Colson Domergue's Final Reflection

The waves crashed onto the beach and it was the only sound I could hear. I had grown restless and sat in the car while Patrick was asleep and I just soaked in my environment. I was finally in Los Angeles. We arrived at 3 am on the morning of May 25^th and I was too excited to sleep. We were parked at Santa Monica Pier and I looked up at the lights and empty city and smiled as I tried to picture what the summer was going to have in store. I had no idea what was about to happen (I didn’t even have an internship secured yet) but all I knew was that the summer was going to be good. Soon the sun began to rise behind me and our first day in LA was about to begin.

The first week was a non-stop ride of touring studios, meeting with guest speakers, and exploring LA. One of the first things I learned is what a real film school looked like. I was awestruck the day that we toured USC’s film program. There are six sound stages located in their facilities and they are all state of the art.

During the second week, I was able to do some work on set at USC on a grad student’s thesis project. I helped tear down the set and was able to see the quality of work students at USC produce. I’m not going to lie: it was extremely intimidating.

I was able to land an internship during our second week in LA at Madhouse Entertainment. I started there during our third week. I was a script coverage intern, which was perfect for me. I got to read scripts all day and break them down. Most of the scripts were pretty bad but I was able to learn from them. I saw that a lot of the writers don’t turn in polished drafts. They think that executives will see the potential in the scripts, but they don’t realize that the scripts have to go through the interns first who have to really analyze everything about the script. Through my internship, I also learned about the relationship between managers and writers and how writers make a living.  

This will probably sound cheesy, but the highlight of the summer for me was getting to know and spend time with my peers from UA. I only knew a handful of them before we left for the summer and now it feels like I knew them all my entire life. I can’t wait to grow alongside these fine people this next year at UA and into the future when we take over the film industry.

Some of my other highlights from this summer were going to Venice Beach, meeting Joel McHale and Dan Harmon, attending a screening of Jurassic World, climbing up to the Tree of Life, the Terminator Genisys premiere, touring Warner Brothers, La Brea tar pits, and attending CMF Hollywood. 

Final Reflection - Gorman Houston

TCF in LA has been everything I expected it to be. I got to experience everything LA has to offer me first hand. I got to experience all of these great things with my classmates a group that I can now call my friends. It was great getting to     see everything with them and talk about all the things we didn't know about certain places or things that go on within the industry.




The studio tours were a great experience, which allowed us to see the backlots, see sound stages, and go onto sets like Conan, and Big Bang Theory. Universal being able to see the costume and props department was awesome. Warner Brothers allowed us to see the most. It was really cool to see all the different Batmobiles from the different Batman movies. FOX was great because the recruiters we met with gave the best information in how to start out in the industry.

Jim and Joe were great speakers for the students who are pursuing writing careers in the entertainment industry. They give great advice about how living situations and career path choices. They opened my eyes to see that writers don’t have to just pursue agent assistant or writer assistant positions. They both did onset PA work and made great connections that lead them to their current positions at Tosh.0.

Being able to go to the WGA Library was a great experience for writers. We were able to see the early draft and notes of famous past movies. I got to read and analyze scripts of some of my favorite films. This allowed me to see the different writing techniques they used. It was amazing to see how well the script translated from the screenplay to the screen.

Cinegear was great! Even though my career path doesn’t work much with production equipment. It was still cool to see all the new and expensive equipment that is on the market; from extremely elaborate camera systems, to specialized set and crew equipment, to amazing drones, this place has it all. This is a great experience for students to get hands on with the different equipment. My favorite thing there were these LED backdrop. The man at the booth said this could help create a false world that could save money and help actors feel more in the situation, instead of using green screen. The man told us he used these LEDs in Oblivion and saved the production close to 10 MILLION DOLLARS!

Going to CMF with the class was a lot of fun! Especially when the host of the ceremony is JB Smoove! Being able to see the different student films and cheer on fellow Alabama student films gave a great sense of school pride and inspiration to make a film for next year.
Code Black was a great learning experience about the business side of the industry. While I am on the creative side it is great to hear what the business side looks for when selling and picking up an idea. It was also really cool to sit in the Hunger Games chairs.