Imagine interning at an office where you answer the phone to Adam Levine calling to talk to Will Ferrell. Imagine being sent out around lunchtime to pick up a sandwich for Adam McKay. Imagine riding an elevator to the 7th floor with Oprah Winfrey.
For senior Dylan Treadwell, who is currently interning with Funny or Die and Gary Sanchez Productions in Los Angeles, this is a reality.
Treadwell is an electronic media production major who accepted an internship from the Los Angeles Film Studies Program to work at Funny or Die for the semester. Treadwell said one of his primary jobs is answering phones, as well as classic intern responsibilities like fetching coffee and snacks for his superiors.
“It’s kind of surreal,” Treadwell said. “It really demystifies the whole Hollywood ‘magic’ when you’re getting a Coke for Chris Pine, or saying ‘Hi’ to Oprah Winfrey as she heads upstairs, or sharing a sandwich with the guys who created the Old Spice commercials.”
Harding alum Joe Aaron, a freelance writer and teacher, is currently working as Treadwell’s writing mentor. Aaron said that early in the semester Treadwell knew he wanted to make films, but he seems unsure if he wanted to direct, write, act or become a cinematographer. Since working together, however, Aaron said that Treadwell has grown as a storyteller and now wants to focus on writing.
“(Treadwell) has good ideas and is getting better each day at executing his ideas and turning them into scripts,” Aaron said. “The only thing he lacks is experience and a break, both of which will come as long as he stays the course.”
Aaron said it is very difficult to master the constructs of story design, but if Treadwell perseveres in film, Aaron said he expects to see his name in credits within the next few years.Treadwell has been the production assistant on several upcoming Funny or Die films (he was not permitted to name specific projects), as well as someone who helps collect props for the shoots. He said his strangest prop assignment so far was to find 70 child-sized Joy Mangano Huggable Clothes Hangers, but after a long and strenuous search he discovered that there were only 55 to be found in all of Hollywood.
Treadwell said that Los Angeles is not as big and scary as people assume, and he was surprised at the amount of Christians in the industry.
“Achieving your dream (in Los Angeles) is very possible, you just have to want it,” Treadwell said. “I actually don’t like the city of LA. I prefer smaller places, and I like a little rain and snow once in a while. … (But) it’s incredible the way God is moving in Hollywood, and maybe I’ll be a part of that one day.”
Treadwell said he is currently unsure where this internship and his major will take him in life, but if he does decide to move back to Los Angeles, he said that he would have a network of Christians in the industry, a place to live and almost definitely a job in a field of his interest. However, Treadwell said jobs in Los Angeles require a level of focus that can easily border on self-absorption.
“I’m talented, I’ve got the right connections and I’ve got a story to tell,” Treadwell said. “But for me, film isn’t worth throwing out every other experience I could have. If money were no object, I’d travel the world to change lives, to tell their stories and never stop crafting my own. That’s what I want.”
