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Internship Panel 10/12/2008

4 Speakers.
Discussion served as a resource for internship information

Ashley Holland
Senior/Co-term in Communications

Internships:
Creative Agency Artists (CAA) - Film Finance Dept.
Court TV- Program Development
Capitol Records- Marketing

How did you get the internship?
** Sophomore year- friend connection in record label.
**Junior Year- T. Howard Foundation- Minorities and Women into the entertainment industry. Deadline: December 31, 2008. Website: www.t-howard.org
**Senior Year- Stanford Alum Network- Kept in touch, suggests knowing someone who knows HR in agency.

Internship Duties:
*Court TV- Development- Deciding what shows goes on air. Ashley got to observe casting for shows and read some scripts not as much as most development interns, though.
*CAA duties- 6 weeks paid internship. Presentations from other people in the company
1st week – mail room, delivering packages, networking
After 2nd week- Finance Dept
Met a lot of influential people. Had lunch meetings all the time.

Favorite memory: Meeting Peter Chernin, Cal Alum , COO of News Corporation and CEO of FOX Group
.
Suggestions: The Music Industry is Crumbling, if interested in music, the Digital Media Industry is where to go.

Feel Free to Contact Ashley at Ashleyh1@stanford.edu with questions regarding music, television, agencies, and the T. Howard Foundation.

Lisa Kerner
Sr. English Major
Film Studies Minor

Internships:
Comedy Central's "The Sarah Silverman Program"
Everyman Pictures


How did you get the internship?
**Everyman Pictures (Jay Roach’s Company) - Stanford Alum, producer of Austin Powers Trilogy, Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers. Film Dept. has Stanford Alum contact info.
**Sarah Silverman Program- Family friend (owns Prop House in LA) put her in contact with production team.

Internship Duties:
*Everyman Pictures: Stable, 9am -7pm job; reading scripts and writing Script Coverage (great lesson for writers, Learn what works and what doesn’t in a script), sit in on meetings (witness creativity), answer phones, watch lots of movies.
*Sarah Silverman- Wacky days 7am- 10pm. Worked as a set production assistant. Ran around with a walkie-talkie and everyone comes to you with problems. Very Stressful but exciting! Other duties included escorting actors to set, making tea for actors, setting up for production meetings, manual labor (moving furniture), going on tech scouts with the tcrew, etc. Table reads. (Network meetings).

Favorite Memory: Getting to know Sarah Silverman on a very personal level. Wrap party in LA.

Suggestions: Finding an internship is a long process, don’t get discouraged.

Feel free to contact Lisa at lckerner@stanford.edu with questions regarding film development, TV production, and film editing.


Kyle Evaldez
Sr. Film Studies and Psychlogy Major

Internship:
Handsome Charlie Productions
Plan B Productions

How did you get your internship?
**Contacted Stanford Alum through Film Dept.

Internship Duties:
Both Companies really small.
*Handsome Charlie Production- Natalie Portman’s Production Company. Duties included script coverage, script reading catering to Natalie Portman’s character; Sit in on small meetings, get to know producers very well. Had to be a producer’s assistant (2 weeks)- PR, taking messages.
*Plan B- worked with 3 producers, mostly with Jeremy Kleiner (The Departed). Script Coverage- read script and give a one page summary.

Favorite moment: Personal Interactions in Handsome Charlie and Plan B Production. Getting to know Natalie Portman.

Suggestions: Don’t be intimidated by the offers. Know when to say yes and when it is okay to say no.

Feel free to contact Kyle at kedemon@stanford.edu with questions regarding film development, film production, and/or the film studies department.

Jason Richman
Sr. English Major
Econ Minor

Internships:
Showtime Television- Production
Dreamworks Animation (Production of Shrek the Halls)

How did you get your internship?
**Sophomore Year- Dreamworks website-submit resume, phone interview
**Junior- Email Resume on website, Interviewed at end of March, called back for 5 weeks and ended up getting internship– sent resume to multiple companies.

Duties:
Dreamworks duties- Sitting in on dailys (briefing the whole production team), shadowed lighting, animation, character effects.
Speakers for the intern. Animation movies take several years.
Showtime- Worked with development. Future shows and current on air show.
Dexter- Hands-on budgeting, call sheets, and SAG contracts.

