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Date: 4/16/2015
EAST LONGMEADOW – Christopher Macken, a senior at Emerson College in Boston who graduated from East Longmeadow High School in 2011, was recently accepted into an internship program at Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles (LA), CA, here he has been learning some of the ins and outs of the film industry.
Macken told Reminder Publications his semester long internship is through Emerson Los Angeles and he has been working in the development office of Lorenzo di Bonaventura at Paramount Pictures. The office is responsible for action movies such as “Transformers” and “G.I. Joe”
“Being a film production major, LA was definitely the spot I had to come to,” he added.
Macken said he’s gained a better understanding of the business side of filmmaking in Hollywood.
“Working at Paramount, I realized what working for a big studio is like,” he added. “Essentially, working in a development office I was never really introduced to doing script coverage and working closely with people whose main focus is just building projects from the beginning. I’ve always worked on the production side, so it was nice kind of seeing the pre-production process and seeing how agencies work and correspond with production companies finding actors [and] finding scripts.”
Macken has also been working a part-time job at Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles while in LA, where he has met celebrities such as F. Gary Gray, the director of the 1995 film “Friday” and the 2003 “Italian Job” remake. He introduced himself to Gray while waiting tables.
“He was there with his whole cast [of Gray’s newest film “Straight Outta Compton”] so I went over and I had pictures of myself and I talked to him a little bit and gave him my contact information,” he said.
Rap artist Chief Keef also dines almost daily at the Roscoe’s where Macken works, he added. Sometime last week, when Macken wasn’t working, he heard from his co-workers that President Barack Obama visited the “world-famous” chicken and waffle house.
Macken, set to graduate from Emerson in May with a Bachelor’s degree, is also finishing production on his senior thesis film, “City of Homes,” a coming-of-age story about a struggling young actor named Adam who decides to come back to his hometown of Springfield after failed attempts to find acting work in California.
The film was shot at various locations in the city such as the Peter Pan bus station as well as in surrounding communities.
“It’s in the post-production process, so I’m just waiting on the score to be finished mixing at Berklee [College of Music in Boston],” he noted. “I’m in my last coloring session to get the image looking good and then it’s off to festivals.”
The film will likely be completed by the end of April, he added. The film would also have a screening in Springfield sometime in the foreseeable future, however a screening date and venue has yet to be set.
For more information about Macken and City of Homes visit www.chrismacken.net.