Ask an Assistant: Jordan Bucknor (Assistant to the Head of Film & TV, Sage Work Productions)

Interviewed by Matthew Threadgill, Assistant at Disney Branded Television & your Executive Editor at THA

From Disney fan fiction to a desk at Stacey Abrams’ production company, Jordan Bucknor’s journey is one you’ll find both relatable and inspiring. Supporting the Head of Film and TV at Sage Works Productions, she’s gaining hands-on experience in development– and discovering her own voice as a writer along the way. 

Hey Jordan! To start, can you tell us a little bit about Sage Works Productions, what it is, and how you contribute to the team as an assistant? 

Definitely, I can give you the spiel. Sage Works is a film, TV, and documentary production company founded by widely known political leader and secretly best-selling author Stacey Abrams. In layman's terms, we're a podco with a first look at Universal. Specifically, I'm the Executive Assistant to the Head of Film and TV, who's the executive at the pod. I coordinate meetings for both my boss and Stacey. I roll calls. I make a bajillion grids to track writers and script submissions. I get notes, and I take them, and every now and then, I try my hand at a pitch deck. Basically, I think of it as doing all of the tiny tasks so my boss can do the big ones.

It's been an unbelievable level of visibility and access. It really is an open door policy. I think that's the one thing I didn't get at bigger companies—because there's so many people, there’s so many procedures and doors and layers. At Sage Works, I see everything, and it's really, really been informative.

This is your first assistant role. Prior to working at Sage Works, you interned at a slew of notable companies including Hello Sunshine, Disney Branded Television, and HBO. What has it been like being an assistant for the first time and how have your past experiences helped you?

In a lot of ways, it's very familiar. Almost everything I do now as an assistant, I did in some capacity as an intern. I read material at HBO and Hello Sunshine. I covered desks and made many grids at Disney. All of my internships served as my 101, which was really helpful because I didn't take the agency route, where most people typically get that "how-to-be-an-assistant" guide. Now, as an assistant, because my team is smaller, I’m doing the same tasks but with greater agency in what I do.

It's been a very affirming experience. As an intern, I dealt with a lot of self-consciousness about whether what I was doing was correct—whether my takes and tastes were right. I didn't want to say anything wrong. Now, I'm confident in what I'm doing and thinking, and I move with more finesse and ease.

Sage Works is different from other entertainment companies you've worked at (size of team, corporate structure, etc.). Can you please speak to these differences and how they've shaped your experience thus far?

Structure wise, I’ve worked in a few different environments. HBO was actually very independent and isolating, because it was during the COVID lockdown, Hello Sunshine was medium sized, and Disney is huge. Sage Works is not the smallest, but one of the smallest teams I've worked on. My direct team on the day-to-day is just me and my boss. I wouldn't say we have a traditional office politics sort of atmosphere. But we do have our CEO Stacy, and our studio to also coordinate with. So it's been a cool experience being very hands on. Like I said, all doors open, all access to just incredibly smart people.

Mission-wise, Sage Works is about uplifting stories of women and people of color. Other companies can advocate for that, as well, but because it's such a small, condensed environment, I’m seeing that effort directly enforced and not be diluted between layers and layers of corporate politics. Also, the environment uplifts it not just in its messaging, but in its team. The people on the team are all women and people of color. It's been so affirming to have that every day.

That’s such a wonderful and important experience. My next question for you, Jordan: What are your long-term goals, and how are the professional moves you're making playing a role in them?

I love working in development, but I am a writer. Development is great for growing your taste and your critique, and for a second I thought I could be happy just doing that, but no—I want to write. I write outside of my role at Sage Works for Webtoon's in-house development team, and some of those comics are now being printed for stores, which is really exciting.

Long-term, though, it’s TV. It helps that my boss knows I want to write and is always encouraging me to work on my samples and read them. I'm also in a really supportive and regimented writers' group, which helps tremendously. I think I always have the most boring answer when people ask what I do outside of work—because all I do is write.

