Today was the start of second week of the On Location: Hollywood class and one thing that I continue to notice throughout our days is the appearance of luck: both as the tangible word and the invisible presence. Most noticeable is the fact that by the end of the day I feel so lucky to be this exhausted after running around to different corners of the city in order to meet with a CEO in the morning, a composer by noon, and a TV writer at night.
The word luck also crept up in today’s conversation with Tim Marx, the co-executive producer of Freeform’s (original ABC Family) sitcom series Baby Daddy, as well as a CC graduate. Tim gave us a tour of the Radford Studio lot, which included getting to meet the cast of Baby Daddy and watching them rehearse their newest episode on set. He also showed us the New York City “street” that they use for the series and have used for a variety of shows in the past, including Seinfeld. The New Yorker in me screeched with delight as we walked past the 2 and 3 line subway station- maybe if I waited long enough Kramer would waltz out one of the apartments in the spastic way he had for so many years.
After the tour was over, Tim began to answer some of our questions about the production side of the show. He explained how he got from being an environmental science major at CC to the co-executive producer of a major network sitcom, and one of the words he used was luck. After graduating from CC, Tim started bartending in DC to make some money before deciding if he wanted to go to law school to expand on his environmental science degree. While bartending one night, Tim overheard a woman complaining she needed someone to help her with all the work she had to do. Lo and behold, this woman worked for the public TV network in DC, and Tim offered to step in – this was the start of Tim’s career in the film and TV industry.
With most of the people we’ve met with since being in LA, there has been a success story involving some sort of luck. When I first hear the hard working people say things like, “my two psychology major friends in college ended up in the film industry,” or “someone just told me I should give the film industry a try,” and other stories along these lines, I felt a little lost and slightly discouraged. I mentioned this concern to my roommate, Kaitlyn, who told me she had also been feeling a little helpless about the conversations mentioning luck. Then she told me this quote: Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
No block at CC has made me equal amounts of exhausted, amazed, and excited every day. There are few times in most college experiences that students get to go out on a trial run in whatever industry they’re looking to enter. To be in the film and TV industry does not only require luck; it is a combination of lots of preparation, some luck in what opportunities are available, and a whole lot of passion. I can confidently say that we are ten lucky students.
