Working Class Hollywood

Bill Fritz is an Executive Producer on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills on Bravo. He oversees the post department which includes the Editors and Story Producers. Bill and his team take the hundreds of hours of raw footage and craft it into the compelling stories you see on television. Bill shares his story about starting in radio, writing feature films, and ultimately landing in reality TV where he has thrived for many many years. Bill is an incredibly smart and thoughtful producer, and his intelligent approach to storytelling will fascinate you regardless of what part of the business you work in. Bill is also a magician, and got me into magic so we talk a little about that too. 

Karrie Wolfe is the Executive Vice President and Head of Development at Kinetic Content, a television production company specializing in reality TV. Kinetic produces Married at First Sight and Little Women on Lifetime, Spy Games on Bravo, Man vs Bear on Discovery, the new show Love is Blind on Netflix and many more. Karrie's job is to create or find new ideas for shows and then sell them to networks. 

Karrie and I talk about how reality shows are developed and sold, what makes a good pitch, how someone who has an idea should go about getting it seen and by who. We also reminisce about our time together working at United Talent Agency a bajillion years ago. 

When Carrie was on the podcast last year she had just put notice in at a job that was making her miserable and had NO idea what she was going to do or where she was going to end up. In this follow up interview Carrie shares what she's been through since she left the corporate world and where she is now. Spoiler alert, she's MUCH happier. 

Tierney Bricker is a Features Editor at E! News Online for their television department. She writes articles about TV for a living which sounds like a pretty cool job! Tierney shares her story of how she went from being a ballsy, entitled intern to a successful reporter for one of the original entertainment reporting institutions. We also talk Vanderpump Rules as she is a superfan and had some burning questions.

Tierney References some articles she wrote which you can read here:

I Survived a Night Out With the Vanderpump Rules Cast 

Article about Parenthood Series Finale

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www.workingclasshollywood.com 

Doug Ross is the Founder and President of Evolution Media, one of the most prolific production companies in television. Doug and his team at Evolution produce Real Housewives of Orange County, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Vanderpump Rules, Botched, Botched by Nature, Bug Juice and many more reality and non-fiction television series. Doug and I talk about the incredible journey he took from writing cue cards and shopping for groceries to leading a highly successful production company. Doug shares his advice on how to break into the entertainment industry, how to excel in entry level positions, and how to build the foundation for a long lasting career in the business. Doug tells the incredible story of how Evolution produced Big Brother season 1 on CBS, created and launched Fear Factor on NBC and then had both shows taken away. 

SEASON 1 FINALE. David Grant is the Vice President of Physical Production at Marvel Studios as well as a Co-Producer on all their films. He's worked on pretty much every Marvel movie that has come out including Iron Man, Spider Man, Black Panther, Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel and Avengers. David is on the team that oversees the budgeting of the films, the hiring of the department heads and crew that make the movies, and he makes decision about where and how the films will be shot. 

Hear David's story of starting out as an unpaid intern at the Orlando Film Commission, making $50 a day on his first feature film, and then ultimately landing a full time job at one of the most successful movie studios in Hollywood.

This is the last episode of Season 1 of the podcast. I have to take a break so I can focus on production of Vanderpump Rules Season 8. I will be back with new episodes starting again in the Fall of 2019. Please SUBSCRIBE on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen so you'll get alerts when I start publishing Season 2. 

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Are you working in a job that you hate, that doesn't bring you joy, but you feel trapped because you need the money or benefits you earn? My wife Carrie Smith was in that exact position and she decided to do something about it. Today's episode is a little different because Carrie doesn't work in the entertainment industry, but I think people that have ever worked in a job they don't love will relate to her story. Hear Carrie's inspiring story about how she chose to prioritize her joy and quality of life over a paycheck.

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Viet Nguyen is a television editor and director. Viet edited on shows like Party Down and iZombie before making the transition to director on shows like The Flash, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Lucifer. Viet shares the story of how he went from a nerdy, video camera obsessed teenager, to a post PA on Veronica Mars, to a working film maker in Hollywood. 

Viet's Short Film Crush The Skull

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBsrzEp-XSg

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Jason Eksuzian is a Director of Photographer and Camera Operator. He's worked on reality shows like Little People Big World, Rich Kids of Beverly Hills, Vanderpump Rules and The Hills: New Beginnings. He also has written and directed several of his own projects. Kincaid Walker is an actress who has a recurring role on Speechless on ABC starring Minnie Driver. Kincaid also created, wrote and starred in the award winning digital series Hug It Out. 