That’s super cool. What kind of stuff do you write?

In my TV samples, I am coming of age and crime. Everything from Peaky Blinders to Outer Banks. It always sounds so bad out of context, but I love crime. I've watched almost every episode of Criminal Minds. If you give me like the first, like two, three minutes, I can tell you who the criminal is, how it ends. Also, like, I'm really getting into Elsbeth. It's just so cute.

I think one of my first crimes I ever watched, because my babysitter really liked it, was Murder She Wrote. Honestly, I don't think I really stood a chance, because I've just been indoctrinated since I was young. We would watch Murder She Wrote all the time.

Angela Lansbury, the icon that she was. Now, people in entertainment tend to have experienced pivotal moments or watched impactful projects in their lives that made them decide to embark on the crazy journey that is a career in entertainment. Do you have one, and if so, can you please share it with us?

That's tough. I’ve been a reader since I was little. I’ve always been obsessed with the idea that reading is like TV in my head. I’d get in trouble and be sent to my room, and I didn’t care—because in my mind, I was off somewhere else in the world. You couldn’t contain me.

I think my path to entertainment specifically probably started with fan fiction. There weren’t many shows with characters that looked like me, and the few that did—especially on Disney—I became obsessed with. I wanted more episodes, and I wanted episodes that spoke directly to me. So I started writing them.

I have to be super vague because some of that fan fiction is still out there, and I forgot my password—I can’t take it down! But yeah, I got really into writing fan fiction when I was around 12 or 13. Eventually, I realized these were essentially spec scripts. That led me to USC, which led me to where I am now. So I guess it all started with Disney... and fan fiction.

Hey, fan fiction is how writers are born!

Many of us assistants are all young and figuring out this adult life together while we navigate our careers. What are some learnings you’ve taken away from your time at Sage Works that have helped you both professionally and personally?

Honestly, both professionally and personally, I've learned the value of being more assertive and aggressive. Just knowing how to politely push for something I need, whether it’s getting a meeting set or getting an answer. I’ve wasted so much time doubting my own opinions and my taste and my critique, afraid of saying the wrong thing. More than anywhere else, because my boss is so open, my time at Sage Works has made me more confident that I know what I’m talking about. I know what I’m doing.

That also applies on a personal level. I’m an introvert. I love being home, going to a quiet movie theater, or just enjoying my own company. But this is a people business, and I have to get up, go out, and meet people. It might sound ridiculous to describe that as a Herculean task, especially because the people I meet are always so great, but I just hate driving, and the effort it takes. But I do love meeting them.

We talked about it a bit already–your experience is killer. What interview/job searching tips do you have for anyone looking to land a role like you've had, whether as an assistant or an intern?

I have one for each—and I’ll rapid-fire these since I know people have probably heard some of it before. For job searching, I think it’s a numbers game. I apply to things even if I don’t think I’ll get an interview. Every job I’ve gotten, I didn’t expect to. I sent a resume into the void, went about my day, and was just pleasantly surprised when I heard back.

When I do get to an interview—obviously, do your research—but I like to approach them as if I’ve already known the person I’m talking to for years. Still be polite, of course, but you have too little time to waste being nervous or self-conscious. Especially for an assistant role—they want to feel confident you can handle tasks effectively. So that’s how you need to come across: like you already have the job, and you could step in tomorrow and hit the ground running.

So, in short: play the numbers game, and in interviews, show up confident and comfortable.

To close out our interview, any writers or producers you're loving right now that you'd love to work with one day?

Yes, I love Tayarisha Poe. She wrote and directed Selah and the Spades, which is this gorgeously shot, black, queer, Mean Girls, high school escapade. Love, love, love her. Also Jocelyn Bioh, specifically because she just wrote my favorite episode of The Acolyte, which is everything I've ever wanted from enemies-to-lovers. I will forever be salty it got canceled. But love her. Love love love.