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From Dec 28 to Jan 14, a group of 16 ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú undergraduate students participated in the Inside Hollywood study away program, which is designed to equip students who are interested in working in entertainment with the experiences and relationships they need to succeed in a constantly changing industry.

The trip was led by Andy Rice, a documentary filmmaker, critical media theorist, and associate professor in the Department of Media, Journalism, and Film. This is his second year leading the Inside Hollywood program, having taught it last year after a COVID-induced three-year hiatus.

“The first goal of the course is to introduce students to a range of different professions that they could pursue in the film and entertainment industry,” said Rice. 

Inside Hollywood students pose with Conan O'Brien
at his podcast studio.

“Production students at ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú can take on a variety of different roles, but they usually don’t know what, outside of a fraction of the jobs,  you can actually do out there.”

Rice admitted that there were a few challenges that he faced when taking on such an ambitious role.

“The last two years have been strange,” Rice said, acknowledging the four-year gap. “This year, when I was planning the program, there was a writers strike in Hollywood, and there are still plenty of people who are nervous about COVID.”

Despite such obstacles, enabling his students to meet with so many people in the entertainment industry – especially ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú University alumni – made it worth the effort.

“Another goal is to allow students to make contacts with people who are going to care about them, since they’re ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú alumni, and they want to help them out,” said Rice. “Students get to talk to over 50 people, and 90 percent of them are ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú alumni.”

Among the alumni speakers during the trip were Sarah Brumett, content manager of feature animation at Netflix, and Jason C. Brown, an assistant director known for such titles as Drunk History (2013) and the Emmy Award Winning television feature Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022). Both Brumett and Brown, as well as around 40 others, sat down with students to talk about their journeys through the entertainment industry, providing valuable insights and advice that they gleaned from personal experiences.

Students on set at the NFL Network.                     

While on this trip, students (including this author) met professionals from many different areas within the entertainment industry. Among other sites, they visited Netflix, the NFL Network, Warner Brothers, and Conan O’Brien’s podcasting studio, where Conan spoke for an hour with the students before recording a show. They also shadowed at a company for one day.

“There were a lot of memorable experiences,” said Jill Rimer, a senior majoring in Media and Communications. “Outside of our professional meetups, we went and saw a Groundlings show, which is an improv comedy group out in LA – it was really cool to see people in their element, doing fun things like that.”

“I enjoyed talking to Eric Lange, an actor – even though I’m not interested in becoming one, the conversation we had with him was really interesting,” said Riley Peters, a senior Journalism major with a co-major in Media and Communications. “We talked a lot about where the industry is, and where it’s going in terms of things like AI and strikes. I really enjoyed that conversation, because it was very real, and also very validating for us.”

This author shadowed at Fox Corporation alongside five other students. The group spent the day following Scott Edwards, executive vice president and head of creative advertising at Fox Entertainment, who gave them a tour of the entire office and introduced them to other professionals working at the company. 

A wide range of professional and casual experiences allowed students to explore many options that were not only relevant to their area of study, but also that they may not have considered before. By the end of the trip, they discovered new career paths that inspired their goals going forward.

“I decided to try the Inside Hollywood program to see what else is out there, and I ended up falling in love with the agency world,” said Maya Mehlman, a senior majoring in Media and Communications. “We went to the Creative Arts Agency, which is one of the biggest talent representation agencies in LA. We got to talk to the voiceover department, which was awesome.”

As the industry in Los Angeles continues to change, so too will the Inside Hollywood program. With so many uncertainties in such a difficult time for all workers in entertainment, it is hard to predict what next year’s students should expect to see and experience.

“Los Angeles is a permanently different city after COVID, since much of the work remains remote,” Rice said. “It’s hard to say what exactly we’ll be able to do next year, but it seems to me that, even if we can just have one person at a time come talk to us about their pathway to their career now, it’s valuable, and you learn a lot from it.”

The full list of this year’s Inside Hollywood student participants includes:

• Alex Ambro
• Finn Behnfeldt
• Julian Bialous
• Evelyn Engle
• Ben Grime
• Reece Hallowell
• Deanna Hay
• Mars LaMue
• Shannon Lauer
• Luke Macy
• Bronte Mark
• Maya Mehlman
• Riley Peters
• Jill Rimer
• Charlotte Tirola
• Noah Woods