MPI’s 2020 class of summer interns recently completed their talent-development training through the MPI Hollywood Career Launch Program in our Freedom + Film Summer Series. The interns raved about their experience in the series, awarding it an overall rating of 9.4 out of 10.

Sessions included: the practicalities of how to use films to effect change; how to analyze scripts for impact; successful approaches to film financing; practical advice from film agents on how to work with talent representatives, managers, and producers; guidance on how to achieve wide distribution for film projects; and job-hunting strategies and professional training specific to the film industry.

“The entertainment industry is competitive and unforgiving,” said MPI intern Elliot Palatnik. “It requires you to be resilient and eager to learn, which MPI affords its interns. There are so many people I would have never met were it not for MPI.”

Freedom + Film was conducted through weekly, virtual sessions that included speakers such as screenwriter and veteran indie development executive Garrick Dion (Drive, Whiplash, Nightcrawler), marketing specialist Andy Peterson who is the principal at Aspiration Entertainment, and Allie Bernacchi, director of theatre development at IMAX in London.

We doubled the number of sessions in 2020 (from five to ten), which enabled us to expand the curriculum to mirror the stages of filmmaking—from idea to development to production to distribution. Feedback on this change reinforced MPI’s decision to expand the program. As one intern commented, “Holding the sessions on a weekly basis rather than a bi-weekly basis was really great. I think having a schedule like that creates a certain level of accountability and instills a drive in students to want to learn as much as possible.”

MPI intern Kenneth Mulvena added, “I had a tremendous time, and it was the greatest career training program I have ever had the pleasure to be a part of.”

Do you want to jump-start your film career? Read more about MPI’s Hollywood Career Launch Program here.