Experiential Learning in the Entertainment Industry
Whether you want to learn the business of gaming, produce live entertainment, pursue sports management, or work for a film and television studio, there is no substitute for experience. After completing your master's degree in Entertainment Industry Management, you'll have nearly 1,000 hours of industry experience through our required summer internship and second-year practicum internship, a full-time, immersive experience with a studio, record label, talent agency, gaming company, or other similar entertainment institutions.
How will i engage with the entertainment industry beyond the classroom?
- Experience two unique and exciting cultural centers, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles.
- Attend exclusive industry events, speakers, and networking opportunities.
- Move beyond the classroom and gain tangible skills through work opportunities both on- and off-campus, including your second-year practicum internships in the entertainment industry.
- Solve a real-world problem for an entertainment industry client in your team-based Capstone Project.
Not only do these opportunities crystallize concepts and strategies learned in coursework, they add highly marketable industry experience to your résumé prior to graduation.
Internships
Students are required to complete multiple internships in the entertainment industry throughout the course of the program. These include a summer internship between the first and second years, and practicum internships completed alongside coursework during the second year.
During your year in Los Angeles, you will work 30-plus hours per week (or a minimum of 300 hours during each semester) alongside a full-time courseload. This constitutes a total immersion in the entertainment industry, providing you with a critical platform for showcasing your knowledge and skills while building your professional network.
internships, unscripted: Heinz instagram takeovers
Entertainment Internship Opportunities
CAPSTONE PROJECTS
Entertainment Industry Management students complete a team-based project, working in close collaboration with a real-world entertainment client. These projects fulfill an actual business or operational need for our partners, giving students an opportunity to have a measurable impact while still in school.
Recent Capstone clients include:
- Sega
- Roku
- Adult Swim
- Disney/ABC
- NBCUniversal Television
- Paramount
- Playstation
- Bally Sports Networks
- Sony Studios
- The Les Paul Foundation
- XRM Media
- Warner Bros.
- John Wells Productions
- Sundance Film Festival
- Omelet/Cheat Code
- Ayzenberg Group
- Toronto International Film Festival
- Village Roadshow Entertainment
Film Festivals
Our students travel to major film festivals as a group to experience that
Networking, Industry Trips, and Special Presentations
The program organizes a number of unique opportunities for networking with top industry professionals. These opportunities include speakers, "industry night" seminars, presentations, and Network New York, which has become a centerpiece of the program's first year.
Work directly with Faculty
As an Entertainment Industry Management student, you have many opportunities to enrich your grad school experience by working closely with entertainment industry practitioners.
- Collaborate one-on-one with a faculty member on an independent project
- Contribute to a faculty member’s work as a research assistant
- Get involved with faculty projects through a CMU research center, including the Initiative for Digital Media Analytics and Entertainment Technology Center
Many classes at Heinz College focus on team-based experiential projects, advised by a faculty expert, and that's especially the case in this program. These projects aim to present real entertainment management issues and provide a practical edge. Just a few of the project courses include:
- Navigating the Practical Realities of the Entertainment Industry – group projects present about agencies, management firms, entertainment lawyers, and PR firms
- TV Economics – group projects revolve around the negotiation, development, and production of scripted series based on IP
- Live Music and Revenue Streams – groups design a concert tour which includes logistics, cities, dates, and support
- TV Marketing – groups design and lunch a new marketing campaign for a current television show
ON-CAMPUS POSITIONS
- Fellowship positions are available through the College of Fine Arts School of Music and School of Drama. Our students may engage with other departments on campus as well, such as the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) and Integrative Design, Arts, and Technology (IDeATe) network.
- Research Assistantships pair students with faculty and research centers to pursue topics of interest, including the Heinz College-affiliated Initiative for Digital Entertainment Analytics (IDEA) research center.
- Teaching Assistantships are available to students in the final two semesters of their program.
U.S. Citizens enrolled in the program can work part-time for organizations in the Pittsburgh region, and work for public and non-profit firms is often eligible for Federal Community Service Work Study.
See the Student Finances page for more information about work study and fellowship opportunities.
STUDENT ACTIVITIES & CLUBS
Our entertainment students frequently find value in working with the Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival. Its mission is to engage the Pittsburgh community with programming that promotes cultural exchange and expression, and, through film, illuminate the local and global ethnic communities which seldom have opportunities to celebrate their artwork and culture on a public scale. The Film Festival prides itself in being the only international film festival in the world organized and run by university students from the numerous educational institutions across Pittsburgh, such as CMU and the University of Pittsburgh.