For the past month and a half, I’ve been interning in the East Coast Development office at MTV. Having completed seven of my ten required weeks, I’ve been able to learn (and do) a lot of really neat things. Though I can’t give any specifics (I wish I could, but everything the office does is confidential due to its sensitive nature) I can say that I’ve been able to participate in the development of several new pilots and projects. I’ve been lucky enough to have a variety of responsibilities including research, participating in brainstorming meetings, and working as a PA on set. Of course, there has been plenty of filing, copying, and more filing, but I’ve also been able to act as an assistant in the absence of a few people in the office from time to time. This has been a huge plus, considering that assisting is the entry level job that I will likely be shooting for come mid-August.
I’ve learned a lot about the inner workings of the industry too. Seeing first hand the relationships between staffers, freelancer, production companies, and network execs. From the lessons in our classes at Newhouse, we know all about the amount of time, work, and people it takes to put a successful project on air, but it has been incredibly enlightening to see all of this in action. Working alongside the production management department, I’ve been able to see the amount of organization and planning (and re-planning if something is too costly/presents a legal issue) that goes in to pilot development. It is actually sad to see all of the blood, sweat, and tears go into something that is never actually turned into a series. But then again, it makes it all the more rewarding when a project actually gets picked up.
As I’m sure is the case for all of us, I’m finding that this internship is valuable not only in the learning experience that it is, but also in that it reiterates the teachings of our Newhouse professors in tangible, real world form.
Jess, I am so happy for you. I’m curious about the backgrounds of the development team. I was reading a book called Desperate Networks (people that were in the Programming class with Dr. Chew will remember this book) and in the first chapter it discusses the upfronts back in 2005 or 2006 and the downward spiral of NBC. One thing Bill Carter(the author) mentions is that Jeff Zucker was great with news programs (like Today) because that was his background, but he did not understand story structure for scripted shows. He was great at promoting, scheduling and marktering, but the problem comes from not having a good source material and without the understanding of story structure it was hard for him to lead the development team. You remember how Evan Smith told us that he got his first development job? When he gave his resume he also submitted copy of a script and that helped him land the job. Do you know if anyone in devlopment are writers or what they think (or what you have observed) are the most important skills to have to be in development?
Lacy, I read Desperate Networks too! Well, I listened to the audio book on the way out here and ended up working the first part of my internship in the same offices as Mark Burnet. Don’t you think that book is a must read?!
Yes! ( I know I just talked to you, but I decided to reply anyway)The book is just interesting because it discusses parts of the business that we didn’t dive into in any TV Business classes. Personally, I have a little career crush on Les Moonves (maybe one day I could be in charge of a network). Who knew he was behind ER and Friends and that he was an actor. I would have loved to see his upfront performance. For those who have not read the book and want to work in television. READ IT!
Hi Lacy! Though I don’t know the exact history of all of the development folks here, I can tell you a few things that I’ve picked up through talking to/Googling them (yes, I’ve Googled my bosses), and some of the things that I learned from some Newhouse alums I’ve been in touch with. First of all, everyone here from the assistants to the execs have a pretty diverse background as far as what they’ve done and where they come from. I think one of the coolest things about development at a network is exactly that: the diversity of the team. Most people have backgrounds in production, either as producers, PAs, story editors, even directors. Some went to school for communications related subjects, others are educated in completely different fields, and some even got here without going to school at all. They’re from all over the country and bring very different perspectives and energies to their projects.
That being said, you definitely don’t have to be a writer at all in order to get into development (at least as far as reality goes, which is all I can speak to). Yes, there’s a lot of “writing” that still goes in to reality, but it comes from a basic understanding of story structure and simply what makes good television. There is quite a bit of “writing” that happens on set while filming, but a lot of the real magic comes in the edit, because you can put anything together any way that you want. I’ve noticed that there’s an incredible amount of intuition that the development team brings to their projects, and this can’t be taught in any writers’ workshop. This is something you pick up on and develop as you go through your TV career. That’s definitely why knowing the production process, and working in production, is so common and helpful. For me, observing and participating in the process of turning “reality” into a cohesive episode worth watching has been a great way to begin gathering the knowledge and skills I need. Honestly though, the most important thing in development (outside of, if not equal to, a general understand of story) is being a thinker and having the ability to generate ideas and solve problems. I’ve seen that spit-firing random ideas, brainstorming solid concepts, and creatively solving issues are a part of the everyday work in development, and you can be expected to do any of these things alone or collaboratively.
