UCA Spotlight: Sam Wolf

Please describe your career path during your time at UCLA. What club or internship experience have you had?

I’m not from the LA area, I’m from Portland, Oregon, so when I came here I didn’t know a single person. One of the things that I fell into pretty quickly to meet people was Residential Life. My first year I was the Communications Representative and so I helped do promotional things for the events that the Residential Government Council would plan. I really liked that because I was meeting a lot of really cool, outgoing, friendly people. I also fell into this love for building community while planning and promoting these fun events online by making posters and Facebook events. 

I did that for my first two years here and at the same time I was into writing, so I became the campus editor for our chapter of The Tab, which is an online student newspaper and they have chapters all over the country. I was writing and editing articles for that which allowed me to get super involved in campus events and be more aware of things that were happening. There were big news events we would want to cover and cool events that clubs were doing, and just other news in the LA area. Also since my freshman year, I got involved with Model United Nations which I have done since high school. That was really fun because it was different than what I had done in high school but similar in a lot of ways so that was cool to meet a lot of people who knew how it worked and continued doing that. I always thought it was a lot of fun to do research and debate and I am still doing that now. 

Right around my junior year I started really getting into film. I always loved movies, loved film. I would make short movies with my friends in middle school so I started thinking about it more seriously as a career. Living in LA we’re surrounded by it all the time. Before coming to LA I had never seen a billboard that advertised a movie. Where I am from, billboards are for the local college or the lottery - I had never seen a billboard for a movie and here that’s all there is. I thought, “Wow, that’s so cool. Content and media everywhere!” (laughs) and so I started thinking about minoring in film and maybe exploring career opportunities there. I started taking classes and trying to intern at places that were film-related.

My first internship was at a startup tech company called Stardust. They have an app where people can upload shorts and videos that are reactions to movies - someone will go see a movie and film a video for 30 seconds saying whether they loved or hated it. My job was community management, which was like customer service. I realized that the people who in their spare time record videos about how much they love movies are like the best kind of people. I had so much fun interacting with that community. Even though it was small, everyone was super nice and willing to give feedback because we were a startup. That was really fun and I loved engaging with those people that loved movies so that kind of kick-started my love for it. 

Then I got involved in the Bruin Film Society, now this huge force at UCLA which is insane because it was not that way just a couple of years ago. We do screenings and have meetings and people will invite members over to their apartment to watch movies and they get exclusive tickets to premieres in Westwood and around LA. So it’s a really cool way to get involved in the Los Angeles film community and just film in different ways. I’ve loved immersing myself in that. This year I am their Social Media Coordinator and I love that because, like I was saying before, I really enjoy engaging people with social media and the whole community-building aspect of it. So, this is a really cool way to bridge my love of movies and my love of community within UCLA. 

One of my other internships is being a campus representative for A24. They will tell me “Hey, we have this movie coming out, do you want to screen it on campus for free before it comes out?” Then I will help book the theater and do advertising for it and BFS is always really eager to partner on that so it’s been fun to bridge those two. Also, people love A24, it’s such a brand right now, it’s so fun.

I also worked at Paramount this summer in the publicity department and I decided from that experience that I really loved working campaigns leading up to a movie’s theatrical release. I don’t think going to the movies is dead. It may be dying but I still love going to the movie theater. Working on movies and trying to build buzz for it leading up to the big release date was really fun, but in publicity I wanted something a little more creative, so I thought, what about marketing? In marketing, you’re doing more specific campaigns and you’re creating content and trying to figure out how to publish them across different platforms.

My next internship that I had last quarter was a really small, independent film distribution company called Roadside Attractions and because it was small I learned SO much from all the different people. I found out that I really really like independent film because I think the capacity for storytelling is so great. A lot of blockbusters are kind of predictable, but in independent film you get such a wide variety and range from foreign films and directors who are queer or people of color telling these unique stories that you wouldn’t otherwise see in the mainstream. I think trying to build press for that, those kinds of movies, and getting people to find a reason to go to the theater and spend all of that money on something they may not otherwise is such a fun challenge. 

