Hollywood writer/showrunner shares stories of opportunity and perseverance with Centre students
Matt Arnold ’96 thought his fight to transform from a physics major at Centre College to an in-demand Hollywood filmmaker was complete.
He had been grinding away in a strange town far from home for years, working for free to get close to the filmmakers he adored and on set to learn the craft he dreamed of mastering.
现在, 在所有的工作之后, 乞讨, 哄骗, 奉承与欺骗, his final thesis project at the prestigious USC film school was a rousing success. It drew the attention of studios and producers, opening doors he had been banging against for years.
“I had a huge line of people wanting to talk to me,” he told students gathered in the 诺顿艺术bwin体育的威西格剧院. They're all producers, and I had all these great meetings afterward. I go to the meetings at these film studios, and I was like, wow, I'm an overnight success.”
但事情从来没有那么简单.
他一直被问到的问题是:“你下一步想做什么??这个问题他并没有准备好回答.
“I said, ‘Well, whatever script you give me, sir, I will direct the heck out of it,’阿诺德说. “他们说，‘不，不. 事情不是这样的.’”
So, he got busy writing, developing ideas and crafting pitches for future projects. But six months later, when he returned to the studios, they had moved on. That window of excitement surrounding his student film had passed.
“我糟蹋了我的机会. 我从来没有忘记要做好准备, being able to know when you have an opportunity to be able to capitalize on it,他说.
Arnold shared his story of struggle and triumph — he has two primetime television series and a couple films 在他的简历上 to go with five projects currently in development — with students as part of Centre’s new 职业生涯 Exploration Communities, which link students with a career coach and a network of industry insiders. The aim is to help students gain an inside look at their future and get a leg up on internships, 研究生院, 工作和更多.
哥伦比亚, 肯塔基州, Native欣然接受了与学生交谈的机会, considering a convocation he attended while at Centre had a profound effect on his own life path.
那天的演讲者是 艾萨克Tigrett ‘70, who founded the House of Blues and Hard Rock Café after graduating from Centre College.
“我不记得那个人说了什么, 跟你说实话吧,阿诺德说, 但我确实记得我离开时的那种感觉, which was this sense of possibility that if someone could … go on to live this big life and do amazing things, 也许我可以, 太.”
That’s what drew Arnold back to Centre to share his story of struggle and success with current students.
“The convocation I had with 艾萨克Tigrett literally changed my life,他说 from the Weisiger Theatre stage after talking with students for nearly an hour after he concluded his talk. “It was profound and gave me the encouragement I needed to leave here, 去一个谁也不认识的城市, 开始自己的职业生涯. Because I saw this guy who didn’t seem that different from me, and he went out and did it.”
It was Tigrett’s ingenuity and perseverance that struck Arnold and mirrored his own story of overcoming long odds to become a writer, 导演兼制片人实现了他的好莱坞梦.
“他没有帮助，没有钱，什么都没有. He went out there and met people and built things,阿诺德说. “If there’s one kid in the audience who thought … ‘Well if that guy did it, 我能做到,这是完全值得的.”
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