066: Paths to Production in Television

Catalyst: A Creative Industries Podcast

Catalyst is a Creative Industries podcast, from Chapman University. Each episode features Chapman students who have completed a Podcasting course through the Center for Creative and Cultural Industries at the university. Students who had no podcasting experience or technical ability in the genre before taking the course were able to contribute all the segments to Catalyst this season with the goal being that they will take this ‘hands-on’ experience and carry it over to the launching of their very own series. Each episode of Season 8 will feature one to two different interviews conducted by CCI students, exploring different aspects of the Creative and Cultural Industries.

To start off our week, Jill Watson reached out to speak with Mel Weisenberg, a creative executive at the Tannebaum Production Company. Mel has worked on successful projects such as shows like Home Economics on ABC, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist on NBC, and Acapulco on Apple. Jill and Mel discuss the challenges Mel faced in the entertainment industry and how she overcame them, offering up some insight as to what part of her college and early career work are still most relevant to her work today.

In an energetic interview wraps up our episode, with Marsha Hunt sitting down to talk to Carson Campuzano. Hunt, an Emmy award-winning writer, director, and producer goes into detail about her fascinating career path that started with her working in animation studios, including some time spent working with animation legend Isadore "Friz" Freleng. Hunt relates how she then made the move to live action producing, and subsequently was courted by Fox Sports to work on a project, and since then has been successfully collaborating on projects for Fox, DirecTV, The Discovery Channel, Disney, the Warner Brothers, among others. Hunt relays some key advice for working in the Creative and Cultural Industries and closes with a tip about the importance of a separate hobby.