Oregon daily emerald., January 23, 2001, Page 42, Image 56

lcebox.com is a bastion of
young talent, like Randi
Barnes (bottom), looking to
develop skills and build con
nections that will help them
succeed in Hollywood.
www.experience.com
realized she could tackle responsibilities
and develop skills well beyond her
Hollywood years.
Barnes’ first gig in L.A. was as an assistant
to a television director, a role she hoped
would help her gain experience and allow
her to work on her own writing. Instead,
she was answering phones, doing finances,
and walking dogs, not writing, meeting
people, or even reading scripts. Barnes left
the position after just three months and
soon became an assistant to Jon Collier, a
television writer for King of the Hill. This
job proved to be ideal, but when Collier’s
development deal ran out, he had to let
Barnes go. Two and a half months later,
however, Barnes heard from Collier, who
had just received funding to start an
Internet company. He wanted her on board.
Barnes was hired as a development execu
tive and copywriter. The job would be the
first position where she wouldn’t be answer
ing phones for someone else. And instead of
setting up lunches with agents, she’d be
lunching with agents herself. “All of a sud
den my ideas mattered. It’s interesting
because you graduate from college where
you’re used to being taken seriously, and
then you’re thrown in the entertainment
industry where you’re picking up baby toys
for the people you work for. You know that
you can bring so much more to the table,
and at Icebox, I feel like I’ve been able to do
that,” says Barnes. “It’s very exciting. How do
you make entertainment work on the web?
That’s what we’re determining.”
Working in development, the arena
where scripts are evaluated and rewritten
before filming begins, Barnes found a niche
for her talents. After working 15-hour days
in preparation for the site launch, she now
spends her days taking calls from agents,
evaluating submissions, tracking shows,
and writing copy. She meets with the com
pany founders on a weekly basis to review
pitches and determine which projects get
the green light, and she attends manage
ment meetings where the status of each
show is reviewed.
Despite her present job satisfaction,
Barnes’ ambition remains film and televi
sion writing. For that reason, the essence of
her experience at Icebox.com isn’t the
increased money or power, or the excite
ment of a new field. By working in devel
opment Barnes is picking up the contacts
she needs to break into television writing.
“The great thing about Icebox is that we
bridge the gap between entertainment
media and the Internet. I’m working every
day with television writers and talking
every day with agents.”
More importantly, she’s honing the skills
she needs to use those contacts. “I can look
at my own writing objectively now. I know
how a development person or executive
producer looks at writing. I’m also learning
what makes a good pitch and what makes a
good meeting.” In other words, Barnes is set
for the road ahead.
for anyone scrambling for a
creative role in Hollywood, the jobs avail
able at dot-coms may be a godsend—but
joining a dot-com isn’t the only way that
Hollywood’s fledgling talent is taking
advantage of the new media landscape.