Favorite Memory: Season 4 wrap party for Weeds. Visit Dexter’s Set.

Suggestions: When looking for an internship BE PERSISTENT and once there have things to do (occupy your time and don’t look bored.)

Feel free to contact Jason at richoman@stanford.edu with questions regarding tv production, Dreamworks Intership, and/or Showtime Intership.


AJ Balance
Sr. International Relations Major

Feel free to contact AJ at balance@stanford.edu with questions regarding the business side of entertainment.

Jett Fein

Sr. Art History Major

Internship:

ICM (International Creative Media)- Motion Picture Talent

Feel free to contact Jett at Jettfein@stanford.edu with questions regarding Agency and/or motion pictures.

Info Session: SPRING BREAK HOLLYWOOD TRIP

•Want to work in Hollywood after you graduate?

•Do you want to spend five days in Los Angeles meeting writers, directors, executives, agents and professionals involved with all facets of the industry?

Then come to the Information Session for the

2008 Stanford Hollywood Trip

Saturday, January 26th

3:00 PM

Room 200-030

Stanford Students in Entertainment offers twelve Stanford undergrads the opportunity to spend five days of spring break learning about careers in the entertainment industry.



The 2007 trip included meetings with Quan Phung (Senior VP of Comedy Development at 20th Century Fox Television), Sam Dickerman (Senior VP at Columbia Pictures), Tim Sarnoff (President of Sony Pictures Imageworks), Joel Stein (entertainment writer for The Los Angeles Times and TIME Magazine), Linda Newmark (lawyer for Universal Publishing Group), and others.

AT THE MEETING, students who have attended the trip in the past will talk about their experience, we will give you detailed information about the trip, and we will tell you everything you need to know about how to apply to go on the trip.

Email stanfordhollywoodtrip2008@yahoo.com or call Lisa Kerner @ 650-224-3404 if you have any questions, or if you can’t attend the info session and would like more information!

Notes from Speakers Series Event with David Chai

What can you do after college?
• Students can go on from college to do games, storyboards, visual development and more at major animation studios such as DreamWorks, Pixar, and Disney.
• After graduating, David Chai did independent work, got reels together, and shipped them to ad agencies, while teaching at a private college.
• Your work situation as an animator really depends on where you are in the country.
• Little things can pay off, people will see you and remember you (network around, its important).
• The animation community is small!

Process of Animation:
• Thumbnails/Script (put thumbnail drawings in with the lines)
• Storyboard/Animatic-layout resolved at this stage, so as not to waste money and time
• Style Consideration-getting people’s opinion is how to decide which animation to use.
• Character Design-poses, working with hands.
• Rough Animation
• Color and Line Processing-clean-up the drawing, using Adobe stuff (Photoshop, After-effects, Premier)
• Layout/Backgrounds-painted digitally in Photoshop, layer in After-Effects
• After Effects Compositing
• Camera Move Approaches-expand actual artwork
• Editing-bring in all frames in Premier and assemble them, or have uncompressed files in after-effects and edit them in premier.
• A short film (like “Fumi”) had 12 people on animation, scanners, story consultation, production/editing, etc
• Group production- to maintain consistency, he does key drawings, team does in-between, but for big projects, they have model sheets and teams are broken up into characters.
Festival circuit-sometimes you have to pay entry fees, but the payoff is that you can get request to screen around the country for years to come, depending on how the film is received
• David used to send his work to just about anywhere (but it costs a lot of money). Now he sends to ASEFA and Academy-qualifying festivals.
• Be careful of scam festivals and agencies, where you pay for your work to be displayed but it never happens.

How to get into animation/production?
• Look into free places to post your work online (youtube, blogger, myspace), use a blog and word of mouth for publicity and promotion!
Writing scripts for animation
• Writing fellowship at Nickelodeon (go to nick website to find out more)

Tips from DreamWorks Animation Internship Coordinator

Speaker: Peter Campbell
Position: Internship Coordinator of DreamWorks Animation
Date: December 5, 2007

DreamWorks Internships

Who: Juniors and Seniors (Eligibility begins after Sophomore year and ends before graduation)

Where: Offices in both Redwood City (near Stanford) and Glendale (Los Angeles area)

When: Fall and Spring (Part-time, credit only) and Summer (Full-time, paid)

