Summer 2011: Internship at Samuel Goldwyn Films

Well, I've already changed my list of TV shows. Not because anyone said anything to me. Its Always Sunny and True Blood are not gonna sneak into the top 20, so deal with it. No. What happened was I finished Hung. I watched three seasons of Parks and Recreation, and I finished season one of Battlestar Gallactica.

All were pretty damn good.

So the one of the next few posts will be a review of Hung, True Blood, Bored to Death, and Sit Down, Shut Up. I really recommend you check it out if only to hear me rave about Sit Down, Shut Up, which is an animated comedy created by Mitch Hurwitz and starring Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Henry Winkler, Keenan Thompson, and Cheri Oteri. If you need something to give you a taste of season four of Arrested Development, this may be the show.

But this post will be a personal post so I can get some thoughts and ideas down in writing. I'm going to break it into two parts.

Part One: I talk about my experiences last summer working in LA.
Part Two: I talk about what my goals are for these next few months.

As a note for part two, writing things down makes you like 74% more likely to do them, or something like that. I read Influence by Robert Cialdini and he's full of percentages and interesting tidbits such as that one above! I think his example for writing things down is that the Vietnamese army made American POWs hold contests for who could write the best pro-Vietnamese essays and it made the American soldiers believe the propaganda.

If you can't tell, Cialdini's the fucking man. And to go along with his interesting examples and anecdotes, if you read this book, you will be able to control the minds of friends, strangers, family members, and possibly pets. I say this with no exaggeration whatsoever. The book is a how-to guide for the ego and subconscious .

But I digress. This is Part One. Read the book, and let's move on.

So last summer, I spent my time in Los Angeles working at Samuel Goldwyn Films. I applied to a ton of companies in both film and television because I've got a little messianic complex and I thought I could somehow prevent my fellow humans from enduring any more horrible movies. Of course, on my resume, I described this as "a keen eye for quality entertainment."

I also thought I would love working in Hollywood given my TV series obsession. I've made it a point to not work anywhere unless I absolutely love what I'm doing and at Wharton, everyone is doing finanace or consulting. In contrast, entertainment sounded fun, exciting, and original. It sounded like a career that I could be really happy with. So I went for it.

When I didn't hear back from HBO, I applied through PennLink (the Penn Internship Network) to a few independent film companies. I was told that smaller companies offer really valuable internships because I would be attuned to all aspects of the business.

After some interviews, I got the internship at Samuel Goldwyn, a production and distribution company with approximately ten employees.  (Side note: They just acquired the US distribution rights to The Island President, which is supposed to be awesome and received a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.)  Anyway, while working at SGF, I read scripts, I watched screeners, then I wrote a synopsis and analysis of the film. As you may have read in my last post (if you haven't read it, go back and check it out. It is historic to say the least. And that really is the least I can say about it.), I rarely got to enjoy a decent script and it was even rarer for me to stumble on a watchable movie.

I'm sure you've heard how tough it is to make it in Hollywood, needing to sell your soul, all that jazz. Well, I would say that it is tougher than you think. You could be the most talented person in the world, write a great script, be a stud actor or actress, and it would still be really difficult to get noticed.

Why?

Because there are hoards and hoards of untalented people, who write awful scripts and can't act to save their lives.

It's a tragic tale really. A group of idiots with dreams of fame unknowingly destroy the industry they love from the inside out. Because they are idiots, they never realize what they are doing until it is too late and the Real Housewives of Louisiana has actually been made into a show. Then the world ends. The movie will be called "America" and it is a drama-thriller-action/adventure. I can only hope that in the end, aliens save us before this happens.

No matter, it was actually a really useful exercise to read all of these trainwrecks because it forced me to think critically about why the movies were unsellable. I knew they sucked, but I had to formally explain why the characters were not believable, why the plot didn't make sense, why no one would ever pay to see this fucking film. Since I didn't want a reputation as an intern who passed shit along up to my bosses, I made it a point to be extremely thorough in summarizing and analyzing each film.  Sometimes this really annoyed my boss because she had to read way more than she wanted, but i wanted to be safe and cover my bases. Plus I really liked doing it.

In high school, I loved literary analysis so my job was fun. I definitely improved my writing and my "keen eye for quality entertainment." I had some really incredible experiences too. The highlights of work included going to Los Angeles Film Festival with my boss to screen a documentary about some rich asshole who ripped a lot of people off during the financial crisis. From this, I learned it is really hard to sympathize with someone who is being filmed while on house arrest in his penthosue apartment in Manhattan.

