RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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When they say "it's all about who you know in Hollywood," that usually refers to a contact list filled with people in positions of power who can help you move up the ladder. But on Thursday, Fifth Season took over the picturesque terrace at its Lumen headquarters in West L.A. to set the stage for networking in another direction — laterally.
The film and television production, financing, and global distribution studio opened doors to approximately 300 interns across 50 top Hollywood companies for its second annual Interntainment Night, which took place (by design) on National Intern Day. The showing marked a big jump from last year's inaugural event that hosted 75 interns across six companies. Related Stories Movies Phil Dunster, Gemma Chan, Aisling Bea, Marianne Jean-Baptiste Join Amazon MGM Rom-Com 'Hello & Paris' (Exclusive) Movies Steve Zahn Joins Kate Hudson, Javier Bardem in Amazon MGM Rom-Com 'Hello & Paris' (Exclusive)
Companies that joined Fifth Season to take part as partners included Penske Media Corporation (owner of The Hollywood Reporter ), AMC, EICOP/HBCU in L.A., Fox, Fuzzy Door, Imagine, ITV, Legendary, Lionsgate, MACRO, McDermott Will & Schulte (co-sponsor), Neon, Starz, Warner Bros. Discovery and WME. Also represented at the fete by sending interns were Activision, AEG, Amazon MGM Studios, Blumhouse, CJ ENM, DC Comics, Dick Clark Productions, Disney, Live Nation, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Savage X Fenty, Sony, TikTok, Universal Music Group, UTA and many more.
"A good piece of advice that someone gave me is that it's just as important to network laterally," explained Fifth Season's chief human resources officer Tasmin Plater in brief welcome remarks. "This is your class. This event is for you. Please take a moment to disconnect from your cell phones and really look at the activities that [Fifth Season emcee Joseph McMahon] outlined and really soak in this time that you have with each other."
For many at the event, that time was ticking closer to the end. Friday, July 31 typically marks the final day of many summer intern programs across the industry. So, the 300 made sure to soak in the scene and take advantage of the final moments by participating in the many activities on offer on the Lumen event deck. In addition to a photo booth and deejay music, activities included a selection of Jackbox Games, cornhole, bracelet making, an ice-breaker bingo card and pub trivia hosted by McMahon (complete with prizes).
While they were encouraged to swap info and follow one another on LinkedIn, much of the activity was designed to be off-screen as much as possible. "Last year, we had a proof of concept and we put these folks into a room together and built a networking event. It went well but we didn't optimize it for them," Plater noted. "This year, we studied more ways to bring this generation together by looking at what they are into and what activities would help them put their phones down and have conversations. We played into the generational attitude so they could network in a way that makes sense for them." (Meanwhile, UTA's interns closed out their final week by making an Instagram Reel .)
Jeanell English, head of community and impact at WME, brought a team to host exercises revolving around its NXT Industry Sessions initiative , a collaboration between the agency and Ryan Reynolds' and Blake Lively's Group Effort Initiative on helping prepare the next generation for careers across entertainment, music, sports and fashion. They offered goal-setting elevator pitch sessions, the latter of which allowed interns to hone their best sales pitch about themselves.
"People in entertainment move quickly and you don't always have a lot of time to tell people what you're interested in, what you want to learn about, engage with and what you're curious about so knowing how to present yourself is such an asset," English explained. "We're giving feedback on how to do that. It's a fun way for the interns to gain a new skill while meeting one another."
But since the gathering was sponsored by a top Hollywood company and hosting a group of youngsters, that meant a party free of any social lubricant so often found at industry networking events. "The interns are getting younger and we're not here to give wristbands or check IDs," Plater said. "There is no alcohol. The only thing we have close to alcohol is Tom Holland's non-alcohol beer brand, BERO. It has such a low-level alcohol content that someone would have to drink 30 in order to hit the legal limit. So just good food and juice tonight."
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