Four alumni who have found success in television and film returned to campus Sunday, offering straightforward advice for breaking into an industry that can be anything but.
Though the panelists’ career paths have differed, they found common ground in something as ubiquitous in television as commercials, and often as annoying: The Intern.
“There are two types of interns: one group thinks what they’re doing is beneath them, and you hear them complaining that they had a 3.7 GPA in college and now all they’re doing is delivering bagels,” said James Margolis ’93, a supervising producer for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” “Then there are interns who take an interest in the process, want to know how it all works. You always have to remember, you won’t be making coffee forever.”
“Just for seven years!” quipped Bex Schwartz ’00, On-Air Promotions Manager for VH1 and an occasional “comediator,” or on-air commentator, for programs on the channel.
“The interns I remember make an effort,” said Matthew Senreich ’96, co-creator of Cartoon Network’s animated pop culture parody “Robot Chicken.” “They say ’good morning,’ they ask questions. Some are afraid to look me in the eye because I’m the boss, and I’m like, what is that? It’s silly, but everyone does know each other in Hollywood. Make an effort and your boss will think of you and recommend you to other people.”
Schwartz agreed.
“Interns I’ve had who I remember as awesome were engaged,” she said. “They didn’t sit around reading magazines all day—they asked questions, they asked me about choices I was making. It’s those people I earmark for hiring.”
All of the panelists wanted to work in the entertainment industry after college, but admitted to being lost and confused on the eve of graduation.
“I was an English and theater double major, and when I graduated I was looking to do avant-garde performance theater, but I don’t have a trust fund and I needed a day job,” Schwartz said.
Jacob Robinson ’04, founder of Brooklyn Abridged Films, a soon-to-launch internet film community, found himself in a similar situation.
“I was a theater and government major, and I was ready to take the theater world by storm when I graduated, but I wasn’t coming from a trust fund either,” he said. “I wound up moving to New York and took a job doing financial advising.”
Senreich applied for dozens of jobs and received enough rejections to wallpaper an entire wall, which he actually did. Margolis wrote letters to dozens of alumni in search of a break.
“One out of 40 letters got a response, and he helped me out and made some calls,” he said. “I don’t know how my Wesleyan degree helped me, or if it did. One thing just led to another.”
Schwartz thinks her liberal arts education has given her an edge over others she has encountered working in media.
“You’re well-rounded, you know how the world works, you’ve taken sociology classes and you know statistics,” she said. “I don’t care what you majored in. What it really comes down to is, are you smart? Can you write something?”
Robinson, the most recent graduate on the panel, is currently considering a return to school for film, but advised undergraduates to take some time before moving on to graduate school.
“You learn a lot about yourself in those first few years out,” he said. “Now I know what the gaps are in what I know, and I learned that by doing. You have to figure out if you even want to do what you think you do. You might want to be a film producer, start doing it, and realize it sucks!”
Schwartz was also glad she delayed graduate school to get some real-world experience.
“Take time off after college, feel out the world,” she said. “Go to New York, start working. If I had gone straight to Yale Drama School, which was my plan, my life would be completely different.”
The panelists admitted that most people looking to work in the entertainment industry will have to struggle for a few years, even taking on multiple jobs to make ends meet.
“What better time to have two jobs than right after college?” asked Senreich.
“Right out of school you can burn the candle at both ends,” agreed Schwartz. “This is the time in your career when you don’t sleep, people! Before you get old.”
Panelists admitted that working in entertainment can test a person’s idealism, and all have grappled with questions of artistic integrity from time to time.
“Yes, I work for Viacom, a scary multinational corporation that goes against every fiber of my Wesleyan being,” said Senreich. “But honestly, I was doing avant-garde theatre for four people on the Lower East Side, and now I’m doing things seen by millions on VH1. Sure, we’re not saving the world, but we’re giving the people who are saving the world something to watch when they get home.”
“As people from the East Coast will understand, I never expected to live in L.A.,” said Senreich. “L.A. sucks out your soul! But it’s the place you need to be to do this work. And I have the best job, really. I play with toys for a living.”
Students appreciated the panelists’ honesty, especially seniors contending with early rejection.
“I was very impressed by their willingness to answer and expand upon the questions that the students had,” Steve Sunu ’08 said. “I learned that I probably shouldn’t be daunted by the heaps of rejection letters I’ve been getting, and that persistence will hopefully be rewarded.”
Janie Stolar ’’08 found it encouraging that the panelists didn’t follow a specific formula to get from Wesleyan to where they are, but found success through determination.
“I think it’s easy to feel discouraged by the whole entertainment application process,” said Janie Stolar ’08. “There’s tons of competition and everyone else has a connection and you don’t. The panelists did a great job of expressing that seniors shouldn’t worry about facing rejection but just keep applying to anything and everything. That’s great advice, especially because they all have jobs that I would kill for.”
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