Where can you watch actors in a $100-million Hollywood blockbuster spar in front of a green screen, catch a meal with “Scandal” and “Grey’s Anatomy” writer Shonda Rhimes ’91 or Oscar-nominated director Buck Henry ’52 all while attending classes with Dartmouth accreditation? As the 16 students who participated in the film department’s first winter foreign study program can tell you — Los Angeles, of course.
On the program, students enrolled in two lecture-style classes, “Topics in Television” and “Race and Place and Los Angeles Media,” and an independent study. The classes were taught by University of California at Los Angeles and University of Southern California professors, while film and media studies professor Mark Williams organized the students’ independent studies.
Students also worked two days per week in an internship tailored to their professional interests, including working at talent agencies, production studios and entertainment-focused law firms. For many, this was a first chance to break into the often opaque workings of the entertainment industry and try out entry-level positions.
Katie Kilkenny ’14 interned at The Gersh Agency, a talent and literary agency with an office in Beverly Hills, Calif. Though she had heard of some seniors planning to go on the FSP, Kilkenny had expected to be on campus for winter to work on a thesis until visiting film and television studies professor David Ehrlich convinced her to give the program a shot. Kilkenny was a student in Ehrlich’s fall class on Asian animation.
“I let go of the thesis to do this program and the experience,” Kilkenny said. “It was really conducive to getting into the film industry.”
Kilkenny’s internship involved reading scripts, evaluating their merits and writing synopses. The Gersh Agency matches writers with actors and actresses, mostly working with established talent, Kilkenny said. She would typically read a script in the morning and write a four-page summary in the afternoon.
“I got to see everything — I read a Western, a lot of dystopian, ‘Hunger Games’-type scripts,” Kilkenny said. “All scripts pass through agencies — agencies cast film, television, digital web series. Everything starts with the script.”
Kilkenny also completed a reporting fellowship for Indiewire that involved reporting and writing movie criticisms at the Sundance Film Festival.
Kilkenny is a former member of The Dartmouth staff.
Emory Orr ’16, who said he has always wanted to work in film, interned for “X-Men” franchise producer Hutch Parker at his Santa Monica office. Orr answered the phones and helped coordinate interactions between agents, directors and actors as well as prepared script summaries for agents.
Orr learned about ways a producer can have a strong creative influence on a film’s script and aesthetics. Interactions with Georgia Kacandes, executive producer for Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013) and sister of comparative literature professor Irene Kacandes, demonstrated how a producer must have a fine eye for the costliness of a movie, even down to the price per page of scripts.
“A producer’s role is not discussed as much as actors’, directors’ or writers’,” Orr said. “I wanted to learn what a producer does — having strong interpersonal relations, managing a crew and a cast.”
Eddie Zapata ’14, who previously went on the film FSP to Scotland, said he enjoyed the Los Angeles trip’s focus on the industry’s behind-the-scenes workings. The Scotland trip was focused on film production, he said, with classes covering digital cinematography production and film festivals, history and theory.
Zapata completed an internship at M3 Creative, a small studio that produces teaser trailers and behind-the-scenes footage for major studios. Zapata transcribed interview footage and helped tag video clips for the group, which is currently working on three projects for Marvel Entertainment.
“Before [the FSP], I thought I wanted to be director of photography, in charge of lighting and sets,” Zapata said. “But now, I realize that there are so many more jobs, so many creative ways to be involved behind the camera. I’m stuck right now. Should I continue working on my own videos, or try to work my way up in this ridiculously conniving industry and try to make a name for myself?”
Though busy balancing work and their studies, students went on Tuesday and Saturday excursions planned by Williams, visiting the Academy Film Archives in Hollywood and touring the Warner Bros. studio in Burbank, Calif., among other trips. At Warner Bros., the group viewed an early version of “The Lego Movie” (2014), written and directed by Phil Lord ’97 and Chris Miller ’97.
Hannah O’Flynn ’15, who worked in Nickelodeon’s press and communications department, said she enjoyed using free time to explore the city, often while running. A member of Dartmouth’s track team, O’Flynn completed the LA Marathon with Kelsey Sipple ’16, another student on the FSP, on March 9.
Some of her other favorite memories included trips to The J. Paul Getty Museum, Venice Beach and Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, Calif., O’Flynn said.
“I got to have some really incredible experiences, not only from planning by our professors, but especially on our own,” O’Flynn said. “[Sipple] and I went on runs from Santa Monica to Venice Beach, and on days off, for cross training, we hiked the Hollywood sign.”
Mac Simonson ’16, who worked for a small legal firm specializing in copyright law for entertainment, said he learned the most about the industry from talking with alumni. Some of the most memorable meetings included meals with Rhimes, Henry, Lord and Miller, he said.
Other experiences on the trip could only happen in Los Angeles, Simonson said, such as sitting a row ahead of actor Jeff Goldblum at an early screening of a new Jim Jarmusch movie or attending a free concert in the Natural Museum of Los Angeles’s dinosaur hall, he said.
“At [the Academy Film Archives],we saw all the shooting material from old Hitchcock movies and got to hold an Oscar,” Simonsonsaid. “It was borderline touristy but a lot of fun.”
The article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction appended: March 26, 2014
The original version of this article said the class sat behind journalist Jeff Goldberg, not actor Jeff Goldblum, at the Jim Jarmusch film. It has been revised to correct the error.
