Alumni Spotlight: Emily Kim at Sony Pictures

Please describe your career path from UCLA to your current role.

I was a communication studies major and Film/TV minor for some context. In terms of my career path, I believe it was my sophomore year when I started to do internships, and at this point I had absolutely no experience at all. It’s truly a paradoxical situation when you need experience to gain more experience, but when you don't have any where do you start? At this point, I knew I wanted to work in entertainment to some capacity, wasn’t entirely sure what capacity, but I wanted to get into anything so I could have something to show for myself. My first internship was at a TV literary agency called Kaplan Stahler where I was a Scripted and Unscripted intern. So essentially doing development work for scripted shows and unscripted programming like reality TV shows. I covered a ton of scripts and novels for different agents and sent out different materials for staffing and pilot season. Overall, it was a very helpful internship just being in an office setting and an actual workplace, but it was unpaid which sucked and I had to uber there all the time. So, it kind of felt like I paid to do this internship but even though I didn’t really know how much it would help me I knew I was doing something.

At this point in my life, I wanted to do entertainment law or I was considering it. I interned at an entertainment law firm as a creative intern. I did kind of the same thing, I reviewed and covered scripts, graphic novels, etc. for executives in packaging and sales. I matched different clients to production companies, so that was kind of cool and different. After that, I switched over and started to do marketing and this was with Marvel Entertainment which was one of the companies that I wanted to work at for so long. I love all their stories and characters so that was very exciting. I did that junior year and got extended and then I decided to switch gears to Sony to do more of the same marketing work. Interestingly enough the films I worked on were Spider-verse and Spiderman so it kind of felt more of the same. Then my former boss at Marvel called me back when that team in particular switched over to Disney and got to work on marketing from Captain Marvel to Disney + stuff because that’s when it launched, so it’s bizarre to see it all out now. The job that I have right now is back at Sony working in current programming in TV and that’s a complete change of pace but I’m loving it!

What do you believe helped you land all these job positions?

A lot of it is exposure and trying to increase that as much as possible. Whether that’s applying to 100 different jobs, or having a really nice profile on LinkedIn (which is always very helpful), or casting a very wide net in terms of your connections and making sure those stay active. Also, I think some of it could kind of be a coincidence as well but I do think when you cast such a wide net in terms of how many people can see your resume and how many people’s attention you can catch really helps. I really think you just have to be extremely persistent and be very disciplined with yourself to get started. When you go from smaller companies and build up your experiences and you’re able to go into more mid-level or larger companies, those companies and studios themselves have so much talent.  Once you’re there you can meet a ton of people and hear about their life experiences and continue to grow your network. I would say the hardest part is just getting that first exposure. As long as you just start the rest follows, as long as you can also stay on top of it.

What inspired you to choose this career path?

With entertainment there’s so much you can do within it. There’s marketing, publicity, set design, you can do development, etc., so overall I knew I wanted to be in this space even though I didn’t know specifically to what capacity I would be in it. I always knew I loved stories that could move me, educate me, provide different perspectives or honestly just to entertain me too (laughs). I think being able to relate to characters, their joy, their struggles, etc. is very valuable. I do think an important part of the human experience despite the differences in our backgrounds, cultures, experiences, education, sexual orientation, etc. is our shared connection in how we can all feel something. So I think when you can tap into that through film and television, which are mediums within our culture that are so widely consumed and is a really big part of most people’s leisure time activity, then you really have the power to do something of significance. I can watch so many films and TV shows, music and podcasts apply to this too, where I walk out of that theater or from my living room watching on Netflix, and I gained something new. Working in TV isn’t saving anyone’s life, you know, there’s doctors and people that work in tech that are extremely revolutionary to us as a species. I do think because we are such social creatures working in the business of culture is very important too. So, that is my very long-winded answer for why I decided to work in entertainment (laughs).

How did your UCA experience help shape your success?

Overall, looking back, my experience with UCA definitely taught me just to be a little bolder and take a leap of faith in doing something that is completely outside of my comfort zone. I went to my first Networking Night event as a freshman and I was totally nervous. It was terrifying not knowing what I was doing or how to talk to anyone at all about my goals or career next steps because I didn’t have a career at that point yet (laughter). Nothing was starting for me so how could I communicate all this with these real life professionals. I knew that was such a daunting task but I had no way around it, I just had to go through it. So, I think being able to talk and engage with students and interact with professionals and just getting general advice really helped me begin. Truthfully, and I mentioned this earlier, but one of the hardest parts to figuring it out, whatever that may mean, is just beginning. Just starting. I feel like UCA for me was kind of like the training wheels and when they came off, in time, I felt more ready than I ever did.

What does your day-to-day look like as a Programming Assistant at Sony Pictures?

