DISPATCH: A Hollywood summer in the face of mounting uncertainty

On June 3, I woke up to the news that my employer for the summer, Paramount, had been sold.

I was getting ready to drive to the Paramount Pictures studio lot, where summer intern orientation was scheduled to take place. I had just moved to Los Angeles a few days prior, and this was certainly an unexpected start to my first day on the job. It began with the expected corporate tasks: setting up my laptop and verifying my identity — menial beats that helped to distract me from the realization that I was in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people.

Of course, this is show business, so after a host of information sessions, the itinerary turned romantic. We set out on group tours of the iconic studio lot where guides waxed poetic words about the history beneath our feet. Paramount’s Melrose lot is a sun-drenched, outdoor compound that feels like a college campus. It’s abuzz with crew and steeped in Hollywood lore. We walked through the gate from “Sunset Boulevard,” sat on a bench from “Forrest Gump,” and stood where Jim Carrey rowed through inclement weather in “The Truman Show” — the parking lot can be transitioned into a massive water tank.

To me, the Paramount Pictures lot is hallowed ground. It is quite literally where the term “movie star” was born. The Hollywood sign eyes you between sound stages. It’s movie magic incarnate; yet, it’s a reminder of the incessant change this relatively young industry has been pressed to endure. Once again, I recalled the news from that morning: the playing field had shifted — Paramount’s future was up in the air. I sauntered wide-eyed down Michael Bay Avenue as the industry took another cautious step into an uncertain future.

If you haven’t spent your summer tracking the merger and acquisition trends of global media corporations, you’re cooler than me. But to summarize in the simplest terms possible, after months of speculation, headlines, and backsliding, Skydance Media will merge with Paramount Global after the company’s founder, David Ellison, purchased a controlling stake in the century-old company.

I have worked this summer as an Unscripted Series Development Intern at Paramount. Essentially, I am a consultant on reality television shows — mostly on the next season of the Paramount+ original, “Ink Master.” I have come to really love and admire the long-running tattoo competition series that comprises the “current series” portion of my job. The development side of my responsibilities, meanwhile, involves tinkering with trends and genre-mechanisms to brainstorm ideas for new shows. It’s been an exciting, rewarding, and innovative experience which has played out in the eye of an industry hurricane.

I have met some of the most wonderful and impressive people during my time at Paramount. I adore my manager, who has taught me so much about the industry and life in Los Angeles. Moreover, it is invigorating to be surrounded by young, like-minded people, who have an equal passion for entertainment; however, it is as intimidating as it is exciting.

Conversing with young professionals, all comparing past experience and outlining future endeavors, is undeniably stressful — passion and concern have gone hand-in-hand. Every employee I spoke with is worried about layoffs. Job security is a privilege, especially in this current moment of financial belt-tightening. Uncertainty is the new norm, which is a decidedly difficult environment for young people to begin their career. Nevertheless, my fellow interns and I are eager to dive head-first into an industry riddled by growing pains.

I found myself experiencing similar growing pains. Moving to a new city was a far cry from suburban Connecticut. Additionally, living solo in a one-bedroom apartment and planning my career in an unstable industry are all frightening undertakings of adulthood. I was scared quite a bit this summer, but with every experience comes newfound confidence.

I have leaned into uncertainty quite a few times in my ten weeks here. I tried stand-up comedy for the first time at a sparse open mic in North Hollywood — I delivered a few jokes in a bar attic, got some chuckles out of the seven-or-so people there, and went back home with a laundry list of kinks to improve upon. I am figuring out what works for me, and what doesn’t.

After ten weeks in Los Angeles, people keep asking me if I plan on relocating here permanently. I do not have an answer for them. At the very least, I can say that Los Angeles does not scare me the way it used to — its mystique has subsided. I now know how a life there would feel, but I am uncertain if it would be truly for me.

Despite all this unsureness, whether personal or professional, this summer has felt like the first step toward the rest of my life. Like the industry I’ve lept into, unpredictability comes with growth. I’ll just take both in stride — the magic I felt on that first day will keep me going. Isn’t that romantic?

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Tyler Wilson is a senior writer for The Prospect and Humor at the ‘Prince.’ He can be reached at tyler.wilson[at]princeton.edu, or on Instagram at @tylertwilson.