
Next Gen Talent celebrates exciting new talent within the Argonon Group. From interns to production secretaries, we’re highlighting some of the newest, up and coming members of the team, or those responsible for finding the industry’s next gen talent.
This month we spoke to Tanya Preddie, who’s currently an intern on House Hunters International for Leopard USA. Tanya shares with us her favourite parts of her internship so far, what she hopes to gain from her internship, and everything in between!
How long have you been working as an intern on House Hunters International?
Tanya: This [Wednesday 9th February] is my fifth week. I’m doing three weeks per department, so I did my first three weeks with casting, and now I’m working in the field department.
How are you enjoying it so far?
I’m loving it. I’m learning a lot; I’m realising how operations work and what the important details are within the show, that maybe a lot of people wouldn’t notice when watching it. It’s been really interesting to see how it works from start to finish, starting with casting. All of it’s been super insightful, so I’m loving it a lot.
Is television an industry that you’ve always wanted to work in?
Yeah! When I was studying in undergrad, I first started off with journalism and didn’t even make it through the first week before I switched majors. But I switched to speech pathology, which was a completely different field, and it was pretty interesting, and I stayed there for about a year and a half. Then I realised I was only there because it felt like a safety net, and I eventually changed my major to television production.
What’s been your favourite part about your internship so far?
I love field, the department I’m in right now, because I have to do a lot of research for the cities that where we’re focusing on for the week and I’m a naturally curious person, so I like the idea of having to get to know a city – Cardiff in Wales for example – that I knew absolutely nothing about before. It’s been super interesting, and the fact that I can use my curiosity as a tool for my work is something I’m really grateful for, honestly.
What are your day-to-day responsibilities?
So, depending on who I’m shadowing for the week, it usually varies. When I was in casting, I focused mainly on one-sheets. I would get questionnaires and uncut interview videos from the contributors and then I would write up one-sheets to outline their entire story, how they met, why they want to move, where they’re moving to, what stakes are at hand, and all of that. And I would also edit the interview videos, so if they were interviewed for about an hour, I would have to shave that down to 5 minutes.
And then in field, I’m mainly doing a lot of research, which I love. I’m looking up restaurants and cafes where they can have the decision scene, or a meet and greet. I’m looking up locations for B roll within cities that they’re going to be filming in, finding out facts about the city and any important information that we need to know for filming. Like some cities might not have anything open midday, so that’s really important information for the film team.
Do you think COVID has made the research side of things quite difficult?
Yeah, that’s been the biggest thing while I’m doing research on cities, because there are a lot of options in these cities and in these countries, it’s just that they’re not open now. I have whole lists of places and I can’t use maybe 70 or 80 percent of them because they’re closed for COVID-related reasons. So, it’s been a challenge because of COVID, not gonna lie!
What do you hope to gain from your internship?
There’s a lot. There’s the basic stuff, like experience, networking and meeting great people – which has honestly been amazing. The people I’ve been working with so far are all super nice, really welcoming and comforting when I ask questions.
I also want to be able to gain more insight on how a television show like House Hunters International works, because before starting, I obviously had my own ideas about how it went, and it was a lot simpler in my head than it really is. I want to continue to gain more understanding, more knowledge of the operational aspects of the job, and I just want to continue to meet more people in each department. Whether or not I’m here for the long run, it’s amazing, the people that I’m meeting here, and I want to be able to keep up those connections.
And finally, where do you see the role taking you in the future?
I’m glad that I’m getting the chance to go through each department during his internship because I can figure out what I like more, as well as what I’m not really feeling too much of. So far, I like field because I like the research aspect of it. In the future, I think I’d be interested in understanding more of how producers do their thing because I think I have an interest in creative producing. I’m glad that I got the internship here because it’s given me that foundation to build on and to get a clearer idea of what career trajectory I want to go into next.
“The internship role at Leopard USA was structured with meaningful intent so the intern would come away with a thorough understanding of producing. I wanted the intern to fully grasp the process of making a series from start to finish, and have an understanding of what each role within production involves.” – Shirley Escott, COO at Leopard USA
Interns at Leopard USA work specifically on House Hunters International and will spend three weeks with each department; covering casting with the casting team, production management with line producers, production managers and coordinators, production with producers and post-production with the post team, including observing the editing process.