Sony functions as an independent studio which is quite rare nowadays because you usually you have the studio aspect of it and also a distribution arm within the same company. Sony isn’t like that they are just a studio. So, we always sell different stories and pitches to networks which are the distributing arms. In terms of this job, our main mission and goal is to manage from start to finish all the scripted shows that Sony produces while they’re on-air. So what this means is working with producers and writers, looking over material, whether that’s an outline or a fully drafted script, or the first few cuts that come in. As the studio, we review that, read through it, give the producers notes and also review it together with the network and receive their notes. Essentially it’s managing the creative process of a show during its lifetime on air.

Some of the shows that we have are The Good Doctor for instance on ABC, The Boys on Amazon and I believe Atypical on Netflix, so it is very very cool and very much in line with what’s happening currently in TV. Film development is completely different because sometimes you could be developing for years and the project doesn’t get made while this is what’s happening now, what’s coming out next week, next month. I would say a good way to kind of explain how it works is there are development teams and then there’s current programming/scripted programming teams. So development, if they were pitched a story from producers or a production company and let’s compare this pitch to a baby, they birth the baby and sell it to a network. They produce the pilot and if the network says they like it, they take it, then the project is green lit. It’s a go. Once that happens they pass along the baby to current programming, which is what I do, and from that point on from episode two until the show ends we’re raising the baby.

What has been your favorite project you have been able to work on? 

The ones that I had mentioned,The Good Doctor, The Boys, and we have a couple new season one shows that should be coming out soon. So that has been very exciting just being able to see how a show is set up from the beginning versus The Good Doctor which is now in its third season. They kind of already have a well-oiled machine going, they have a system that is very smooth whereas first season shows there’s a lot you can learn. Every single producer and production company as well as different networks have a different process for how they like to make a show, which is very cool.   

What has been your greatest career challenge and how did you overcome it?

I would say in this specific job and team it’s just the nature of the TV industry. It’s a lot of work at once. It’s not just focusing on one show like when you’re a producer you usually work on one project and that is your baby. In total, I have two bosses and help them manage eight to ten shows so that gets a little crazy. They’re all at different steps of prep and production, or maybe the writers’ room is at different stages as well. Trying to know how everything is going for every single show and what they need on a day-to-day basis and the progress they’re making is a little challenging. You eventually get used to the multi-tasking and being able to juggle different projects at the same time.

What advice would you give to UCA members interested in this field?

I think because entertainment is so broad, if you can find that one thing and achieve it from the start that’s awesome, but from my personal experience I’ve noticed there’s so much that you can do and often times you might feel a little directionless and lost. I think there could be moments when you find it challenging to switch from one line of business to another which is completely normal and fair. One of the biggest things that I had to overcome was transitioning after I had interned for two years in the marketing space in the film business. It was very fun, fast-paced, with a lot of creative people within those spaces that you can learn a ton from but at the end of the day I just knew it wasn’t entirely fulfilling or satisfying for me. I wanted to do something that was more connected to the making of the story as opposed to how to sell the story. Which is very very important. You don’t go into a theater for the most part not knowing anything about the movie you are about to watch. Usually you’ve seen the trailer, a poster, the cast, etc. and that’s all marketing. I think one of my challenges was figuring out what exactly to do in the entertainment industry because there’s so many ways that you can be a part of storytelling. You really just have to try everything and I think be open to anything. If you are diligent and persistent enough to try as much as you can and learn as much as you can, that is when you pick up on how different fields work and how different positions work within a team. That’s how you can learn the most and be an asset in a lot of different situations. 

So even if you feel like you don’t know exactly what you want that is completely OK. There is actually a lot of excitement and curiosity in figuring all that out. I think eventually there will come a time when it all becomes clear. Just stay excited, try new things, and don’t have too much tunnel vision unless you know exactly what you want to do. Just keep your eyes wide open because I think diversity in experience goes a long way. There are times with this job when I think about things I learned in marketing and I can apply it, it’s just interesting how it all works out.

What’s next? 

I did just start this job in September, so my immediate what’s next is really nailing down how this team works, how an independent studio works, and just knowing the job inside and out. Thinking long-term, to be completely honest, I have no clue. I did learn as long as I’m absorbing new information like a sponge and putting myself in new situations where I’m challenged to work and think differently I’m very excited. I do think that figuring out how I want to be involved in the process of delivering stories that move people is something you just need to work through to achieve every day it doesn’t just happen overnight. 

So yeah, it’s kind of a question mark but if I do need to give you a more tangible answer it would probably be to explore networks or perhaps production companies that have a distinct brand to each of them so I can focus on each kind of story they are trying to tell. When you look at a show from HBO versus a show on Hulu, it's a little different. You go to different platforms expecting different stories so I think being able to go into a network and kind of see what stories they’re interested in picking will be really cool.

Any parting advice?

I really think that at the end of the day, if you stay very curious, you will get a lot out of all and any of your experiences. When you’re this young and this new you’re basically like the baby of the world. Once you graduate, you are truly the baby of adult-life. If you’re willing to go through anything and everything you’ll come out with more than you could have expected for the long term that will help you not only in your career but as a person too.