The semester came, seemed to linger, and now it has come to an end. I have done lots of research on people that are in the line of work that I am interested in. I have searched and applied to internships for media companies. I have reached out to many total strangers. I would have never done that before this class. It took a while but I actually got a response from Kaya Tone. She is a production assistant in the media industry. She has a Youtube page filled with her work.

I, on the other hand, have a library in Youtube filled with my work. I am working on putting a showcase together to display my work.

My final presentation is a sum of what happened throughout the year under Trump’s lead. It is also a sample of the work I have done too throughout the semester in my journalism class. I have written and recorded many scripts that are pretty darn good. https://soundcloud.com/renee-figaroe/ct399-revised-corona-virus-1027

My future is bright I see myself using my strongest skills; my ability to write and communicate will take me the farthest in my future endeavors.

I attended an information session for Made in NY. I am hopeful that I will be asked to be a part of the training session that will ultimately lead to employment within the media industry.

I have attended a virtual black career fair. It was strange but I got the idea of what I had to do. I uploaded my profile with my resume.

I have started to apply for procurement positions with several different companies. At this point, I need to try every avenue to get my foot in a door. Once I am in then I can branch off into whatever I choose.

My big goal is to gain employment hopefully within the entertainment industry as a production assistant, but I am not going to hold my breath waiting for it. I will continue to knock on doors.

What Had Happened a commentary by Renee Ferguson

I revised my project to focus on one thing only. I decided to focus on the news and what had happened?

Digital Presence    12/4/2020 

I searched Kaya Tone; she is a Production Assistant in NYC.  I admire her because she is in the field that I am interested in and she has uprooted herself from where she grew up in Colorado.  She traveled to the big city to pursue her dreams.  I have attached content from her digital presence she is on LinkedIn.  She also has a You tube channel that showcases all her talents.  She attended New York University where she received her Bachelors in Cinematography and Film / Video Production.   

Kaya is one of my future peers I have reached out to her weeks back.  I didn’t hear anything from her until just recently.  I was happy to hear from her.  I didn’t bombard her with questions.  I only acknowledged her acceptance of my connection and thanked her. 

I think if she could do it so can I.   

I have registered with Made in NY. They train people to work in the media industry as Production Assistants.  pa@bwiny.org 

OIN USING YOUR TELEPHONE:

Call-in using your cell phone. 

Dial 646-558-8656 (New York Region). Enter Meeting ID 307 555 9355; press #. No participant ID needed; press #.

Please note, your attendance is required in order to submit an application.

If for any reason, you can’t make it, info sessions are held every Monday at 1pm, except for holidays.

Zoom link & Meeting ID will remain the same. 

I am hopeful they will call me. They did ask certain questions that would interfere with working. They wanted to know if I was a student and also if I was a resident of NYCHA. This led me to believe people that live in NYCHA they would get first preference. Also if you are a student they would not pick you because you are a student and it would interfere with working.

This class was about learning how to write a email reaching out to professionals in the field of our interest. We were instructed to be open about our intention, because that is the best way to hopefully get a response. You’re reaching out to a total stranger, the first thing I would think if I got an email inquiry is what? Depending on how busy I am I would probably respond to a well coordinated request.

The feed back from my team members was to change the order in which CUNY appears in the email. I was told I should list CUNY first and then York College. Also I should add the field of work that the person is in. Other than that my email was good.

I have reached out to quite a few total strangers asking to just talk about how they got to where they are, what education is needed for the position they are in, but I noticed on linkedin for instance when reaching out to people you are limited to how many words you can write to a person it says 300, but it is not. It is a lot shorter. So, if I wanted to send this email in linkedin I would not be able to.

Endeavors

In this project I decided to give a broad view of many different interests I have and could pursue. I am a strong believer of not putting all your eggs in one basket. I included a clip of a soundtrack I made.  It’s not perfect, but it does show promise.  I also talk about Wasim, a guy that created a path for himself by selling beats to people online. 

I included a video I made using Premiere, hosting my own show, how to make a smoothie.  It was fun to make and the smoothie was great.  I also attached a copy of a link to Martha Stewart, the queen of simple, yet elegant living.  her brilliant approach to life helps other people make their lives great with her ideas. 

Chasing news, I wanted to attach a clip of me reporting a story but could not attach the audio.  Bummer!  But I did manage to attach a link to Abby Phillips, a young black woman making a way for herself in the news business.  She’s a Political Correspondent for CNN, how great is that!  I admire her and think if she could do it so can I. 

