Ross Weisman

7/21/2016
Professor Tutelman
MSP 4785, Sec. 901
Summer Internship Reflection
The moment I was accepted into the London Summer Internship
program, the first thing I thought about was where I wanted to work. All I
knew was that I wanted to work in a writing environment because of my
comedy writing aspirations. I thought about the BBC and British television
shows I was aware of. I browsed several classifieds on the Dream Careers
website and had an interview with a local production studio. I was rejected
for not having enough experience with certain software. I was disappointed
as I wanted to work hands-on in the entertainment industry, but after
discussions with my internship coordinator, I applied to Felix de Wolfe, one of
Londons oldest talent agencies. The rationale behind this was that I could
see the other side of the industry, before anyone arrives on set. At the end
my interview with Felix de Wolfe, I was offered a position and accepted on
the spot. I was confident in my decision including the kindness of my
interviewer, the kinds of work I would be doing, and the fact that I would
have an office to myself twice a week.
Arriving at my internship site the first day, my supervisor Caroline gave
me a tour of our two room office space connected by a short hallway and
kitchenette. She logged me into the official intern email address and
explained the basics of the software Felix de Wolfe uses with their clients,
FileMaker Pro and AgentFile. She then handed me a spiral notepad and
twenty-something chapters of a manuscript and showed me to my desk. Her
instructions were clear: read and review. My first week was mainly me sitting
in my chair and reading a clients work. I believe I set the objectives Caroline
set for me: learn how to use the office software and be able to log
information into the system, read clients written work and give honest
feedback about it, and above all, be vocal about my needs.
As a younger person, I was able to learn AgentFile and FileMaker Pro
pretty fast. Pretty soon after I began, Caroline was sending me work records
and appointments to log into the system, and I was finishing them minutes
after I received them. When Caroline gave me a script or book to read and
critique, I would dive into it and have my thoughts in a few days. This
efficiency of mine, however, started to become a double-edged sword.
Caroline and her associates are running a company and only have so much
work a short-term intern can do. There have been stretches of time during
my internship where I ran out of tasks to complete, but nothing else to do at
the time. Halfway through my internship, I slowed down in asking Caroline for
more work to do. She was constantly on the phone and would give me tasks
whenever possible, but I was sometimes met with a shrug, that there was no
work for me at the moment.

This is where my one objective seemed to fall short. At first, I was vocal
about my needs at Felix de Wolfe. When I ran out of assignments, I would
walk across the hall and see what could be done next. However, days of
completing without a next task conditioned me to stop asking. There were
stretches of time where I sat in my chair, refreshed my intern email, and then
read the news for a while or listened to a podcast, awaiting my next job. This
lack of being vocal in me is also where I believe I fell short. As I got used to
my place in the office and in London itself, I might have accidentally become
lazy. Like many environments of this nature, understanding what is expected
of you makes it easy to meet the demands without exceeding them.
In my eight weeks, I contributed a good deal to Felix de Wolfe. I had
several projects to organize the clutter in the office. The company had
recently moved to a more central location to the theatre district of London,
otherwise known as the West End, and had a lot of documents squeezed into
tight places. Some of my simpler organizational tasks involved filing clients
paperwork and payment receipts as well as determining who didnt have an
agency agreement (a contract between agent and client) on file. This took a
week as I had to make a list, double-check our records, and then mail out
new copies. I also bound together large stacks of financial documents and resorted folders to fit more into our limited shelf space. One project that took a
couple of days but is immediately noticeable when one enters the office is I
built three shelves. Though they were just simple IKEA shelves, I was tasked
with putting them together, outfitting the backs with a velvet-like material
for aesthetic purposes, and then most importantly organizing all of our
clients theatre programs from over the years onto these shelves. Lucky for
me, they were already moderately alphabetized, so I mainly had to move
them from one office to another. Still, the project freed up significant space in
the office that we can hopefully fit more important things rather than
essentially a decoration.
One of the best aspects of my internship was the freedom I was given.
Caroline and the rest of the Felix de Wolfe staff trusted me and gave me an
office to myself twice a week to work in. I felt valued and more than a
temporary addition to the staff, and I got all work done that was asked of me.
I was also given a strict one-hour period for lunch; when I tried to help a coworker complete a task during my lunch, she told me to wait. I was also
encouraged during my lunch hour to explore the West End and surrounding
neighborhoods, to get a feel for where I was working, which I very much
appreciated.
The worst aspects of my internship are mainly the grievances I
mentioned before. It was hard for me to ask for work constantly when it felt
clear that there was just nothing for me to do at times. I tried to stay busy
with little tasks I was given, such as logging dates for returned agency
agreements, but they took forty-five minutes to an hour each. Similarly, I felt
that I was given less and less work towards the end of my internship just
because I was leaving soon. This was a frustrating feeling, though I
understand the position a company is in by bringing on an eight-week intern.

All in all, my summer with Felix de Wolfe was rewarding. Having never
held a typical nine to five desk job, I learned a great deal about what it
means to work instead of going to school. I also learned about the flip side of
the entertainment industry and more of the background players that bring
productions together. Finally, my anxiety from calling people on the phone
seems to have gone down a lot this summer, which is a relief! In the future, I
think I will explore more on-set or writers room internships, but working way
behind the scenes at a talent agency gave me skills I can take with me as I
progress in the industry.