For my ultimate trajectory, I want to do digital marketing for film. I get so excited about movies and I love getting other people excited about movies too.

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

Now that I’ve been reflecting on everything, I realized I have done a lot of different things to find where I’m at. I guess my advice would be, it’s okay if you don’t know what you want to do because every experience is valuable in its own way. I don’t really want to go into tech and I don’t know anything about coding or programming, but doing customer service for a startup app was a valuable experience as far as the relationships I made and the experience of being in a professional office. Learning something new, learning how to interact professionally with people on behalf of a larger company like that is super valuable even though the job itself was not something I ultimately want to do.

So my advice would be, if you don’t know what you want to do, try new things. It’s ok if you don’t get the biggest, most prestigious internship that you want. Everything is going to be valuable. You can change your path six times in college. You can do a complete 180, a different internship every single time, and I can guarantee that all of those experiences will come together and make you really well-rounded and prepared for what you’re meant to do.

How were you able to find and land so many different internship experiences?

They say that in the entertainment industry it’s all about who you know, which is so true and I’ve had all different experiences in how I got those jobs. For Paramount, it was someone who works with my dad whose wife knows the vice president of publicity. It was a totally random and out-of-the-blue connection and I called her for an informational that ended with her saying, “cool we’d love to have you, you’re hired.” I thought, “What? This is crazy! Is this how it happens a lot of the time?!” So, I was so lucky to have that kind of opportunity. I think that kind of kick-started everything else because my boss at Roadside Attractions was like, “Yeah, I saw on your resume you had studio experience so we’ll just bring you in for an interview,” just based on that. Even though I decided that Paramount was not the route I wanted to take, and I didn’t want to do publicity, just having that kind of experience was able to boost me.

My next internship is going to be doing digital marketing with Warner Brothers but that was totally a cold application. I applied online and heard back and didn’t have any connections. I did have connections for a lot of other places where I didn’t end up getting hired. I really tried to use my connections at Roadside Attractions since it was much smaller and I got to know every person individually. I interviewed with recommendations at Neon, Amazon Studios, and Nickelodeon, but the one where I didn’t know anybody when I applied was the one that ended up working out. At the same time all of those interviews, and meeting all of those people, and also the practice of networking, knowing how to ask people, “Hey, do you have any connections here and would you feel comfortable like putting us in touch” was all super valuable. It’s all such a game. You can’t predict anything that’s going to happen. So, all of it works in one way or another. Just know you’ll get there if you keep trying.

How did your UCA experience help shape your success?

I love UCA! UCA is so great. Honestly, some of my most valuable memories and experiences have been from UCA. Being on the board last year taught me a lot of leadership in the sense of managing communication. I was the Director of Communication so I was managing communication with a lot of different people., having to work on professional communication whether it’s for the newsletter or answering a membership question. Also, trying to have a friendly and knowledgeable face for UCA as a brand was especially super valuable since I want to do digital marketing. Learning how to use those digital tools to my advantage was a leadership experience and gaining those small skills that you wouldn’t think you have to know ended up being really valuable.

Also, the networking nights are so cool and I love going to them. One of the reasons I wanted to be a comm major is because it’s so broad and when I came to UCLA I didn’t know what I wanted to do at all. I liked working with people, I liked media in one form or another, so going to the networking nights and seeing the guy from Google right next to the guy from Marvel while seeing the entire range of what you can do with these kinds of skills was so eye-opening. I always tell people who ask, “What can I do with comm?” that I can go through my entire life not knowing how to code, I can go without knowing econ formulas, or that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, but I can’t go my entire life without knowing how to communicate. I think honestly that is one of the most valuable skills in any field, in any place, no matter how old you are: you have to know how to talk to people in one form or another whether that’s interpersonal, over email or writing or anything. So being able to see the range of what people have done with those skills in different fields at networking nights was awesome. Also, every single person has valuable advice even if they aren’t doing what you want to do. Everyone will say, “Oh in college I did this and it was super helpful,” or “My first boss told me this piece of advice that I’ll never forget,” and even if they’re doing marketing for a wine company and that’s not your path, they’re still going to have advice worth listening to.

