and Beijing Enlight.

Our PA roster sits across Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hengdian, and Qingdao, with grads and interns ready to staff set, office, and runner roles on features, series, commercials, and music videos. They are bilingual Mandarin and English by default. Many add Cantonese for Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong-adjacent work. They also know the studio layout at Hengdian World Studios, Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis, Wanda Qingdao, and the Beijing and Shanghai stage clusters by stage number and gate.

On the ground, the picture gets more specific. They drive the Beijing and Shanghai vendor routes, and they know which courier services move gear cleanly between the Tier-1 cities and the regional production hubs. They also hold the local edge on parking, traffic, restaurant tabs in CNY, vendor ties, and the small moves that keep the long twelve to fourteen hour Chinese shooting day on schedule.

Day to day, the PA takes on the set and office support that the AD and line producer don't have time for. Our set PAs run lockups, walkie distribution, talent escort, crowd control in Mandarin, and craft-services flow alongside the catering team. Office PAs handle production-office support, hand out bilingual call sheets, cover copying and filing, and manage the small communication touchpoints between the Chinese co-production partner office and the visiting global team.

Runners and drivers handle airport transfers at PEK Beijing Capital, PVG Shanghai Pudong, CAN Guangzhou Baiyun, and SZX Shenzhen Bao'an. They also cover gear pickups from the camera and lighting rental houses, document delivery to the local film bureau and CFCC offices, and the catering runs that keep craft-service stocked through second meal. When the day shifts, our PAs absorb it without missing a beat and keep the shoot moving. That can mean a sudden Beijing air-quality red alert, a Public Security Bureau callback, a vendor swap, or a Cultural Relics Bureau time-slot recheck at a heritage site.