Per Schoony’s request, here are my posts about my internship at Focus Features.
July 11th 2011: What An Acquisitions Intern Does
As an acquisitions intern I get to screen DVDs and write coverage. During the Los Angeles Film Festival, I had the opportunity to go see both short films and feature lengths. Not the most talked about films; the smaller ones that no one’s ever even heard of. This gives interns the opportunity to find hidden gems. You get assigned films you wouldn’t necessarily go see otherwise and that helps broaden your perspective. The executives get invited to all sorts of screenings. Whenever they can’t attend, they ask the assistants or the interns if they want to go. I got to go to a private screening at ICM. The film turned out to be horrible, of course, but watching a horrible film until the end teaches you a lot! You have to stay critical and objective and really understand what doesn’t work. I’ve also learned that Focus Features, a company I personally idolized, is just like any other money-making business in Hollywood. They acquire films that they think fit into their brand. The only difference is their brand has a quality stamp. They still have to be profitable and keep up with their competitors. I’d like to say I’ve watched a good 70% of films produced or distributed by Focus, but one of the assistants made sure to set up a system where interns can borrow Focus films and watch them at home. This way we can make sure we are as familiar as can be with the brand. During our LA seminar in January, somebody told us to work for a company whom we respected creatively. I always thought that was smart, but it makes even more sense now. You have to live and breathe the brand, so might as well love it!
July 19th 2011: Best & Worst Part of My Internship
DATA-BASING. At first, when the intern that was training me showed me the database, I thought, ”Okay, not bad, I can handle this.” At the end of the day, it was more like ”Shoot me now. There’s no way I’m doing this 3 times a week.” And now Filemaker Pro and myself have become sort of good friends. Not best friends, because it still does annoying things like close on me before I have time to save the long and complicated Russian actors’ names I just typed into the cast section, but I’m starting to better understand its existence. You know how everyone told us to read the trades and keep up with what is going on? Well, my job is forcing me to do that! I spend at least half of my day reading the trades and then logging in a bunch of info. Every time I don’t know someone’s name, I quickly search for them on IMDB and so soon I’ll know absolutely everyone worth knowing in Hollywood! I think that’s pretty brilliant. It also helps me with my job search because I also constantly know what is in development and in pre-production.
The other best part of my internship are the assistants. They are filled with knowledge about the industry in general and about the company in particular. They also know what it feels like to be an intern. They become your closest allies on the job and can help you make sure you don’t put your foot in your mouth. All of this makes it easier to understand how so many people managed to patiently work their way up while offering up free labor! It’s all about the give and take!
Me and the 3rd floor gang: a mix of assistants and interns
August 2nd 2011: It’s Festival Season!
I love film festivals. I like how we spend weeks prepping for it and how it all boils down to a dozen days at most. I love the idea of discovering a real gem of a film and being able to buy it and distribute it for the whole world to see. As a producer’s assistant in Montreal (before the master’s program), I had to prep for all the big festivals like Cannes and Toronto. The producer I was working for was selling films or trying to get funding for his slate of projects in development, so I was really on the other side of the deal, but it’s really cool to see how things are not so different here in Hollywood. We’re simply operating on a larger scale here. This mainly means prepping for more festivals with more executives attending. They still need a booklet made for them with all their appointments and a detailed list of all the films that are being screened at the festival. They still shop around for the best hotel, price and location wise, they just have bigger budgets! Acquisitions executives attend festivals and watch as many projects as possible. If anything interests them, they will talk things over with Business Affairs executive who are also attending. The Business Affairs executives are often more of the decision makers because they work out all the deals. They can assess what is a good investment for the company. In the end, of course, the decisions have to be passed through to the CEO and president of the company. Films are acquired for many different reasons, and great films won’t get picked up some times, but that’s just how the business goes. Festivals are exciting because deals are being made, usually under tight deadlines, in these glamorous and dramatic settings. I love knowing that I’m a part of that somehow. It only makes me more excited for the day when I will be able to attend a festival in order to promote one of my films. It helps keep the dream alive.
August 10th 2011: It’s A Wrap…
This is my last entry. As I am writing this, I am realizing that my days at Focus are coming to an end. The summer is almost over. During my internship, I rolled calls, burned DVDs, logged trade articles in the database, updated submission lists and wrote coverage. I basically served as a second assistant in the acquisitions department. None of this was completely new to me because of my previous work experience, but it was necessary for me to perform all of these tasks in an LA office. An internship is a learning ground which means you get more time to settle in. Not everything hangs in the balance. Once you’re hired, things are slightly different. I now know that the most important thing I will take away from this internship is LA experience. It will prove to be invaluable I am sure. I’ve started applying for jobs and basically any experience you have outside of LA doesn’t count. You could mess up an interview simply because you don’t know the lingo. If you don’t know what rolling calls means, you can’t tell them you know how to do it! Having this internship on my resume makes the whole difference. As an international student, I know that it might be impossible for me to stay in LA (or America for that matter!) beyond August 2012, but I know that no matter what, this year in LA will be a great step forward in my career. Any experience in LA is worth millions outside of LA. Guess that makes us all millionaires.
My badge & the Beginners script