I think another thing that UCA helped me with was confidence. We had an internship Q&A where we would just invite people to come hear the UCA board talk about their experiences and internships and answer questions about career opportunities in our field. I think I never really thought of myself as a super valuable resource because I’m just a student and I haven’t done a whole lot. Being able to interact with other students and sharing the different experiences we’ve had just gave me a lot of confidence to think of myself as someone who accomplished something and who is valuable to other people just as I feel other people are valuable to me. That was something that no other club had really given me before, that opportunity to think of myself as a leader, as someone whose story is worth telling and can maybe help someone down the line. It is sort of a return for all the help I’ve received from people who are older than me. I thought that was a really enriching, self-affirming experience so I’m very grateful to UCA for that.

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

If I’m being honest, a lot of the career challenges that I’ve faced have been internal. Working in entertainment is so unbelievably competitive and stressful. A lot of people say it’s all about who you know, but that means you can be really qualified, you might think you’re the best person for the job, and then not get it. It could be because that person’s boss has a nephew that also applied and it was one phone call for them and it has nothing to do with you. With a field like this, facing that rejection can be really disheartening, and there are lots and lots of really qualified people who are just as devastated as you are and it just means that it didn’t work out this time around. So I think one of my biggest challenges has been finding the confidence to keep going and keep applying to things to figure out what I want. 

I think because UCLA is also really competitive, if you don’t have two internships by your sophomore year you feel like you’re behind. There’s definitely this mentality of always striving for the next thing and trying to get the best job. It’s not like that for everyone but I feel like in general, especially with the culture at this school, it’s easy to get caught up in that and not realize the privilege we have of being at UCLA, which is really well-established and has all these connections. Being able to take a step back from that and see everyone has their own different path and even if I don’t know what I want to do I need to take the time to explore that. I think a lot of people think, “I want to go into entertainment and I need to work at Disney.” They don’t care what department they’re in, they just want to say they worked at Disney. I say take it slow. Figure out what you want to do, get really valuable experience in that specific field, and then eventually you might get there. No executive, no major President or Vice President is under 30, you know what I mean? You have to do your time and put in the work, but you’ll get there.

So, I would say my greatest challenge has been fighting against the feeling that I’m never going to get anything, everyone is doing better than me, and learning to say, it’s okay. I can take time to figure out what I want to do. Maybe this isn’t exactly what I wanted, this was my second choice, this wasn’t my dream job but I’m still going to find value in it. I am still going to be of value for that company, and who knows what kind of opportunities it will afford me?

What’s next? 

I just know I want to be in Los Angeles. I think Los Angeles is the most vibrant, beautiful city in the whole world. I know a lot of people think everyone’s really fake and stuck up but I think that it’s such a community all different kinds of artists. Everyone moved to Los Angeles with a dream, it sounds really cheesy, but I think in general the culture that Los Angeles has created is one where everyone has a story to tell and a lot of people are very receptive to it. Everyone is going to complain about the traffic but at the same time everyone is going to want to talk to their Uber driver about the stories they’re working on. 

We’re surrounded by theater and film and visual art in all forms. The museums that we have here are beautiful and the street art we have here is beautiful. There are all these people walking around and engaging in really intelligent, spiritual conversations. I just really want to be a part of everything and the culture that this city has created, specifically in film, but also in general as a community of artists. I feel like no other place, at least in the country, or at least that I’ve ever been to, has as much of that kind of passion for storytelling and art as much as Los Angeles and that is everything I could ever dream of. 

No matter what I end up doing I want to be here and I want to be contributing to that kind of creative community. I need a day job and I need to pay rent and so I’ll probably do the whole “start in the mailroom” or “start as an assistant” track and work my way up the ladder. In the future, I would love to have extra time to be creative and tell fun stories and maybe produce or direct films and help my friends do the same thing. I feel like it would be really fun to have a production company but you need a lot of connections and you need a lot of money so that’s farther down the line. 

For now, I just like being here and I like being surrounded by people who are really ambitious. I think that’s what it comes down to, everyone here is super ambitious, for better or for worse, but I think that’s a cool place to be.

For more on Sam, follow her on IG at @sampeggywolf