L.A. Area Emmys: Shaping a New Generation

Production pros were abuzz tonight at Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in the city’s Noho Arts District, prepping for the Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards, the biggest celebration in Southern California regional television.

Though hard at work getting ready to welcome beloved local television personalities, creatives and more to the venue, the L.A. Area Emmys team also had another job on hand: mentoring both high school and college student job shadowers. 

With the help of the Fulfillment Fund (a nonprofit who works with the Television Academy Foundation to provide opportunities for students attending underserved high schools) and that of celebrated filmmaker and University of Alabama professor Rachel Raimist, the students enjoyed valuable opportunities to see how a production runs first-hand.

Paying Their Good
Fortune Forward

Raimist and others like her, are often inspired to spend time nurturing students because an educator, parent or other key person in their lives spent time nurturing them.

In Raimist’s case, she points to high school multimedia instructor, Fred Isaacs in Middletown, New York, among others, for sparking her need to pay her good fortune forward with her own students these days.  

A self-described, painfully shy and somewhat lost teen, she credits Isaacs — whom she remembers as a spirited hippie and very smart, caring teacher — with seeing through that and recruiting a smart, creative kid into his brand new Electronic Journalism class:

“I didn’t really talk to anyone,” she recalls, “but someone noticed me from the middle of the crowd and said, you know, you’re special, take this camera, this is how you do it, right.”

“He wasn’t a ‘this is so hard and only smart boys can do it’ type,” said Raimist, who first developed a relationship with the Television Academy Foundation and the Emmy Awards show after participating in the Foundation's renowned Faculty Seminar program. “He was like, ‘here, push this button.’” 

And this kind of welcoming encouragement is exactly what Fulfillment Fund and University of Alabama students are finding in sound technician Brandon Gilbert, editor and camera operator Brian D. Scott, award-winning producer and longtime Television Academy leader Joetta DiBella and more of the seasoned entertainment professionals, tasked with delivering this weekend's ceremony.  

Watch the Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards right here on Emmys.com Video.

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The 66th Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards was originally streamed live on July 26 here on Emmys.com.