“˜Industry’ internships have both perks, disadvantages

As summer continues to chug along and session C gets under way,
I finally feel like I have the authority and right to expound on
the entertainment industry ““ or “the industry,”
as lame people call it.

We all know Los Angeles is bursting with film and television
jobs. I mean, it’s Hollywood right? So I think I am forgiven
in choosing to look to the entertainment business in my search for
a nearby summer internship.

I started my development internship at Fox Television Studios. I
didn’t really know what to expect. The position consisted of
some script reading and coverage. When I found out I’d get to
hang out on the Fox lot, I thought hey, cool.

Sure the internship was unpaid, but most of them are, and I just
wanted the experience. Because it’s unpaid, the internship
position requires that I receive school credit. Not only is this
lame because I don’t need the credit for English 199 and the
extra units are in fact a bad thing if I double major, but I have
to do all this extra work (okay just journals and papers, but
still). And since it’s a summer sessions class, I have to pay
per unit.

When I realized I would essentially be paying for my internship,
the whole experience factor didn’t mean as much.

Despite the drawbacks, the internship is actually pretty cool.
We get rotated between different departments. There’s office
work, covering desks, answering phones, reading scripts, practicing
writing coverage, photocopying, filing, and researching. We have a
good amount of freedom, we get all the water and carbonated
beverages we want, I’ve eaten birthday cake twice, we get to
walk around and meet random people, listen to guest speakers, and
hang out with friendly, resourceful assistants.

I have to say I have never felt more like a misanthropic English
major than when I am sitting there pondering the other interns, who
bring in plates and baskets full of home baked goods and matching
napkins for all the executives and assistants. And when I see an
intern rush in and make a beeline to the counter so she can start
brewing the coffee for everyone–even though she’s early, is
it bad that I want to gag? After all, you only get as much out of
an internship as you put in, right?

My internship coordinator told us the first day that her motto
is just to meet people and have fun. But it’s not all fun and
games. A lot of my fellow interns are serious about their
networking. They will introduce themselves and volunteer their
services to anyone. In a room with one guest speaker and thirty
interns you can bet that there will be a handful of the thirty who
will ask fifty questions each and then crowd around the speaker
afterwards to shake hands and exchange e-mail addresses.

And there is already smack-talking among interns. I get the
feeling interns really don’t care about other interns because
they view them as either useless or competition.

Interns leave the room and others start talking about them like,
“Dude, you guys should hear what this intern was saying in
that executive’s office” or something, and then that
intern leaves and another starts gossiping. I find it fascinating,
in a Discovery Channel kind of way.

Despite everything, interning has been a really good experience.
If anything, maybe it’s shown me I don’t want to work
in the film industry. Or maybe I’ll change my mind; the
internship is only half way over, after all. Who knows what might
happen in the next month?

So hey, since you’re already here in Los Angeles, the
entertainment capital of the world, why not take the opportunity to
find out if it’s the thing for you? Do an internship. Meet
people and have fun. And maybe you’ll learn a little
something in the process.