The past semester at Fox Searchlight Pictures has gone well. I reported to Allison Hobson, the assistant to Mary Ann Hult who is the manager of publicity in New York.
My basic duties were answering phones; photocopying; collaborating "breaks"; setting up for screenings; keeping track of RSVPs for screenings; sending out press kits to various magazines, newspapers, and websites; keeping inventory of press kits, art, and production notes; and possibly assisting with press conferences. Unfortunately there weren't any press conferences that I was able to help with. When my schedule permitted, I read production notes of Fox's up and coming films. This was a good way to familiarize myself with the director and cast of the films being released and to better prepare the "breaks" each morning.
The "breaks" are the gathering of articles related to Fox Searchlight films and/or of the actors in their films. Each morning I skimmed through the Daily News, New York Post, and the New York Times. I looked for stories containing any positive mention of a Fox film or any actor in a Fox film. When and if I did find a story, I clipped it out, copied it, attached a memo to it, and faxed it over to the L.A. office. This was a way of keeping the staff in L.A. up-to-date with any publicity coverage in New York. A good example is when Hillary Swank won a Golden Globe award as well as an Oscar for Best Actress for her role in "Boys Don't Cry". For days after she won, there was a lot of coverage about it in the papers. I was able to put together various articles about her and send them to L.A.
On many occasions, a magazine, newspaper, website, or television show would request a press kit as well as art, from a movie to be reviewed and published or aired. The press kits include the trailers, production notes, and brief biographies of the cast. The art is the photographs of scenes from a particular film. I'd take down all the necessary information and make sure they received it by the requested deadline. I also kept a log of who I sent press kits and art to and the date they are scheduled to run. This being for inventory purposes.
When a screening was to take place, I'd call the theater and put a screening room on hold. I would send out the invitations and keep a record of the RSVPs. Most of the people that would attend were film critics and writers. At select screenings, the director, producer, and some of the cast would attend. They meet and greet the guests and make themselves available for autographs. The screenings were fun and gave me a first glance at what's to be released.
An other part of my position was helping to organize press conferences. They're usually held right before a new film is about to be released. During my stay at Fox there were no new releases since "Titus" and "Boys Don't Cry". Hence there were no press releases, at least none that I was aware of . The next two films to be released are "Soft Fruit" and "Woman on Top", opening early this summer. At a press conference, I would have had to check the guests in and make sure they are on the invite list. The guests are the press: newspaper reporters, magazine writers, the director, and some of it's cast. Allison told me that in some cases, the intern and assistant would drive around with an actor and keep them occupied for the day. This sounded really exciting and I definitely would have liked to be part of it. This was a disappointment for me.
I learned some of the process of getting a movie launched and acknowledged by the public. There is a lot of preparation in getting a film publicized. It's one thing to make a movie and anther to get people to actually want to go and see it!
In the beginning I thought the internship was interesting and had a lot of potential. Though, as the semester went on, not much happened. The screenings were fun to attend but that was the biggest highlight of it. Many of the days were slow with little going on. In my interview with Allison, I was told that there may be some "down time". That meant that there would be little to do in between released movies and movies to come. That was fine with me. Allison said that I was welcomed to do school work and such. The maj or downfall was that this seemed a little too often. It sounded more glamorous and fun in the initial interview than it actually turned out to be.
Overall it was a decent internship. I'm slightly disappointed that that things didn't pick up when I was there. Still, I was able to network and ask questions about the Publicity field. I left on good terms and was told to contact them whenever I needed a letter of recommendation.