Catholic in Film School

As I’ve already said before, I’m now interning both at Origin Entertainment and Family Theater Productions. I’ve been at Origin for about a month now, and I had my first day at Family Theater on Friday. From time to time I’ll let you know how things are going, so consider this the first post of the “Intern Chronicles:”

Origin Entertainment

The majority of the work I’ve been doing has been on expanding The Genesis Initiative. I’ve been surprised by how much responsibility they’ve given me so quickly. Last week I had a very long meeting with Dick Lyles, as well as briefly met Barbara Nicolosi….

Fun fact: Although Origin is a Catholic based production company, I’m actually the only Catholic in the office on a daily basis. I’ll have to make a post about Catholic-Protestant conflict/discrimination within the entertainment industry one day…it’s something we talk about often in the office as it is a dirty little secret of the faith-based entertainment industry. 

Below is the “entrance” to the high school on “90210″…it’s actually the right side of the studio lot’s main parking structure…I have to walk past the cast members’ trailers to get from our building to anywhere else on the lot…the ones I’ve seen have been very nice and friendly.

I parked a few spots to the right of this one day and got very nerdily excited when I realized what the sign said:

Family Theater Productions

The first part of my first day was spent learning the  ridiculously intricate simple-to-use phone system. Answering the phone isn’t hard (obviously), but forwarding to voicemails, especially if the said person is already talking to someone on a different line, proved to be slightly complicated. I manned the phones correctly for about a half hour under the watch of two of the production assistants, but after lunch the entire staff had a meeting and I had to man the phones by myself…I accidentally hung up on someone and ended up being super awkward on the phone with one of our actors/celebrity supporters.

One thing I really like about FTP is that if I want to go to mass or say a rosary, all I have to do is walk down the hall; plus the office staff says novenas and has holy hours for special occasions. Everyone has been very warm and welcoming to me, and I’m looking forward to the projects I’ll be given next week…in addition to manning the phones for a few hours.

Yesterday was “Moreau Day,” aka Fr. Patrick Peyton’s birthday celebration. Every year there is an event to celebrate, and this one was particularly special as it was his 100th birthday:

That cake was GOOD…

I’m happy to report I am very comfortable both at Origin and FTP. I’m not really surprised as much as relieved and grateful because I’ve heard other students talk about feeling intimidated or not getting the experience they were looking for at internships…I have to thank God for shepherding me because up until this point I’ve had a great time and I’ve learned a lot, especially at Origin.

Pax Christi, Rebecca.