Hollywood Goes to the Comics
By Mary Beth Gentle
Every summer without fail Hollywood gets their ‘geek on’ and goes to the Comics. The biggest movies of the summer are usually based on one comic book character or another. What was once considered light reading for children or a favorite pastime for the geek-at-heart has become a mega-million dollar business, a business which Hollywood has always been only too happy to capitalize upon. This summer alone we have Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and, of course, Batman.
And nowhere are these comics bigger or their fans more serious about their Comics, their Movies and their TV than at the San Diego International Comic-Con. This is an annual event held every July in the San Diego, California Convention Center. For those of you that have not heard of it, you might think, hmmm…a comic book convention and immediately picture a bunch of geeks reading, buying and trading comics.
Well, it may have started out that way back in the seventies when the attendance was around three hundred people, but today it is one of the largest conventions in America with last year’s attendance topping around 127,000 people. It is one of the biggest arenas for the large and small Hollywood Studios to not only pitch and promote their latest line-ups, but to search out known and unknown comic book artists and writers in hopes of finding the next big summer hit.
And it affects even those of us sitting in the Hollywood cubicles. In the months leading up to Comic-Con, Studio Publicity Departments and the Filmmakers are busy planning out their Booths, their Panels and their Clip Reels. And by booths, I don’t mean a small table with a pile of posters on it, the Hollywood majors go all out.
At last years Comic-Con, Walt Disney Studios built a replica of the front of the Pirate ship from Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End that the fans could walk through to see a display of costumes and props from the movie. NBC Studios brought an entire set from the TV Show Heroes to put up in the middle of the convention center. I can tell you right now, they don’t do that at Cannes.
The biggest events at Comic-Con are the Film and TV Cast Panels. This year they will have talent there from; Lost, Stargate, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Twilight, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Battlestar Galactica, Pushing Daisies and those are just to name a few. Not to mention that the official name of Friday at Comic-Con is ‘Star Wars Day’. There are four days of panels, screenings and events that are for the most part already sold out.
Over the years, the level of talent that has come to Comic-Con could compete with that of Cannes or Sundance. But, the focus here is comics, so it will never get the critical acclaim or media coverage of those other big events. But, who cares about critical acclaim, this is Comic-Con. This is where the ‘geek’ gets to be a king for a few days every year. And take it from one big Movie, TV and okay…Comic Book Geek…there is nothing like it. Sundance may be where the cool kids go, but I’m telling you right now, Comic-Con is where the party is.
The other big event at Comic-Con every year is a little thing called, “Trailer Park”. This is where the Studios, big and small, premiere all their new trailers for upcoming movies. They take one of the largest rooms at the Convention Center and hang rows of giant screens so that no matter what seat you end up with, you can still see all the action.
The Studios may act like they don’t care about anyone but themselves the rest of the year, but once a year at Comic-Con they do remember the most important thing; the Fans. And the Fans are the reason those people sitting in the big offices and those of us in the Hollywood Cubicles have jobs. And I for one am glad that Hollywood has gone to the Comics.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The Valley Wire - 6/20/2008 Column
Hollywood and the Summer Intern
By Mary Beth Gentle
It is that time of year in Hollywood that Summer Interns take their first steps into the exciting and glamorous world of the entertainment business. And those of us in the Hollywood cubicles are doing one of two things this time of year, we are either reminiscing about our own internships or we are stacking up dusty piles of long forgotten paperwork for the new intern to sort thru and file. Depending on how fondly we all remember our own internships will determine how high the pile of filing will be.
For me, my Internship was spent in a Producer’s office located at Raleigh Studios. Raleigh Studios is a small independent Film Studio in the heart of Hollywood. They opened back in 1915 as the Famous Players Fiction Studios. Silent film era icon, Charlie Chaplin, was one of the owners and filmed many projects there.
For a kid from nowhere’s-ville USA, it was a dream come true. I was going to work for a Producer on a historic Hollywood Studio lot, right across the street from Paramount Studios. It was a coveted internship and it was mine. I couldn’t wait to be a part of the Industry that I had spent a lifetime (all twenty-two years) reading about, studying obsessively and absorbing every detail I could get my hands on. This was going to be amazing I was going to be right in the middle of it, working in a Producer’s office, making movies.
Instead, I spent three months making all new files for the entire office and learning the in’s and out’s of the fascinating world of copy machine operation. The only time I saw the Producer was to get her a glass of water one day. I don’t think she actually knew who I was or why I was there, but she was thirsty and I was handy. Welcome to Hollywood. I wasn’t exactly sure how this internship was going to move me closer to my goals or how I could somehow spin this to make it sound really exciting to the folks back at home.
But, as with anything in life, it is what you make it. And I made the most of those three months that I could. I made files. I made the best darn files that were ever made. I took that simple task and I set out to impress anyone that would take notice. And in my case, and the case of my impressive files, it was the Producer’s Assistant. She had the all-encompassing job of managing the ever-ringing phone lines and Calendar for the Producer. And as busy as she was, she took the time to give a kid a break and she shared what she knew about the business.
