Thoughts of the internship...

KC was the first interview I had during the process of finding my internship for my program called Grady LA. KC is a Los Angeles based production company and produces reality shows. As a “writer” I never imagined myself coming up with content that would fit in a reality TV show, but here I am, coming up with odd shows and writing treatments so far out of left field it could give an owl whiplash. So far I have met a round of very animated interns whose names I am going to change for privacy reasons. So for my own entertainment, and maybe yours too, I’m going to acquire a Seven Dwarfs kind of naming system to help describe the interns but also have something to call them. Sorry if that was convoluted but I really don’t care.  

It has only been two days with my internship and already I feel like I’ve been here for two months with the other interns. I was nervous because the first day wasn’t as warm. One because it was cold in the building, and two, the tranquility of Monday only made things more awkward for an obnoxious person such as myself. Especially on my first day. But day two has hit it out of the park. Our coordinator/mentor, Skinny, is a difficult one to gage. Most of the time I can’t tell if he is satisfied with what he’s hearing or completely uncomfortable. Unfortunately it’s not in my nature to be bogged down by the confusion of others’ judgments, so I’m assuming he’s moderately uncomfortable the majority of the time until proven otherwise.  

The other guys, Jive (Lax bro perpetually bugged with headphones), Brainstorm (constantly turning the most mundane things we talk about into a tv show),  Strut (this gamer who thinks he’s the shit and walks like it… but he’s, like, totally not the shit), Deutsch (all the way from Germany!), and G-Flat (she’s in an A capella group back at home, but basic as all get out).  And Skinny got his name because he can rock skinny jeans because he is actually… skinny. Anyway. If you can’t keep up with all the different names, or don’t care to, that’s fine with me because I’ll probably forget them too. Except Brainstorm; she’s a hard one to tune out, thus hard to forget.

Wish I could tell you some crazy things have happened at my internship so far, but things have been pretty tame. Skinny likes to keep things as educational as possible so our assignments don’t require us to know how to change paper in the copier or restock snacks. No, they have this one Tim Burton rendition of a child doing that for us. I don’t know how old he is, but his jet-black mane of angst, vampiric pallor, and shady demeanor tells me he’s either got a dad or cool uncle that works at KC and was desperate for him to back away from the Magic table and receive some social interaction… with 100 calorie packs of pretzels but hey close enough. As you, Andres, if you actually read these things, said to us, “Everyone starts somewhere.” But I digress.

So far we have watched a couple of new pilots that recently aired, had a meeting over them, and also had a mock pitch session for tv shows we developed. My show was a mixture between Grey’s Anatomy and The Real World. I thought my idea was all right, it was a lot more interesting than some of the other pitches (not to toot my own horn, I’m just saying). 

I’m only on the third day. In case you wanted to know, the book of Genesis states that God decided on the third day that dry land would be called Earth and the wet stuff would be called Sea. It’s the third day for me here at KC, and already I feel as though I’ve found some solid ground. As far as the sea goes, the only sinking feeling I have felt about this internship happens when I see the red taillights of the 405 bumper to bumper traffic. That’s when (don’t do this at home, kids) I pull out my cell phone and call my mom… or friends… or take pictures of funny license plates/bumper stickers.