Jason and Kincaid tell their stories of how they got into the entertainment industry, and we also discuss the short film they are producing called The Grown Up Mermaid, which is a live action spoof of Disney's The Little Mermaid. 

Here are links to The Grown Up Mermaid's IndieGoGo campaign as well as the various other projects Jason and Kincaid discuss in the episode:

Ric Schnupp is a supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer at Soundtrack New York. Ric does audio engineering, recording, and mixing for film and television. He has worked on a boat load of movies but one of his bigger, more recent credits was the Academy Award winning documentary feature Free Solo. Ric talks about mixing Free Solo alongside audio guru Tom Fleischman, and every job he's had in sound from intern, ADR, Foley, editing, mixing, to supervisor and what comes along with each position. 

Soundtrack Group Website

Ric's Impressive IMDB

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Grant Gish runs comedy development and programming for Marvel Television. When you think of Marvel you may not think of comedic television shows, but Grant is about to change that. Marvel just announced a big deal with Hulu for 5 adult animation shows: M.O.D.O.K., Hit-Monkey, Tigra & Dazzler, and Howard the Duck. These four original shows will then culminate in the team-up special Marvel’s The Offenders. Grant helped put this sale together and is now overseeing the shows as they go into production. 

Hear Grant's story of how he got started and moved his way up through the entertainment industry, and Grant's great advice to anyone looking to build a career in Hollywood. 

To watch the video of this interview go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyxxgBa0zZ0 

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Jon Smith is an editor and content creator for Funhaus, a popular YouTube channel. Funhaus has more than 1.5 million subscribers, puts out 7 videos a week, and has a full staff of on camera talent, producers, and editors all dedicated to filming dudes playing video games and cracking jokes. Jon is one of the channel's main video editors and he also appears on camera frequently in their videos. Jon is also my brother, so press play and enjoy the brotherly love. 

Here's Jon's video resume he talked about that helped him land the Funhaus job:

https://vimeo.com/158991136

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Andy Horwitz produces movies for Atlas Entertainment the film production company behind massive hits like The Dark Knight, Wonder Woman, and Justice League. Some of Andy's projects include the Oscar Nominated film American Hustle starring Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, and Christian Bale...Suicide Squad, and the recently released Netflix Film Triple Frontier that stars Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Pedro Pascal, and Charlie Hunnam.   

Andy shares his story of how he went from film school graduate to film producer and some lessons he learned along the way. Andy also goes into detail about how a movie gets made starting with the idea all the way through theatrical release. 

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Bill Langworthy is the Executive Producer and Showrunner of Vanderpump Rules on Bravo. Before finding his way to #pumprules he worked on The Hills and The City on MTV and before that he cut his teeth as a producer on The Late Show With David Letterman and The Ricki Lake Show. 

Bill tells the story of how he got into show business, and shares some great behind the scenes stories from The Hills and Vanderpump Rules. Bill also takes some questions from Vanderpump Rules cast members Stassi Schroeder, Tom Sandoval, Ariana Madix and Tom Schwartz. 

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Alexandra Nickson runs the music department at Dreamworks Television Animation, the studio that makes shows such as KUNG FU PANDA, TROLLHUNTERS, 3 BELOW, BOSS BABY, CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS, DINOTRUX and many more. Alex oversees music placement, acquisition, and original scores and compositions for every show that Dreamworks does. She tells the story of how she went from a high school show choir geek to successful Hollywood music executive. 

Alexandra began her career in feature films working in music production at MGM Pictures, where she participated on such films as BE COOL, BEAUTY SHOP, and THE PINK PANTHER.  After leaving MGM, Alexandra went on to become a music coordinator at Format and coordinated source music and soundtracks for various films including THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, ATL, EPIC MOVIE, and AUGUST RUSH. After her departure from independent supervision, Alexandra jumped over to DreamWorks Pictures where she helped create the music team that oversaw all of the live action films. Alexandra worked all aspects of music on films such as TROPIC THUNDER, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, THE KITE RUNNER, TRANSFORMERS, and THE SOLOIST.

