An Interview with Carole Kirschner
by Ann Baldwin
Carole Kirschner is highly respected among her peers and
worked as a senior-level creative television executive for sixteen years,
including stints at CBS and as Vice President of Television at Steven
Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, where she helped to develop Murphy Brown, Designing Women, and Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon
Adventures. She then became an educator, teaching at USC’s School
of Cinematic Arts and UCLA
Extension. She created and runs two innovative training programs: The CBS
Diversity Institute Writers Mentoring and The Hollywood Assistant Training
Program. She worked with writer/producer Jeffrey Melvoin to develop
curriculum for the Writers Guild of America Show-runner Training Program and as
the director, is responsible for overseeing it. Carole leads popular industry
seminars on networking, pitching, and self-marketing for creative
professionals. Through her career consulting practice, she teaches clients what
they need to do to succeed. She is the author of Hollywood Game Plan: How to Land a Job in Film, TV,
or Digital Entertainment (Michael Wiese Productions 2012).
Hollywood has
always been one of the most challenging to break into. Most of the film
industry people from the past and long-time veterans, still in the business,
had to learn the ropes through trial and error (The School of Hard Knocks),
because there were no books, classes, seminars, or set of rules to guide you on
how to do it. What little knowledge there was seemed like guarded secrets and very
few people knew about them.
I’m always grateful, when I have the opportunity to
interview seasoned professionals like Carole Kirschner who’re willing to share
their experience to help guide the rest of us as we journey into our new
careers in Hollywood.
Ann: There are so
many creative opportunities within the industry; what do you recommend for
people who are older and/or seasoned professionals from a different field of work,
who are entering into the film, TV, and digital entertainment industry?
Carole: If you’re
an aspiring writer, producer, actor, or director practice your craft until you
are blazing hot at it and then people will have to pay attention to you. Or
another way to do it is to go with your strength. The best idea, if possible,
is to transfer existing experience and expertise (i.e. public relations,
marketing, law etc.) into that job within the entertainment industry. Once
you’ve established yourself in your field within Hollywood
it’s easier to transfer to the creative side of the business.
Ann: In your book, Hollywood Game Plan, you talk about
three elements that create a unique personal pitch; can you share a little
about them and give us an example?
Carole: There’s
the Personal Log Line (which is the answer to the question: “what do you do”?),
your Personal “A-Story” (which is the answer to the question: “tell me about
yourself”) and what I call Personal Nuggets, which are personal anecdotes
(which is a way to make yourself memorable, which is incredibly important when
decision makers are meeting new people all the time). An example of a personal
log line is: “I’m the luckiest woman in
show business. I get to do what I love,
which is help people. Because of my background as a development executive and
an educator I get to run two cool TV career development programs and through my
career coaching practice, Park on the Lot, I get to help
even more people.”
Ann: You mention
three types of mentors that you encourage people to seek-out and nurture a
relationship with; can you tell us about them and explain how you activated
your support team of mentors to help you land your job at Amblin Entertainment?
Carole: There’s a
peer mentor (someone at your level who’s happy to share information and help
you). An advisor mentor (someone further along in their career who’s willing to
make a call and give you a leg up) and a guru mentor (someone well established
and respected in the business with many contacts who’s willing – very occasionally
– to vouch for you). For the Amblin job,
I reached out to two of my advisor mentors and had them call Kathleen Kennedy,
the woman who ran Steven’s company and say nice things about me. Then I had my guru mentor who was a partner
at the top talent agency in Hollywood
and asked him to call her and let her know that the agency would be excited for
me to get the job and would support me in that position… all of them helped me
land that gig.
Ann: Who are a few of
the people in the industry who’ve inspired you through-out your career and why?
Carole: My first
boss, television writer/producer, James Hirsch, taught me how to read a script
and the right way to give a writer notes. Motion picture producer, Kathleen
Kennedy, is an extremely creative and powerful woman and is supportive of
people coming up when they impress her. Television director, Lesli Linka
Glatter, is incredibly talented, funny, kind, and very generous. Television
writer/producer, Kam Miller, is a mentee of mine and inspires me with her talent,
amazing work ethic, and generosity.
Ann: What is the most
fulfilling aspect of the work you do?
Carole: I get to
help people. I love to watch as they
thrive and their careers grow.
Ann: If you had one
piece of advice or a motivational quote to impart to people entering the
industry, what would it be?
Carole: Connect
with lots of other people in a mutually beneficial way. Know that the way to get lucky is by looking
at the person to your right and the person to your left and working harder than
both of them. And finally, as soon as
you’ve achieved any kind of success be generous and give back.
Ann: Do you have any
upcoming projects, books, or events you can share with us that we can look
forward to?
Carole: I’ll be
doing a workshop at the Great American Pitch Fest on June 20th. Its
insider tips for creating your own Hollywood Game Plan. Then on the 21st
Kathie Fong Yoneda, Laurie Scheer, and I will be speaking at the Fest about
what executives and decision makers are really looking for in pitches and
projects. On September 5th and 6th I’ll be speaking at
Story Expo on Marketing Your TV Career and 5 Tips for a Killer Pitch.
Ann: Thank you Carole
for taking the time to interview with me.
To connect with Carole Kirschner, you can visit her website
at www.hollywoodgameplan.com
and purchase a copy of her book, Hollywood
Game Plan, at Michael Wiese Productions or Amazon. You can also read my
book review of Hollywood Game Plan on my blog page A Higher Frequency.