Another awesome highlight was when my boss let me represent the company at a screening at MGM. I actually thought the movie I saw was really interesting and unique (it was written and directed by the guy that played Larry Beale from Even Stevens) and I excitedly wrote up one of my few positive reviews of the summer. But, the next day the head of acquisitions called me into his office and told me he watched ten minutes of it and hated it. Oh well. I appreciated the feedback and it gave me insight as to how decisions were made in the industry.

I learned a lot at Samuel Goldwyn Films and I had a pretty successful and rewarding internship. I loved my boss and we worked really well together. At the end of last summer, she offered me another internship for this year, but I won't be accepting the offer for a few reasons.

By the end of August, I no longer felt the entertainment industry was the right path for me. The first reason was that my job hardly utilized my business background. While I love thinking critically about film and literature, I was not a film or english major like all of the other interns, nor did I have any desire to be.

The second reason was that the business decisions did not necessarily reflect the things I love about business. From my understanding, a script was read by interns, passed up to my boss who was assistant to the M&A executive, then to the M&A executive, then up to another executive, and up again, and so on. If there was disagreement at a high enough level, then I think a film was discussed, but other than that,  it seemed that the vertical structure allowed little time for discussion and less room for collaboration.

Ultimately, I wasn't using my business education and the things I love about business (teamwork, open discussion, collaboration) weren't as prevalent as I would have liked. Since the summer, I've also had a change of heart and an awakening of purpose, and the media in the United States is not something I wish to be a part of at any level.

So my little crusade for improving the entertainment industry ended in a jading. Nonetheless, I loved my time at Goldwyn and I really couldn't have asked for a better experience. I learned a ton about the entertainment industry, I went to LAFF, I got to live in Southern California, and I learned even more about myself. Going into this job, I was very set on a career in TV or film. Like 100% sure this was the right path for me. I was on the executive board of the Media and Entertainment club. I had plans for either HBO or Disney; I was looking ahead years into the future. I was pretty fucking sure. But then I found out that it wasn't for me.

It ultimately boiled down to the fact that I didn't think I could find sustainable happiness working in the entertainment industry. Things were dictated too much by the taste of executives, and I can't imagine that bigger studios operate more collaboratively. This doesn't work for me because I hate the idea of any centralized power with little accountability. You may say, "That is basically any boss, douche bag." Well, I guess I learned that I really don't want a boss in the traditional sense. Honestly, it is ridiculous that in America we claim to value democracy so much, but as soon as we step into our office, we willingly submit to a dictatorship (I heard that in a Michael Moore movie I think). I think there are better ways to do things and I'll find them.

The industry is also too focused on appearances and far too focused on self-gratification. The power of the media is enormous, yet it is wielded in a way that promotes consumerism and tries to help us find happiness outside of ourselves, in things and the lives of others. This is a direct distraction from finding happiness within ourselves. I can't get behind that.

Our education system sucks, but our media continues to air mindless programming. People are starving all over the world and we are trying to figure out which of the forty-four cooking reality TV shows to watch. The media could help solve these problems, but they don't. No, I don't think I could find sustainable happiness working in an industry like that. I want to help solve the world's problems, not distract the world from them.

Also, I think the internet is going to make almost all aspects of the media obsolete in like ten years so good riddance.

Even though I didn't find a future career in LA, my experience significantly shaped my future, moreso than if I would continued to pursue a career in entertainment. I met some amazing people, including my awesome French roommate AP and my mentor, one of the greatest guys I've ever met, John. Meeting these people alone made my two months so worthwhile. I also got to visit DisneyLand, two of my best friends came out to visit me for a week and I love them dearly for it, and I got to see all of the classic tourist sites.

But most importantly, my time taught me what was really valuable, what I really want in a job and with my future. It helped me find happiness by showing me where it wasn't. I'm not exactly sure what I want to do, but until I find it, I'm gonna keep searching for a good life.

JG

TV Is Where It's At

TV is where it's at.

Last summer, I interned at Samuel Goldwyn Films in Los Angeles. It was an awesome experience, but over the course of the summer, only one or two scripts out of the few dozen I read were any good.  Actually, most were awful. What I learned in my time in Southern California is that most screenwriters can't seem to get a story moving without cliche and predictable plot points. Needless to say, it was very rare that I found myself really loving a character or really enthralled in a story

(If you are interested in screenwriting, read Story by Robert Mckee. It really sets you above the competition and will help you improve your story telling!)