After DreamWorks Pictures, Alex oversaw all of the music for ABC Family’s television series and original movies and was head of A&R for Persimmon Grove Music. Under her tenure , projects she oversaw were: THE FOSTERS, SWITCHED AT BIRTH, BUNHEADS, MELISSA AND JOEY, BABY DADDY, TWISTED, 25 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS (featuring The Band Perry and Colbie Caillat), TEEN SPIRT, and THE MISTLE-TONES: THE MUSICAL. 

Alexandra holds a BS in Music Industry from the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California.

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Jamie Vega Wheeler is a post producer for scripted television. She's worked on a ton of shows like Rome on HBO, Bates Motel on FX, and LOST on ABC just to name a few. Jamie oversees post production which means her department is responsible for the actual footage from when it leaves the camera on set, through the editing process, to actually getting the final episode to the network so they can air it on TV. Jamie talks all about the post process including foley artist recording, loop groups, and sound mixing and editing. Jamie also gives some great advice for anyone who wants to or is currently working in post production, and what it takes to succeed in the industry.  

NOTES FROM THE SHOW

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Here are the post production houses Jamie talks about in the episode:

Deluxe

Company 3

MTI Film

Zac Moncrief is a producer, director, writer, and animator for some of the coolest animated TV shows to come out in the last 20 years. He's worked on Johnny Bravo, Hey Arnold, Dora The Explorer, Family Guy, Phineas and Ferb and many others. In this interview Zac talks about how he came from New Jersey to attend CalArts, and then broke into the animation industry from there. Zac also talks in detail of what producers and directors in animation do from storyboarding, animatics, to final animation. 

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Zac's Website

California Institute of the Arts is where Zac went to school and is known for being one of the top animation programs in the country.

Watch the trailer for The Pagemaster, the feature film where Zac got his first job in animation.

Here are some links to some of the work has done on his series through the years:

Story Board for Episode of Family Guy Zac Directed

Story Board Zac Did For Phineas & Ferb

Animatic From Woodstump

Matt Nix is a television writer and Showrunner who is responsible for some truly fantastic shows. He created and ran Burn Notice on USA, The Good Guys on FOX, The Comedians on FX, and most recently The Gifted on FOX. Matt was a screenwriter for films for 8 years before he sold Burn Notice and transitioned into television. Matt has some great stories from the early days of his careers and his advice for people who want to write for television is priceless. 

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Mona May is a costume designer for film and television with a career that has spanned the last 25 years. Mona broke onto the scene with the 1995 film Clueless, and has worked on countless movies and TV shows since. Some of her other credits include Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, The Wedding Singer, Disney's The Haunted Mansion, Enchanted, and the Netflix series The Santa Clarita Diet. Mona talks all about what a costume designer does from getting the script, meeting with the director, to creating the wardrobe elements for the film or show.

If you want to know more about Mona check out her website

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Please subscribe, leave a rating, or write a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to help get this podcast into more people's ears who can benefit from the interviews. 

A few months ago I got an email from Howard, a Vanderpump Rules super fan who was planning on proposing to his girlfriend Samantha. Howard was hoping for some kind of video from one of the Vanderpump Rules cast members that he could play for Samantha when he proposed to her. He was expecting something simple like a "Hey Samantha, Howard has a sexy unique question for you" but I took his idea and ran with it. Along with cast members Stassi Schroeder and Brittany Cartwright I shot a fake Vanderpump Rules scene where Stassi and Brittany started talking about Howard and Samantha by name. Howard surprised Samantha by swapping in this fake scene while watching an episode of the show before popping the question.

This podcast episode is the audio of an interview I did with Howard and Samantha after she said yes. I wanted to hear Samantha's perspective of how it all went down, and what she was thinking when Stassi and Brittany started talking about her on the "show". I also wanted to hear more from Howard about how he kept the secret from Samantha while filming his proposal on hidden camera.

Before you listen to this go watch the full story of their proposal here:

https://youtu.be/sXqNYDEsQWw  

If you want to watch the video version of this interview so you can see Samantha's ring as well as the greeting card Howard used to hide one of the cameras click here:

https://youtu.be/BMNlk9cu4Fg  

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If you like this video subscribe to the podcast to hear great interviews with people working in different positions within the entertainment industry, as well as plenty of behind the scenes Vanderpump Rules talk.