105: Creative Career Viewpoints in Film & Television

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 12 will feature one to two different interviews conducted by CCI students, exploring different aspects of the Creative and Cultural Industries.

To begin our episode this week Annie Hirsch speaks with Debby Pearlman, President and co-founder of SparkBird Productions, a television and film production company based in Los Angeles, California. The pair discuss Debby’s years of experience developing show ideas in the television industry including her experience working as Senior Vice President of Development for Bright-Kauffman-Crane which produced the hit television show Friends, and how that compares to her current experience working with her smaller production company. Through the interview Debby discusses her creative process including how she now utilizes social platforms as a tool for her current work. Debby also touches on the importance of acknowledging that every person/department that works on a project is equally important, from producers to actors, screenwriters, original creators, costume designers, etc., as they all play a part in the storytelling.

Jordan Miller-Lulla closes out the episode this week with their Claus Lulla Interview. Lulla, who is a two-time Emmy Award-winning makeup artist, discusses with Jordan his career that includes working in the entertainment industry for over 20 years. Starting as a makeup artist working on theater productions in Austria, Claus talks about his later move to Los Angeles and how he worked his way up to films and TV show productions there. Jordan and Claus discuss what attracted Claus to the entertainment industry and what it means to work in a creative field where you are pushed to be a perfectionist and to be highly detail-oriented with your craft. They explore what a typical day of filming looks like in a television production as a makeup artist and what challenges Claus faced as he was starting his career. They wrap the interview with some sage advice for those wanting to enter the competitive and compelling industry of entertainment.