But I don't blame the screenwriters. It's tough to write a great story. It's even tougher to write a great story and fit it in an hour and a half while developing characters and evoking some sort of emotional response. I get it. It is tough. But the scripts still sucked.

I remember one in particular about a giant, conscious ceramic rabbit that is constantly getting shipped around from place to place, home to home, you get the picture. Now, I know what you are thinking: this rabbit's resilience in the face of adversity must have been a tale of great heroism!  That's what I thought, but shockingly, the story was not very good.

My favorite part was when one character (a babysitter who will not rest until all ceramic rabbits are destroyed, or at least that's how I remember it) had such a deep hatred for this fragile bunny that she stole it from the children she was watching and drove it to the dump in hopes to incinerate it.

Are you biting your nails just thinking about what is going to happen to the rabbit?

Of course you're not.

Cause it is a fucking ceramic rabbit, and a ceramic rabbit is a terrible protagonist.

In a nut shell, this is the problem in Hollywood: screenwriters come up with a story, write it, but don't consider if anyone in this country wants to go see a nomadic china bunny have a fucking heart warming adventure. No one does.

Obviously TV has a lot of shitty content too, and there are probably more great movies than there are great TV shows. But the landscape of story telling is changing. And right now, the real geniuses, the real masters of story telling -  they are moving into television. This is seen from the bottom of the industry to the top: film is falling apart and the young talent is going to TV. There are still great movies here and there (the rest of America and I can't wait for The Dark Knight Rises), but for every good movie, you have twenty bad pictures and one John Carter. And I'd say, for every good script, you have a thousand bad scripts and two John Carters. That's not a fair trade off.

More often than not, a great show provides me with so much more than a great movie. A great show will immerse you in the lives of all the characters, not just the protagonist. If it is a drama, it will make you laugh. If it's a comedy, it will add suspense. A great show incorporates all aspects of story telling. A great show should tell you something about yourself and something about the world. It should be complete, building from episode to episode, season to season, always with an end goal in mind from the very beginning.

For some reasons, many shows lose me on this aspect. True Blood, Entourage, Weeds, and even Dexter have fallen on my list because the quality of the series is not consistent throughout. While I love these shows, I still evaluate them not just on my enjoyment in their prime, but the story as a whole. How did the story progress, is it consistent with these characters, and did I enjoy each step along the way?

In the upcoming weeks, I will be reviewing all of the shows I have watched and giving you my honest recommendations. I'll be posting links and videos to try and give you the best picture of why you should or shouldn't watch a TV show. I hope you enjoy my opinions. I've watched a lot of TV and I take a lot of pride in my list.

First, I'll start with shows I never finished.

I started watching the first seasons of these shows, but I couldn't get into making them a full time watch. Nothing personal against these shows, but there is a lot of TV out there and if something isn't going to get to the point early on, I will usually come back to it later.  I'll do my best to explain why I stopped watching these shows and I'm open to fans of these shows convincing me to start back up :

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer 
• The Walking Dead
• Prison Break
• Boardwalk Empire
• The Hard Times of RJ Berger
• Battlestar Galactica
• Deadwood
• Carnivale
• Archer
• Hung (Season 2)

Then I'll start my list of 30, ranking and explaining each show in order until we finally reach number one. Here is a taste to get you hungry.

30. Bored to Death
29. Sit Down, Shut Up
28. True Blood
27. American Horror Story
26. Fringe (Season 3)
25. Modern Family (Season 2)
24. Eastbound and Down
23. The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret
22. Spartacus
21. Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Season 6)

Fuck this guy, right. You probably love at least one of these shows? Are you having a hard time wrapping your head around how it's not even cracking my top 20? Good. Come back and learn why.

You'll also be hearing about the shows I'm currently watching:

• Parks and Recreation
• Veep
• Girls

And shows I plan on adding to that list:

• Homeland
• Mad Men
• How I Met Your Mother
• Luther
• Heroes
• Wilfred
• United States of Tara
• Doctor Who
• Rescue Me
• 24
• Shameless
• The Office

I love TV and I hope to share that love with you. I will do my best to help you avoid all that shit that is out there (as I've mentioned, there is a lot) and make sure you watch the good stuff. It is my ultimate goal to encourage one person to watch LOST or The Sopranos or really anything else in my top 10 (there's another little preview for you). If I can do that, I have changed the world for the better.

