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