First week of the internship

Here is some background about me first…

I grew up in Williamsburg, Virginia, a small tourist town. Two years ago, I found out that I did not get into any of the colleges I applied to and it broke my heart. I had my heart set on getting out of Williamsburg and having a college experience somewhere new. The next step was to find out what schools were still accepting applications. I applied to the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and I was accepted! I had never been to the west coast and was excited that I would be able to get my college education somewhere I had never been!

Fast forward to sophomore year. First semester was a tough one. My writing and reporting class required us to write one story per week on a given subject (ex: court story, crime story, diversity story etc) 12 stories total. In addition, we had to have at least six stories published. I was overwhelmed, stressed and second guessing my decision to major in journalism. I could not think of anything else I wanted to do; I LOVE writing and I have since I was four years old. I decided to stick with the major and I am so happy I did.

Last summer, my good friend Chris’ godmother, Ariel, told me about a PR firm in Los Angeles she used to work for. Since its focus is entertainment, I knew it was right up my alley. This past semester I applied to be one of their summer interns and I got the internship!! I was ecstatic and could not believe how far I had come in the past two years. Getting this internship is something I have worked very hard for. This internship is one of the many steps that will lead me to my dream job in the entertainment/ public relations industry.

A little about the firm:

The firm has four different divisions: film, television, digital media and home entertainment (DVD/Blu Ray). Interns rotate to different divisions bi-weekly. Currently I am working in home entertainment and a little in TV.

About the first week…

I started on Monday of this week. The first day was mainly orientation; I met everyone, learned what my daily duties will be stuff like that. At the end of the day, some women who work in television asked us interns if we would be able to help with a press junket on Tuesday. I said yes…very smart decision.

Tuesday I woke up at the crack of dawn and drove to Warner Bros in Burbank. The press junket was for a new TV show that will premiere on ABC Family June 8th at 8 pm. The show is called ‘Pretty Little Liars'[watch trailer here]starring Ashley Benson, Troian Bellsario, Lucy Hale, Shay Mitchell, Laura Leighton and Ian Harding. People are calling the show ‘a teenage Desperate Housewives’ it looks soo good and very juicy. It is filled with cliques, a mysterious death, and a hot affair. Back to the press junket, this was my first time ever being to a TV set and it was sooo cool! TV makes everything look much bigger though. My job was to show various media outlets where they would be interviewing the actors. Once the press was where they needed to be, it was time to bring in the actors. First was Ashley Benson, the star of the show (girls might remember her from some of the ‘Bring it On’ movies). Ashley was in and out of her interviews pretty quickly because production needed her for filming all day. The rest of the actors gave longer interviews and I helped with making sure interviews were going smoothly and the actors made it around to each media outlet. Some of the outlets that came were E! Online, OMG!! Seriously? WTF??, HollyWire, Alloy, ESPNU and Young Hollywood.

Overall, it was a very cool experience and I am glad I was invited to help.

*Fun Fact* the stage I visited is the same stage where Casablanca, ER and The Perfect Storm were filmed.

Yesterday was a tedious workday. I composed press lists, and got scene stills ready for the DVD/ Blu Ray release of Gossip Girl, Smallville, The Mentalist, Chuck, Vampire Diaries and Supernatural….I won’t bore with details.

Next week I am going to a film screening and will update then!!