Positions Available:
o Production Assistant
•Supports whichever production team they are assigned to (usually 12-15 teams per project)
• Allowed to sit in on any training session (for recently hired employees) they want
• Actually do real work in production, not just errands
o Accounting
o Consumer Products
o Digital Training
o Creative Development
• Most competitive
• Mostly for master screen writing students
• Must have writing coverage
o Facilities Operations
o Finance/ purchasing
o Human Resources
o HR Recruiting
• Management majors usually
o Internal Audit
o Outreach
• For recent college graduates only.
• Entry-level hiring program for future artists
• Very competitive and recruits students from all over the country
• Gives employees a big picture experience and shows them how the whole studio environment works

Resumes
• What should it say:
o Must say most important stuff first. Imagine a reader will only look at your resume for 7 seconds
1. You are enrolled in school. The University you are getting your degree at. Your graduation date. (No GPA unless it’s a 4.0)
2. List major (concentration) and minor
3. Experience- Both relevant and professional (jobs where you gained skills that can be carried into your internship, even if it is unrelated to film)
 Company name (no acronyms), job title and dates you worked there. Follow with one bullet point that describes company and two or three more bullet points that tell what you skills you learned from the job. (Don’t be general about responsibilities-like filing and photocopying)
4. Technical Skills- What computer programs do you know (Be specific and list all of them no matter how relevant you think they are)
5. Your accomplishments- What student groups you are a part of and what positions you hold.
6. Cover letter: Don’t be too specific, but customize for each company you are applying to. Keep it short. Introduce yourself and explain either, why you want this job, what skills you have that will make up for skills you are potentially lacking, basically, information that is not in your resume.
7. Letter of recommendation
8. References: Make sure that you ask everyone that you put down as a reference that it is alright that you do so.

• What else to know:
o Allow someone not affiliated with Stanford to read your resume before you submit it. If they can fully understand all of your information then you have succeeded.
o Spell and grammar-check multiple times
o Change your voicemail and e-mail accounts to be more professional
o Get an e-mail account now that you will be able to use after you graduate
o Cover letter: Don’t be too specific, but customize for each company you are applying to. Keep it short. Introduce yourself and explain either, why you want this job, what skills you have that will make up for skills you are potentially lacking, basically, information that is not in your resume.
o Resumes should not be longer than a page if you are in college.
o Submit by February (for summer internship) for Dreamworks internships. They will be read in March and April, but the ones sent in first will be read first.

• What they are looking for in a resume:
o Major doesn’t matter as much as whether you have experience in the area you are applying for the job in
• Ex. Volunteer on student films, work for small production companies
o If you don’t have any experience than relevant classes do matter

Interviews
1. How to act:
o Be yourself and relax but do not lose professionalism. Personality is #1 thing that interviewers are looking for.
o Dress one step above the normal dress code in that particular office—it is always ok to ask the person that is setting up your interview what that dress code is.
o Don’t drop your guard after you do or don’t get the job. There is always a chance of getting hired later on or being fired.
o Be enthusiastic. Show your skills, but don’t oversell yourself
o Phone demeanor is very important, never be rude or unprofessional with ANYONE.

2. What to Bring/ How to prepare:
o Always bring extra copies of you resume
o Know the company. Be familiar with what kind of specific work they do. If applying for Dreamworks, know what films they have done.
o Prepare answer to general questions like “Tell me a little about yourself.” For that specific question only give a 1 to 2 minutes answer that explains something interesting (Why you have chosen your major, why Dreamworks, why this job, something not in resume).
• Don’t sound too rehearsed
o Try and find a connection with the interviewer, but don’t let the interview get away.
o Be sure to answer the question that they ask you. No tangents.
o It is ok to ask for feedback after you do not get a job.
o Hand-written THANK YOU letters are a very nice touch and could put a person above another candidate.

DreamWorks Internship Workshop

Come listen to Peter Campbell, Internship Coordinator for DreamWorks Animation, discuss DreamWorks Internships, Resume Building and Interviewing in the Entertainment Industry.

Welcome!

Thank you for coming to the Stanford Students in Entertainment(S.S.I.E.) blog! We will be updating this blog as future events come up. We also plan to post any useful information such as advice from any of our guest speakers. Please stay check back every week for updates!

- Stanford Students in Entertainment(S.S.I.E.) Board