So, that was the long answer to your question. Now here’s the short one. What do you need to work in development? Understanding of story structure, patience, organizational/multi-tasking skills, knowledge of the production process, an open mind, the ability to take rejection (sadly, many of your projects will die before they ever hit the air, no matter how much hard work you put into them), people skills, a critical eye, and plenty of sleep (or at least try to get this last one)!
Jess, I have heard over and over again that if you want to work in television, a good place to start is reality television. From what I understand, it can be easier to find jobs there and it is also great experience on how to take a concept and form a coherent story out of it. My question(s) is (are), have you seen any of these things to be true: i.e. Have you found that it could possibly be easier to find jobs working in reality television as a PA versus trying to get a job on an established scripted television show? How transferable do you think the skills/things you learn/friends you make working in reality television are if you wanted to move to scripted programming down the road? When you’re working at a huge company like MTV, how much contact do you have with people in different departments or working on different projects? (Or do you just sort of stick with the people working on your particular show or in your particular department at the network?)
Hi Lee! I’ll answer your questions one by one (according to my experience, which may fall short/not be a good representation of every situation).
Have you found that it could possibly be easier to find jobs working in reality television as a PA versus trying to get a job on an established scripted television show? I can’t really answer this question very well, as I have worked on set but am mainly an office-type intern. I haven’t gotten to talk to a lot of people regarding this subject, but I do know that some of the execs’ assistants I work with started in production jobs ranging from one NBC pages to PAs on film sets. I also met a former intern (who actually had my position in the spring) who has been hired to work as a PA in post-production on one of the pilots. So I think that any way to get your foot in the door is better than turning something down because it isn’t your ideal job. My answer to your next question might also help answer this one…
How transferable do you think the skills/things you learn/friends you make working in reality television are if you wanted to move to scripted programming down the road? Short answer, VERY transferrable. First off, whether you’re on the network side of things, or working for one of the production companies associated with a project, you get to meet/work with a lot of really great people. A lot of the crew are freelance, so they could work in both reality and scripted, making them very valuable to connect with. On the network side, at least from my experience, the reality and scripted people share a lot of the same resources as far as things like casting associates, so it’s good to know people who know people outside or your particular work “circle”. Plus, reality is much more “scripted” than one would think, so while they are considered different animals, there are no real skills that you can use in one and not the other. The way I look at it is, any solid reference/work experience is a good one, whether you jump genres or not.
When you’re working at a huge company like MTV, how much contact do you have with people in different departments or working on different projects? (Or do you just sort of stick with the people working on your particular show or in your particular department at the network?) The way it works at MTV is that the East coast and West coast have different development departments that may share projects/ideas once in a while, but are basically separate entities as far as how they operate. They don’t necessarily “compete” as they are part of the same network, but they are not really a “team” either, even though they work toward the same goals. Think of the WGA east and west – it’s sort of like that. Within the offices on each coast, there are different execs that work together as a team, but (sometimes) split up the workload by working on different shows. So for me, I work specifically for one person who has her own projects in the works (which are what I work on and deal with) but she knows about the other shows in development and thus everyone sort of knows what’s going on even if they aren’t involved – to different degrees of detail of course. As for other departments, I have never met or spoken to anyone in say, the marketing department. But I do work very closely with the members of production management that are handling any pilots/series my boss may be involved with. As an intern, my contact with outside departments is limited because that’s not what I’m there for, but in development you do have to work with everyone from legal to the network’s travel planning office.
I hope this was helpful!
Hey Lee, I was talking about that to one of my supervisors. He’s a writer and comedian. He said that starting out in reality, or non-scripted as I continue to refer to it as, is a good place to start with an actual paycheck. The one thing to consider, advice from my boss, is that there are a lot of companies that are in both non-scripted and scripted TV and so getting in on the reality side and expressing an interest in moving over to scripted isn’t a bad idea and it happens more than one would think. Basically, that’s my plan.
Priceless discussion thread here, you guys…I agree with Chris that “Desperate Networks” should be required reading of all, but so should this discussion! Thanks for all you are putting out there in this discussion guys!