Budding filmmaker Adam Abel will be the first high school student to serve an internship at Paramount Motion Picture Studios in California.
The internship will help Abel, 17, graduate from the Utah High School for the Performing and Fine Arts in Orem. Last year, Abel and two classmates raised $80,000 in cash and resoures for production of "Dracula, the Musical.""I want to make films," Abel said. "The Utah High School for the Performing and Fine Arts has taught me to work, to be reliable, to be accountable for my actions."
Those attributes will be essential at Paramount where some interns can't cut it.
"This isn't easy. Our last intern in this office lasted only five days," said Chris Cobb, a Paramount coordinator for production, information and feature film development.
Abel, who will graduate from high school next year, competed with college students nationwide for the six-month internship. "Adam is a kid who is a little rough around the edges, but he has more on the ball and is more confident about what he wants to do than every other applicant we've seen," Cobb said.
Abel, of Pleasant Grove, knows he'll have to perform at Paramount. "I want this and I know full well that if I slough off at Paramount, they'll send me home and I'll deserve it".
Time spent at the motion picture studio will earn Abel graduation credits and help him complete his senior project. During the internship, Abel will keep a journal and send weekly reports to school.
After receiving the internship, Abel spent two weeks finding a host family in Los Angeles.
"That was much harder than the interview. Everyone I talked to in L.A. thought I was just some kid wanting to be a star. No one really believed I was going to Paramount on an internship," he said.
Hal Stead, executive director of the Utah School for the Performing and Fine Arts, said students at the school are successful because they have grasped the idea of controlling their own education and destiny.
"They have learned that to make dreams a reality takes desire and work, but it can be done. Adam's work at Paramount will teach him much more than moving from class to class five days a week. If he really wants to be a filmmaker, he's in the right place," he said.