So, I recently got a green screen and I immediately put it to work.  I recorded a video of me creating motion with paper.  I imported the video into After effects to transform it into something I am very proud to showcase.  There are many great artists out there that I admire, but I don’t know their names, but I am familiar with their works. 

My concerns are there are many people out there doing the same things I am doing, and they are great.  What is going to set me apart from them.  I think my creative nature coupled with the drive, determination, and focus will help.  But making connections with people, networking will be my best asset.  Also when is this pandemic going to end. It is putting a monkey wrench into my life. I have reached out to a few people I don’t know but, admire what they do, I thought this was crazy at first, but gave it some thought and decided nothing tried, nothing done. Now I reach out to total stranger every chance I get, because you never know who may respond. As for what I do, nothing is ever really finished there is always room for improvement. 

I am really not sure what I want to focus on for my project. I know I am interested in being a production assistant. The position requires support of a team and getting things done.

My project is a work in progress right now. I could go in any direction.

I started to look at CUNY’s page for internships and was side tracked. I never got to finish what I started. I wanted to apply for a few different internships. The requirements for different internships vary. I got a email about an internship with MediaMKRS. They partner with NYC Mayor’s office of Media and Entertainment, the City University of New York, Reel Works, media companies and unions to train, credential and prepare talented New Yorker for careers in media and entertainment. The info session was Oct. 27  info@mediamkrs.org.

I also filled out an application for internships at Warner media this is the link www.warnerbroscareers.com/find-jobs/?179383BR.

Ultimately my motivation is to be employed. My preference would be to use the skills I have acquired on my educational journey to work in media, Public Relations, or Communications.

I think my strength lies in my ability to speak and write well, why not capitalize on those skills now, I am sure more will follow.

Other things that intrest me are music, and video. Getting involved in a production company would be another good way to get experience in that field.

Overall my diversified background will allow me to pick and choose whatever I want to do.

I was grouped with Breanna and Camryn we talked about our future peers and ways to connect with people in the industry of interest.  Camryn mentioned Bumble.biz, a platform to connect with people who are in your field of interest.  I have listed Kaya and Rebecca as my future peers because they are working with production companies right now.  I also didn’t know who Wendy Finerman was, so I googled her and was surprised to find that she is a major player in the film industry. 

I also took the opportunity to send messages to Kaya and Rebecca via linkedin just to chat about their experience in the industry.  I don’t know if they will respond, but I am hopeful. 

Kaya Tone – Production Assistant, NYC 

Recent graduated from NYU Tisch School of the Arts for my BFA in Film & TV.  She is working as a freelance Production Assistant.  I have worked on Amazon’s “Hunters” as well as “Blue Bloods”, Spielberg’s “West Side Story”, and several other productions. 

Rebeca Smith – Producer’s Assistant at Wendy Finerman, Productions, NYC 

Attended Trinity college – Hartford 

Associate Producer at Triptyk Studios, NYC 

Production Assistant at Jefferson Pictures, Massachusetts 

Writer’s Assistant in NYC 

Wendy Finerman is an American film producer of nearly a dozen feature films. 

Finerman was born to a Jewish family^[1] and raised in Beverly Hills, California.^[2] Her sister, Karen Finerman, is a hedgefund owner/trader in New York City and appears on CNBC’s Fast Money.^[3] 

Finerman was one of three producers who won the Academy Award for Best Picture for Forrest Gump in 1994 and a BAFTA Award for Fairy Tale in 1998. She has also produced such popular films as The Fan, Stepmom, Drumline, and The Devil Wears Prada. Finerman was formerly married to producer Mark Canton and now is married to David Peterson. The mother of four children, she is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and runs her own company, Wendy Finerman Productions.^[4] 

So, it’s our second class and I didn’t forget I had to attend. We jumped right in, we broke into groups and talked about two of our best classes and two of our worst classes. I was grouped with Sapphire and Breanna. I really enjoyed that session I took notes and everything. But before I could report what I discovered about these two ladies my phone just stopped working. I couldn’t hear anything or speak. I could only text. I have to admit I was really disappointed.

So, this is what I learned about Sapphire, she liked CT 210 a documentary class. She learned how to operate a camera and wrote her own documentary. This class was required as part of her major. She also took a swimming class that she enjoyed, as a hobby.

However, Sapphire didn’t like Economics 102. She doesn’t like graphs and the class wasn’t a requirement.

Breanna on the other hand, didn’t like the way her Mandarin class was taught, she thought it was rushed. She also didn’t like her Biology 102 class because of the way it was taught.

Breanna did like CT137 Building and Hacking she thought it was interesting, fun, and she learned a lot.