Based in Los Angeles, ‘Twas Entertainment is an independent development company founded by Brenda Chapman and Kevin Lima. ‘Twas’ mission is to create timeless, family-centric entertainment that speaks to all ages. They specialize in live action, animation, and hybrid storytelling for multi-platform content. While you may not have heard of them but ‘Twas Entertainment has hired Emerson alumni and also hired a current student as an Intern over the summer.
Riley Walberg is a In-Studio News Producing major here at Emerson College in the Class of 2021. Over the summer, Riley was a Development Intern for ‘Twas Entertainment. We caught up with Riley Walberg to talk about his experiences at ‘Twas.
What were your responsibilities during your internship?
So basically, what I mainly did in the beginning was script coverage. I didn’t know what script coverage was. So they started me off doing that until I learned script coverage. And so they gave me a few sample stories of writer samples that they had. It’s not like actual scripts. Well, actual scripts, but not ones that are like in development.
So like I started off doing those, and then they moved me to a few of the ones that we needed done because they were either pitches or they were ideas for, for more writers samples, they had a better portfolio of what the writer is like, and so they can move it to a different story, if they feel like, “Oh, this person would be really good at writing this one or not as good as that one”.
After that, towards the second half of my internship, they had me focused- so they’re basically there’s multiple projects, they’re working on at once, but two of them, they had me and the other intern kind of split between, where like, we were working on pitch documents for it. So basically, we do a bunch of research for that. And then we’d help put together the pitch documents, they could go in and pitch it to Fox or other corporations or something like that.
What was your favorite part of the internship?
Sure. I really liked reading all the scripts because I feel like the only way to become a better writer or to become better at reading the scripts, and knowing what is good for a story is really by reading other stories.
And so there were some that they did originally for script coverage where they had me read scripts where the first like two ones they had me read and do were ones that they knew were good. And then the next two that they had me do were ones they knew were bad. And the next two they had me do were ones they had not read at all. So they kind of wanted me to get a sense of “Okay, look, this is what’s good and what we’re looking for.” Also they wanted my opinions that all them to see like, “Okay, do you agree with us on this?” Because like a different perspective, a younger perspective could be completely different. So I mean, I just really liked reading all those.
Did you make any cool contacts?
I mean, I’d say that like, just I loved working with everybody at the company. It’s a small company. We all got to know each other really well at the end like the day I left, everybody, it was actually the busiest day we had this summer was my last day. And they had me stay late because they had a cake and everything. And not everybody was there but everybody did their best to say goodbye, like, you know, I’ll never forget them… If I went out to LA again, I would definitely contact them and be like, “Hey, can we grab lunch? Like, I’d love to hear about what you guys are doing now?” Like catch up and all that.
What are your next steps?
I mean, mainly just looking for other internships. This covered one aspect of what I’m interested in, I’d say more the producing one, and I haven’t had an internship in the more of the news aspect of what I’m looking for. So I’m looking into that, as well.
Do you have any advice for students interested in this internship or similar opportunities?
Even if you think you’re not qualified at all, definitely just go for it. Worst case scenario, they say “I’m sorry, we’ve gone in a different direction”. Best case scenario, you get an interview and you get hired. But like, even if you are a little bit late, going into it send an email. Specifically if it’s an Emerson alumni, Emerson Alumni really like try and look out for each other.
