So what does an intern do?

That's a question many people ask, but they precede it by asking an even more difficult question, what the hell does a producer do? I understand where they are coming from, even as a film student I didn't understand what my company did till i was actually working here (for some reason Hollywood likes to keep everything cryptic). I mean I always saw Production companies at the top of the billing but my impression was that they just hired everyone and went golfing. Well to some extent that's true they do hire everyone, they're the ones who have the money, but they do so much more. The big boss (who is never in town) stays close with his movies and works extensively with the directors throughout the process. So let's have a quick breakdown of what happens in a Hollywood company. The first step is receiving scripts, every day our company receives many many scripts, they range from romances to horrors to fantasy, anything you can imagine. These scripts are given to us by Literary Agents, here at the production company we're not exactly a big fan of literary agents because they're always peddling their work (sometimes shamelessly). At that point all scripts have to be read and "coverage" is done. What is Coverage? Because the company/story editor/ execs receive so many scripts every day they obviously don't have enough time to read them. So instead they give it to their assistants, or to the interns and we read them. Once we read them we write up a short summary and a set of comments about what we thought of the script. We then give a final say in one of two words: "Recommend" or "Pass". These are pretty self explanatory, if we say "pass" the script will likely never be seen again ( a lot of power eh?) however if we recommend it it will go to the next level of exec (the story editor). At that point he will read it and if he thinks it's worth a shot for a quality movie, he will start setting up a presentation or a "pitch" to his boss who is the one that will finance the movie. If all goes well and the "pitch" gets approved by the producer the next step is to take it to the Studio Level. The Studios, everyone is familiar with, they're the ones that own the lots where we shoot, and they also help with movie finances, publicity, etc. They include: Paramount, Sony, Fox, etc. The ones who started the film business back in the days of Edison (I'm also taking History of American Cinema so i have great historical perspective). The company whose lot you work on (most major production companies reside on a lot) has a first-look deal. They get to see the script and consider it before anyone else. If they don't like it the production company has the option to take it to other studios. If no one likes it it will likely (and probably should be) canned. However if a company is particuarly adamant there are of course smaller studios (B movie studios) that will take any movie they can get. Note that in all these processes even scripts that production companies love will probably change dramitcally to be more fitted for the screen. So that's the process of a script, and that's probably the most interesting thing I do every day.
What are my other tasks?
Well usually copying some mystery project, some idea, some names that I don't know, copies of ranodm scripts are often asked for, etc. We sit in the office answering any call that comes our way. I'll have to write more later, because I have company that just arrived.