Let's do this. 

JG

A word.

A word. 

That's all I want in this first post: a word with you. I'd like to introduce myself and this blog, preview things to come, and hopefully, generate a little excitement in the process. Now, if you are already starting to feel that tingle, focus on something mundane and/or disgusting because you really don't want to blow your load on the first paragraph. The fun is just getting started. Take a deep breath, push your butt cheeks out, and take it one word at a time. No one is going to embarrass themselves today. Not on my watch.

Now, since I will be posting fun and interesting topics, tracking all aspects of my life, I am assuming that you, my future, beloved audience, will be filled with fun and interesting people. And to satisfy such a diverse and eclectic audience, I refuse to limit myself to one topic or theme. I have too much to say and too short of an attention span to break it up into separate blogs. 

This is not a "Personal" blog, although it will certainly have personal musings, tales of growth and my experiences, lessons from my failures and successes, revelations, and my unfiltered, honest perspective on the world and on life.  But, that sounds more like a journal than a blog. I'm new to this so I'm going to assume there's a difference and I will sprinkle these nuggets sparingly and sporadically throughout my posts. I will not journal at you. 

This is not a "Television" blog although I will likely be trashing some of your precious guilty pleasures while singing glorious praises for other shows that you may never have known existed. But being a TV critic blogger? Really? I don't know. This would be way too one-dimensional and even more cliche. If I did this, I'd hate myself, and then you'd have to hear me whine when I blogged about my personal life. It would destroy the blog from the inside out. Is that something you really want? No, it isn't. That's why I'm not doing just a television blog. Plus, I know that some people will dismiss my rankings since I've yet to watch Mad Men.

This is not a "Political" blog, although I can guarantee you will hear, and possibly disagree with, my anti--government sentiments and free market economic beliefs. For example, I think that law is force, taxation is theft, and any job that government does can be performed more efficiently by the private sector. This is not a "Ron Paul" blog either, but if you couldn't tell from the previous statements, I support the man wholeheartedly on all of his positions, especially foreign policy, monetary policy, and ending the War on Drugs. I can't talk about that all the time though for fear I'll be targeted by the feds. And it is really hard to be funny when talking about our country falling apart. That's why I'm not doing a political blog.

This is not a "Spiritual" blog, but I will be hypothesizing about esoteric and ethereal concepts, such as ancient super civilizations, cosmic dimensions, collective consciousness, the existence of mythical creatures, tying Buddhism to metaphysics, psychic abilities, and much more. I find these things fascinating and I'm not entirely sure that modern schools of thought have it all figured out. This is not a "Futurist" blog either, although I will always be throwing in my opinions on how technology can change the world and make it a better place. Personally, I think we already have unfathomably advanced technology hidden away at some super secret base, and the implications of releasing this information will be paradigm-shifting. Hell, the positive implications of legalizing Hemp would be paradigm-shifting. Anyway, this is a little outside the norm, so I'm not doing a spiritual or futurist blog.

Instead, this is a mixture of all of the above, and whatever else I feel like putting in (I know I'm really narrowing down the scope of topics). You can expect to never know what to expect, because I don't know what I'm going to write before I write it. It depends on my mood and what has my attention. But whatever is on my mind, no matter how unpredictable or off the wall, I promise it will be focused. While topics will vary, posts will stick to one topic. After reading my interests and opinions, I hope you will use the  comments as a great place for discussion and debate! Or if you want to punch me in the mouth cause I sound like a naive little bitch, just let me know and that'll be cool too! In future posts, I'll go through my certified list of 25+ TV show recommendations: countdown style. I'll track a few of my entrepreneurial ventures and new hobbies going forward and keep you up to date on the stages of development. You'll get to know me, and eventually, grow to love me in a weird internet freudian kind of way (at least I hope). And you'll have front row tickets to my mental breakdown when it finally happens.

To finish off my word, I'd like to acknowledge that if I honed in on just one topic, it may be easier to market this blog and to draw a lot of traffic. But, like all the kids are saying nowadays: "Fuck that!" It would just be way too hard to pick one.  I believe everything in this world is interconnected. I think all the crazy shit floating around in my head should be too, and this is my way of doing it. I hope you enjoy your time on this "blogspot" (is that even what this is called? should i start learning blogging lingo? blingo?) and find it to be a safe and warm environment. 

Cozy and comfortable. 

Safe and warm.

JG