LA CAREER TREK – DAY 4
Twentieth Century Fox Studios was a whirlwind of information, excitement, emotions, and harsh realities. The people at FOX were generous enough to offer us insights from perspectives such as HR/Recruiting, Distribution, Research, FOX Sports, the writer’s room, the producer’s chair, and even the PA to the director on set. It was all a blur until our dinner conversation after FOX well-organized the impact the studio visit had on my thought process.
Patrick Creadon, an ND alum and successful documentary filmmaker, asked me the most important questions of my dual-degree college career: 1) What’s the bullseye, dream position you want to acquire in the entertainment industry? and 2) Who are your heroes?
He phrased this expecting our heroes to have our dream role. That’s not the case for me. My dream role is on the business side at a major studio as the boss of the production executives because my heroes are the writers on the creative side. I want to make the writers’ vision come to life and deal with the money/logistics – all the necessities the creatives don’t want to deal with.
First of all, Patrick is awesome and wonderfully unique because he asked each one of us this question and gave thoughtful advice in line with each person’s goals – we were pressed for time, so he didn’t talk about himself at all. What a selfless, generous mentor. Also, he treated us to dinner. What an amazing person. I wish he was my uncle.
The Highlights
Greg Malins has written for Friends, Will & Grace, How I Met Your Mother, and occasionally for current shows like 2 Broke Girls and Life in Pieces and talking to him was kind of definitely a dream come true. HIMYM was one of the first shows I binge-watched before I had Netflix, on my DVR… out of order. I actually own the book, How I Met Your Mother and Philosophy: Being and Awesomeness (buy here).
That’s me in front of what used to be MacLaren’s. 🙂
Talking to a writer and producer of about my favorite shows was… beyond belief. We talked about Slap Bets, Robots vs. Wrestlers, the phenomenon of Lily and Marshall being able to be funny and successfully in love for the entire run of the show. He told us stories from behind the scenes. I brought up the scene in Friends when Chandler accidentally tells Monica he loves her when she’s dancing with a turkey on her head – he shook his head and told us he wrote that episode the night before he had to pitch it. His nonchalance and good-natured composure said, “Yeah, this is a multi-billion dollar TV show, but it’s just life. It’s not perfect; it’s fun. Sometimes you throw things together and prop people have to create Turkey face masks.” In contrast to Friends being rooted in reality, he highlighted the freedom of HIMYM granted by its unreliable narrator – you could get away with anything because Future Ted would say, “well that’s how I remember it.” If you haven’t seen it, watch it. There’s musical numbers, breakage of the fourth wall, ridiculous costumers, DC-esque fortresses, a 2-minute date, pseudo-ancient texts such as the Bro Code and the Playbook, morphing humans, and oh so much more.
Greg Malins and everyone he’s ever written with is pretty much my hero. The future Gregs of the world are the people I want to help create the next Friends or HIMYM.
We were also on set at FOX Sports and on the set of BONES which was obviously, fantastic. The Lab is one of the largest sets in the country, and both the Lab and FOX Sports sets utilized every single corner of their space – maximum spacial efficiency. I couldn’t believe how many lights go on the ceiling! FOX’s studio is kept freezing because the whole place becomes a sauna while filming. Not so sauna-like on Bones, where we were able to watch them actually film part of the 16th episode of their 11th season (kudos). The director and his assistants were incredibly friendly – kind enough to let us listen on headset and chat with us about life.
Foley artists are the people who make pretty much every sound you ever hear in a movie. Ever. We were led into the Foley studio which looks like hoarder stashed his life’s vice in a movie theater. The very friendly foley artist we met clearly loves his job, is a master of sound, and was nice enough to reenact his art with a scene from The Mazerunner in “the pit,” a section of the floor where the concrete is removed and is replaced by dirt and rocks. He showed us an astounding assemblage of knick knacks and gadgets – some that made the sound you expected and many that imitated a completely different noise. Now that was a lifetime experience (see extra large photo at bottom).
To be honest, research sounds pretty exciting too. Who thinks of that? I forgot research was a job at the studios – but of course it is! Casey told us that researchers at FOX look at ratings and a show’s social media presence, then call a guy who calls someone else to set up a focus group – they don’t even have to set them up themselves! The researchers tell the guy what mix of people they want in the group based on age, race, level of interest in the show, etc. and reap the benefits. Sweet gig for someone interested in sociology (I am… pshhh who isn’t?).
The Harsh Realities
The distribution rep we spoke with, we’ll call him Bob for anonymity purposes, made it abundantly obvious that the network distribution system has been disrupted – we knew this – but I don’t think we understood the panic that ensues among the individuals that bet their lives on distribution. Bob repeatedly told us, “ROBOTS ARE COMING” (not paraphrased), “THEY ARE. The ‘internet of things’ – it all means robots. It’s all about machines,” (paraphrased). Of course, what I believe he was trying to say was that automation is the way of the future. But yes, he really did say “robots.” Repeatedly. With fear in his eyes.
And it makes sense. Netflix has really started the cord-cutting contagion permeating our media landscape. Bob said the majority of FOX’s money comes from those channel bundles, so everyone ditching the bundles means bad news for their business model. Desperately, he vowed, “We’re done feeding Netflix. Most of their [inventory] is our shows. If we hold our shows, we starve out Netflix.”
In actuality, Bob was extremely professional and offered up a ton of valuable information which is highly appreciated, but I changed his name to stress how easily this information could be interpreted as frightening from his tone.
HR and recruiting was alarmingly depressing. They take 200-300 applications per internship position available – no idea how many for jobs. If you want a specific job at FOX, you either have to wait for someone to leave or get promoted. Only undergrads are eligible for the internship but they haven’t posted the application yet – so only juniors who aren’t prepared and sophomores who have time. If you want the internship, you need previous entertainment experience – preferably secretarial/administrative experience within the entertainment industry. You better have a referral within the company – they look at those first. Put your “relevant coursework” no you resume if you need to take up space, but they won’t read it. GPA doesn’t matter. They completely ignore it. Oh, and the internship “has nothing to do with production.”
Are you a senior looking for a job? Are you a junior with an internship? Did you try hard in school? Did you go for extra classes rather than that desk job? Then FOX is not for you.
Unless you’re going to work for the big 4 accounting firms – then they LOVE you. You’re top of the list for FOX and, apparently, most other studios – which was good news for accounting majors. 🙂
Takeaways
Patrick Creadon is the best.
Greg Malins is awesome and I have to get into a writers’ room somehow some way.
Being on set is a blast.
Accounting is definitely pathway toward major studio careers.
Don’t go into distribution unless you’re a superhuman problem solver.
If you want an internship, plan for it 4 years ago. If not, you might be just fine moving out to LA with no job.
There is no one right path.
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