Jenny Austin of OR DIE TRYING met with Michelle Leibel, Writers' PA on Vinyl Season 2, to discuss her journey in Los Angeles.
Name: Michelle Daisy Leibel
Field of Industry/Company/Job Title: HBO - Vinyl Season 2 Writers' PA
Favorite Film: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
ODT: Are you from Los Angeles originally? If not, where?
ML: Originally, I'm from Atlanta.
ODT: Tell us about the moment you decided to move to L.A., how did it make you feel?
ML: I decided to move to LA after I interned out here summer before my senior year of college. I don't think there was a moment that I decided; there was just a point that I started telling people that I was moving to LA after graduation, and then I did.
ODT: Why have you pursued a career in the film industry?
ML: I love writing, and I love tv and movies, and it seemed like the only job where I wouldn't have to wear "business casual" attire.
ODT: How did you get into the film industry?
ML: While trying to land an internship with the GA Film Commission the summer before my Junior year of college, I inadvertently had my resume sent to The Walking Dead, who interviewed and hired me for a Locations PA position. That sort of launched my resume enough to be able to get more jobs afterward, and it was my first taste of the industry.
ODT: Any memorable moments in your journey?
ML: Joining the NBC Page Program after I moved to LA was a memorable time in itself- to have a network, especially a giant like NBC, open to me was a crazy experience. I got to work on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon when he came to LA, and at one point, I was working in an office directly across from The Voice, and all the musical guests would hang outside my boss's window and check their reflections (it was tinted glass), which was very funny.
ODT: What do you love most about the film industry?
ML: I love the thought that the entire industry is based on helping ideas come to life. Even though you watch TV or movies sometimes and you're like, "How did this get made?" I like that almost everyone I've met has worked their way up to create something.
ODT: What have been some of the more challenging moments about being a woman in the film industry?
ML: I think it's very easy to be dismissed as a woman in the film industry; it's been an industry dominated by men for so long, and when women start being noticed, they're more harshly criticized for their decisions, viewpoints, general appearance. In collaborative environments, women still get cut off mid-sentence sometimes for a man to talk over them. One particular thing that really irked me when I was working on locations, which is a very physical job, a guy I worked with kept taking credit for the heavy lifting/setting up of things, and everyone just kind of went with it, because it made more sense for him to have done it than me.
ODT: What motivates you? What dream(s) are you most fighting for?
ML: I'm motivated mostly by the people I get to work with; when I'm in a writers' room and I see how hours of brainstorming and writing become episodes of television, I'm inspired to write things of my own. Also, it's not a popular thing to say, but jealousy drives me. I see people doing what I want to be doing, and that motivates me to keep working towards it. My eventual goal is to write for comedy TV, but more specifically, I want to tell and share stories that I come up with.
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