Last Day of New Job

Hey guys. Last week I stage managed the H-W Dance Concert, and this week I've been interning at NASH Entertainment. It's a production company that produces reality clip shows (mostly for Tru TV). My cousin used to work here and one of her friends is a pretty important honcho around here (y'know, I'm not entirely certain what he does, but he has a nice office and seems pretty important so... yeah) so he set me up with a weeklong internship/learning opportunity. Like my week at "The Suite Life," my first reaction was complete and utter culture shock, simply because every facet of the completely nutso entertainment industry is different. I'm looking into summer jobs and I'm thinking of applying either to work at the Getty (preferably in photography, of course) or volunteering 3-4 days a week at Cedars Sinai hospital. I think the hospital one would be a nice change of pace for me after spending this year exploring "the industry."

Anyway, NASH produces these clip shows. I'm working in the offices for the show "Most Daring," which is in its 4th season. The 4th season actually wraps this week (except for post-production), and they start on season 5 I think next week. It's a show compiled of clips of people doing ridiculous things (crashing ATVs, falling through trampolines, etc...) or in ridiculous situations (tornadoes, houses washed away by a river, etc...). They have another show in production called "Most Shocking," which is pretty much the same. They also both feature a lot of footage from the police about crazy crimes and chases.

Most of the employees in the office spend their time trolling the internet or hunting down tips to find new videos to feature on the show. Each episode is themed, for example right now they're working on "Senior Smackdown" (ridiculous old people). The researchers have to find the source of the clip, contact that person, arrange licensing fees (which is finalized by clearance), and set up interviews with the people involved in the incident (the show tells stories through a combination of voice over written by staff writers and interviews with the people involved).  I spent a lot of time with the production coordinator and the licensing departments, as well as observing two different editors at work.  I also got to use the avid (editing tool) just to transfer some segments from one sequence to another, which was nice of the guy to let me try.

I was there for a good week, since Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day, and one of the guys in post-production made corned beef for the whole office and we had a little pot luck buffet.  And then today was someone's birthday, so there was (delicious) ice cream cake, and one of the women in clearance is pregnant.  The office had a pool about whether the baby would be a boy or a girl, and it's gonna be a boy so everyone who guessed "girl" had to buy the others pizza.  So basically, I got a lot of free food!