This week the L.A. blog welcomes a fourth contributor, Psychology major Molly Porter. She’s interning at CBS Films. Molly and Aaron join COM interns Kaitlyn and Mike, who’s in NY with the Conan show, in this week’s blog. They’re all working hard, taking on new responsibilities, and learning a lot about the entertainment world (and themselves) during their semester in L.A. It’s great to follow them on their journeys!
Mike
Currently, I’m sitting at Starbucks near the Beacon Theatre in New York City, where I’m working on writing premises for tonight’s monologue. A few feet away from me, a line three blocks long and full of New Yorkers hoping to be in the audience for tonight’s taping of CONAN is forming. This line doesn’t even compare to the 3,000 people, who in a matter of hours will be filing into the theatre to watch Conan’s first New York show since moving to Los Angeles for The Tonight Show.
While there’s probably a ton of business related reasons as to why we’re in New York (ratings boost, etc), I think Conan’s here to thank the city that provided him a home for 18 years. Conan’s fans are incredibly loyal and creative. All this week, The Time Warner Center is displaying an exhibit of Conan art, all created by fans. The art includes paintings, photographs, and even a Conan O’Brien statue made entirely out of pencils. While displaying this incredible artwork is a genius marketing tool for Conan and TBS, it also shows how strong a relationship Conan and his fans have. Conan loves his fans and wants to produce creative entertainment for them on a nightly basis, and in return his fans provide the late-night host with beautiful artwork and a week of sold out shows at the legendary Beacon Theatre in New York City. No matter how the business side of the entertainment industry affects Conan O’Brien, his loyal fans are always there to support him.
Molly
I knew it was going to be difficult being 3,000 miles away from my family, and I knew I was going to experience culture shock coming from a small town in Maine to the extremely diverse, eccentric city of Los Angeles. But what I didn’t expect was to fall in love with California. As we head into our 10th week here, I still am so amazed about how fortunate I am to have this opportunity to spend the semester interning in L.A.
This past week was pretty hectic at CBS Films as they are preparing to release six or seven new movies in 2012. There has been a lot of excitement around the movie Woman in Black, starring Daniel Radcliffe. They are talking about it as their biggest movie yet. This past week I did a lot of AFM preparation. The American Film Market, in Santa Monica, is where filmmakers from around the world premiere their new films and projects. There are over 400 film screenings this year. Each day they post new films so I have had to continuously update the list with new screenings, locations and times. AFM starts this week so I am continuing to set up meetings with directors, writers, actors, and actresses for my boss. I also assist in reading scripts, writing log lines and synopses and answering the phone.
Every day I experience something new at work. From the people I work with, to the projects I work on, I am learning something new all the time. I use psychology all the time when I interact with my coworkers and have to correspond with executives. I get up at 7am every day and don’t get home until about 7pm. My days are long and tiring, but I know that everything I am doing here will pay off in the end. In this economy, making these connections will be so helpful when I look for a job.
Kaitlyn
Week nine in Los Angeles started off just as busy as the last. I arrived in the office just before nine thirty Monday morning and immediately there was work to be done. The entertainment industry truly never sleeps. Although we may have the weekends off, on Monday mornings the office is always in full swing as the publicists either follow up on projects from the previous week or begin working on new ones.
On Thursday, I was given the chance to go on location to downtown Los Angeles and watch as one of our shows taped a stunt scene. While on the set, I was introduced to the production team, stunt coordinator, and given the chance to talk with members of the cast. This set visit was a bit different then other visits I have made in that not only was I able to see how production works when they are not on a sound stage, but I also helped Katie with getting the press situated for the interviews they were conducting. Katie is one of the publicists in my department and she is an amazing person to learn from. She really takes the time to answer any questions that I might have, and explain to me what she chose to do or not to do in a given situation and the reasoning behind it. I honestly feel that the best way to learn something is by experiencing it one’s self and by people like Katie taking me on set visits. I feel repetitive when saying this each week, but I feel very lucky to be given the opportunities that I have had so far and I know that I will only learn and experience even more in the weeks to come.
Aaron
In light of the upcoming holiday, this week’s web content had a Halloween theme. One of my assignments was to create a poll of horror movie remakes that had come out in the last five years. I then had to narrow the list down to my personal top five favorites and post the titles into a poll template where readers could vote for their favorite. With so many classic horror films being remade over the past five years, there was no shortage of films to choose from. The most difficult part of this assignment was choosing films with my audience’s interests in mind rather than just my own. For example, before I had even started the post, I had been instructed to include the new “Fright Night” remake in my top five. I was disappointed to learn that Colin Farrel’s mere presence in a movie allowed it to be ranked among horror classics like “Halloween” or “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” During the rest of the week, I created posts for music video premieres, special event coverage and online contests. I also helped the producers at Buzznet.com film a skit with the music group Forever The Sickest Kids. The video was a Christmas-themed comedy Sketch in which I had a small speaking role. Incidents like these make my job at Buzz Media both unique and fun.
As a journalism intern, I continue to familiarize myself with the importance of writing material for a specific audience. This is a very important topic that impacts every journalist. One thing that I have learned while working here is to leave my ego at the door when it comes to writing content. My editors like giving me film assignments because they know how much I enjoy discussing movies. However, it is important for me to remember that as a Celebuzz writer, it is my job to create content that best suits the average Celebuzz reader’s preferences rather than my own. The horror movie remake gallery is a perfect example of this issue. I may have been able to find ten other movies that I believed to be more worthy of a top ranking but that is not what is important, nor is it my job. My job is to create content that Celebuzz readers will read and enjoy. What’s good about encountering this issue is that it is something that I will most likely encounter throughout my professional life. I will always have to accommodate the preferences of my consumers over my personal preferences regardless of my profession. While the content may be silly at some times and downright undesirable at others, it’s my responsibility to be unselfish in whatever I create as a journalist.
