When I finished my degree at Liberty
University in communications I went to Southern Illinois University where
they had awarded me a graduate assistantship. While there, I worked as the
production
manager/head producer of non-broadcast company called RT Productions. I
won my first award (Gold) with the AiME for the
Women's Center PSA.
(AiME
is the Association for Information Media & Equipment)
Then I went on and started to produce for
alt.news 26:46. This a really fun
magazine style news show, sort of a cross between Channel 1,
MTV and 20/20 but more irreverent. The first semester I helped with this
show, they only produced two episodes. It was super creative and fun, but
they lacked the ability to mass produce. That is where I came in. I
started executive producing in the fall of 2000 (the first female to ever
produce alt.news 26:46). That year we
put out 8 shows . . . and they kept winning awards! I have kind of
lost track of how many.
But, the bigger awards are the grand prize
for the
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences College Television Awards
(Student Emmys). And, we also won best magazine program in the
Regional Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, that is the
professional Emmys (not a student competition). While working on this show
and doing my thesis and teaching classes and working
for RT Productions, I was also producing my independent
documentaries. Documentary is more my passion. So, I did some pieces on
animal euthanasia (HUMANE), and about Chad Pregracke, who lives on the
Mississippi River, cleaning it (CLEAN
RIVERS), and I lived briefly with a counter culture in the forest
documenting their strange lifestyle (RAINBOW). Each of these documentaries
won several awards as well.
Then I won the award I am most proud of, "Outstanding Graduate Student of
the Year 2001". This may not be most glamorous of them, but it meant the
most to me to honored on the local level.
I finished with SIUC and went to Los Angeles in the summer of 2001, where
I had won an internship in documentary production with the
Academy of
Television Arts and Sciences. I was going against 8,000 other students
for the coveted 32 positions within the industry. There were only two for
documentary and I won one of them!
So, I started working for
Termite Art
Productions. This is a production company that does contracted work
for the cable networks: Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, History
Channel, A&E. I worked as a researcher for a month when they
promoted me to Segment Producer.
I am told that what I have been
doing is extremely rare for my age and professional experience. Usually,
when you come to Los Angeles to work in the entertainment industry, a
person must work 3 years as a production assistant, then if they are good
they get to be promoted to segment producer and many stay there (I have
worked with segment producers that have been doing it for 10 years). So,
in less than two years they prepping for the promotion to full producer to
come in the next several months.
I'm 25. All I can say is that God must really want me here and at this
time. It amazes me all the time, and I know I can not take credit for this
miracle, who knows what the future holds, who knows. All I know is each
step is important and my only responsibility is to the task at hand.
In 2003, I was promoted to full producer
and did a series of specials for Discovery Channel for "man-eater week." I
am also now listed at
IMDB.com.
I did some other shows as well and then
I did my first feature documentary called "Grizzly Man." This film was
with German Director, Werner Herzog and it went to the Sundance Film
Festival on January 2005 and it is was released in theaters August 12th,
2005 in LA and NY.
Those things are all fine and exciting, but I have to tell you that at
the end of 2004, I decided to take some time off from television and so I
am currently living and working in Northern India. I was only supposed to
be here until April, but once I got into the work and realized how long it
was going to take then I committed myself for the rest of the year. I am
working with poor women, teaching them how to make and sell handicrafts
and to basically earn a living that doesn't include working in a field or
carrying bricks on their head. I don't know if I will actually make a
financial difference in their lives, but I feel like I am at least giving
them some dignity and perhaps that may mean more in the long run. I am
missing my 10 year reunion because of this and while I would love to see
everyone in September, I can't leave the work just now. Anyway, I
will be returning to Lynchburg, right before Thanksgiving and will be
figuring out my next move at that time. I will most likely return to
television, but whatever I return too, I will be returning refreshed.
You can follow my
cross-cultural adventures on my blog here:
http://www.alter607.com/aspx/Blog.aspx
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To Students currently at Brookville: |
I recently spoke at a career day at a South Central Los Angeles Middle
School, and I told them that I think of my career path as the most
incredible hike, one that I might have taken back home in Blue Ridge
Mountains. At the bottom of the mountain, when you begin, the top seems so
far away and
ominous, not really real, and some might turn away at that. But if you
really look at it, the climb is not that hard, just one step at a time,
one foot in front of the other. Focus on what you are doing and you will
get there, if you stop in the path to daydream about the top you might
again get discouraged and want to turn back thinking you will never get
there. But, if you forget about reaching the top then you will come to
realize that it is more about the journey than the destination anyway, and
many times on the way, you can pause and see the progress you have made,
and sigh with wonder that you have come so far and so high, and knowing
that when you were at the beginning you had no idea it was going to be
like this.
It is not easy though, your bones may ache, you are sweaty and dusty and
thirsty, but they
are all good moments, because it reminds you that you are indeed hiking
and you are on an adventure and you need the low in order to feel the
high. I am still on the hike myself and I no idea how long it will be but
I can't wait for each turn because I never know what it will bring and the
challenge I will face, but this I know, the journey is as simple as one
step at a time, one foot in front of the other.
I have recently won another award for a piece I did for Animal Planet the
summer I first came here. It is about a cat that was set on fire and then
saved, very gruesome story, but I guess some people liked it. I received
an Honorable Mention in the Genesis Awards and I went to the Beverly Hills
Hilton this for that award ceremony.
My current projects are for TLC. They are shows on the Psychology of fear,
and belief in the supernatural, and how myths begin. They are turning out
to be very interesting. We are editing them now and I believe they are set
to air in April, 2003. After that, I think I am moving on to a new series
on Discovery called "Beyond Human."
Besides my work for Termite Art Productions, I continue to develop my
independent documentary projects. I have about 15 in pre-production and
will begin production on two of them in the coming months.
I truly must acknowledge God and his hand in all of this. It is one
awesome journey.
Alana Berry - Brookville Class of
1995.
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