Every day I would go to lunch with that Assistant. We would walk across the street to the Paramount lot and she would introduce me to the guys delivering the mail, to the security guys guarding the Sound Stages and to other Producer Assistant’s hanging out in the commissary and somewhere along the way I realized that it didn’t matter what title someone had or how high up the Hollywood ladder they were, everyone had a story to tell and all I had to do was listen. So, I listened and I learned a lot that summer.
This year, my fellow Hollywood Cubicle dwellers and I have an intern of our very own. His name is Mike, Mike the Intern, and he comes to us all the way from Georgetown University. The week before he started, I could see my co-worker’s minds working overtime and their fingers furiously typing lists of things he could do for them. They were like kids making out their lists for Santa.
I asked Mike the Intern what this experience meant to him. “This internship means one thing to me, and that's opportunity. I am at ground zero of the largest production company in the world and am looking foreword to not only a great summer, but to set the stage for a future career in the industry.”
I also asked him what he hoped to learn this summer that would help him achieve his career goals. “This summer I want nothing else, but to learn as much as I can about the industry. I want to have a firm grasp on every gear and axle that makes up the entertainment machine. Not only to narrow down my full time job, but to be knowledgeable about the entire process, so I can better understand how my role fits in the overall context of the industry.”
Mike the Intern has been working with us for a few weeks now, and yes we have had him sort thru piles of old paperwork and okay maybe we have had him make a file or two, but we have also made it our mission to show him as much as we can about the movie making process. In a few short weeks he has been to the film processing lab, he has been to a dubbing stage and he has had the opportunity to observe a day of shooting on a sound stage. Because luckily for him, we all do remember what it was like to be young, eager and an intern.
By Mary Beth Gentle
It is that time of year in Hollywood that Summer Interns take their first steps into the exciting and glamorous world of the entertainment business. And those of us in the Hollywood cubicles are doing one of two things this time of year, we are either reminiscing about our own internships or we are stacking up dusty piles of long forgotten paperwork for the new intern to sort thru and file. Depending on how fondly we all remember our own internships will determine how high the pile of filing will be.
For me, my Internship was spent in a Producer’s office located at Raleigh Studios. Raleigh Studios is a small independent Film Studio in the heart of Hollywood. They opened back in 1915 as the Famous Players Fiction Studios. Silent film era icon, Charlie Chaplin, was one of the owners and filmed many projects there.
For a kid from nowhere’s-ville USA, it was a dream come true. I was going to work for a Producer on a historic Hollywood Studio lot, right across the street from Paramount Studios. It was a coveted internship and it was mine. I couldn’t wait to be a part of the Industry that I had spent a lifetime (all twenty-two years) reading about, studying obsessively and absorbing every detail I could get my hands on. This was going to be amazing I was going to be right in the middle of it, working in a Producer’s office, making movies.
Instead, I spent three months making all new files for the entire office and learning the in’s and out’s of the fascinating world of copy machine operation. The only time I saw the Producer was to get her a glass of water one day. I don’t think she actually knew who I was or why I was there, but she was thirsty and I was handy. Welcome to Hollywood. I wasn’t exactly sure how this internship was going to move me closer to my goals or how I could somehow spin this to make it sound really exciting to the folks back at home.
But, as with anything in life, it is what you make it. And I made the most of those three months that I could. I made files. I made the best darn files that were ever made. I took that simple task and I set out to impress anyone that would take notice. And in my case, and the case of my impressive files, it was the Producer’s Assistant. She had the all-encompassing job of managing the ever-ringing phone lines and Calendar for the Producer. And as busy as she was, she took the time to give a kid a break and she shared what she knew about the business.
Every day I would go to lunch with that Assistant. We would walk across the street to the Paramount lot and she would introduce me to the guys delivering the mail, to the security guys guarding the Sound Stages and to other Producer Assistant’s hanging out in the commissary and somewhere along the way I realized that it didn’t matter what title someone had or how high up the Hollywood ladder they were, everyone had a story to tell and all I had to do was listen. So, I listened and I learned a lot that summer.
This year, my fellow Hollywood Cubicle dwellers and I have an intern of our very own. His name is Mike, Mike the Intern, and he comes to us all the way from Georgetown University. The week before he started, I could see my co-worker’s minds working overtime and their fingers furiously typing lists of things he could do for them. They were like kids making out their lists for Santa.
I asked Mike the Intern what this experience meant to him. “This internship means one thing to me, and that's opportunity. I am at ground zero of the largest production company in the world and am looking foreword to not only a great summer, but to set the stage for a future career in the industry.”
I also asked him what he hoped to learn this summer that would help him achieve his career goals. “This summer I want nothing else, but to learn as much as I can about the industry. I want to have a firm grasp on every gear and axle that makes up the entertainment machine. Not only to narrow down my full time job, but to be knowledgeable about the entire process, so I can better understand how my role fits in the overall context of the industry.”
Mike the Intern has been working with us for a few weeks now, and yes we have had him sort thru piles of old paperwork and okay maybe we have had him make a file or two, but we have also made it our mission to show him as much as we can about the movie making process. In a few short weeks he has been to the film processing lab, he has been to a dubbing stage and he has had the opportunity to observe a day of shooting on a sound stage. Because luckily for him, we all do remember what it was like to be young, eager and an intern.
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