“Chris Anderson  is a senior at Middlebury. He is a Film and Media Studies major, writes for the Middlebury Campus and does reviews for current films. This past summer, with the generous funding of Middlebury Arts Council, Chris interned with Focus Advisory Services, an entertainment industry.”

I interned with a company called Focus Advisory Services. My contact within the company, Phil Fier, is an alumnus of the college. I split duties between working for him—he does private consulting for startup companies and independent film producers—and the company for whom he is the CFO, Leomax Entertainment. At the time I arrived, Leomax had just put out a film called Grace, a lower-budgeted horror film. Being behind the scenes for that alone would have been a boon to my film education; learning about its distribution, production and critical reception was extremely helpful. But I was exposed to much more.

I was able to do script coverage, a duty for employees low on the totem pole in Hollywood (but helpful for an aspiring television writer). I modified the language in business plans for future film projects. I learned how to prepare comparables—films with comparable genres and budgets—to estimate potential earnings for future projects. I learned about the distribution process for independent and studio-produced films. I proofread legalese for a pending lawsuit brokered by my boss. I was exposed to real figures and the people who crafted and interpreted them. So much of what I did couldn’t have been garnered in the classroom alone. The tools I had access to, and the people and the content, were invaluable.

I entered into the internship hoping to bolster my knowledge of creative conventions in screenwriting, and to learn about the business side of the film industry. My endgame was to know how to navigate its terrain after college to get a job in television. The internship has helped me to understand how to do that. It has given me contacts who have been generous with their time and resources.

Overall, the experience has strengthened my resolve to work in some capacity in the television or film industries. I better appreciate the time and extreme effort that goes into a project from development to post-production. And I’ve also developed a level of comfort and confidence with the notion of being involved in it. My internship was an invaluable experience, and I thank you sincerely for enabling it.